Replaced green with Dex-cool. Dumb?

[EJEJ]

My 1995 Honda Goldwing motorcycle requires silicate-free antifreeze. No further instructions in the manual. I had Dex-cool in the garage and saw that it was silicate free. Perfect, right? I drained the green stuff and flushed several times with distilled water till clear. Filled with Dex-Cool. That was about two years ago. I just drained the Dex, which looked fine, and refilled with Dex.

Now I read all sorts of bad news about Dex-Cool. For what it's worth, the motorcycle's reservoir is not pressurized.

What would you do?
- Leave the Dex alone and hope for the best?
- Swap fluid again to something else?
- Stop reading internet forums and just drive?

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[Petrou]

Yup bad idea, the additives in the dexcool casue cavitation, plugged sytems, your better off finding a silicate free grean and running it. These are just some of the things i have seen with dexcool

 

[Rlc2500HD]

Originally Posted By: Petrou
Yup bad idea, the additives in the dexcool casue cavitation, plugged sytems, your better off finding a silicate free grean and running it. These are just some of the things i have seen with dexcool


Have 4 vehicles with dex cool and no problems to speak of.

To the OP its usually the other way around dex to green. Did you get all the green out, cause these two do not mix well at all.

 

[crazyoildude]

I don't use dex cool in anything i use either green prestone or zerex zo-5 in most of the engines we build

 

[ls1mike]

Dexcool in everything here, only problem I have had was the Buick had been topped off a bunch at Jiffy lube with the green stuff due to a failed radiator cap. I fixed that.(got it used. I don't use Jiffy fail er um Lube) I have not a had problem with Dexcool yet that wasn't due to poor maintenance.

If you change it every two years. What does it matter?

 

[EJEJ]

Thanks for the fast replies.

I wouldn't have made the swap if I knew of Dex-Cool's bad reputation. It was just handy because it runs in my Cadillac Northstars (where there was never a cooling problem in 11 years).

I think I got as much of the green out as humanly possible, but surely less than 100%. So I started with 100% green. I now have maybe 99.9% orange and .1% green. If I swap back, I will probably have 99.9% green and .1% orange. Is one mixture worse than the other?

 

[EJEJ]

Wow. Two more responses while I was typing my response. Thanks for the input.

 

[The Critic]

I switched my father's Toyota minivan to Dexcool three years ago.

I have not had any problems with the cooling system. In fact, when I changed the coolant recently, I replaced the coolant with Dexcool again. Personally, I think all of the Dexcool issues are limited to very select GM vehicles.

 

[mechanicx]

Well where decool might give you problems is if your pressure cap isn't working on a non-pressurized reservoir system and the level drops in the radiator and air gets in. It's worse if you have an iron engine. Also some say it is a gasket eater but that is probably overblown.

One thing it does do well if it doesn't get air in it is protect very well for a long time. All the Japanese warning about no silicons in the coolant might be overblown unless they are using incompatible water pump seals and even that is questionable. the american green gives better protection and many people have used it in Japanese engines for years and didn't seem to have waterpumps wear out quicker. Having said all that I'd probably go with Peak Global Lifetime, but it can be hard to find.

 

[ls1mike]

Originally Posted By: The Critic
I switched my father's Toyota minivan to Dexcool three years ago.

I think all of the Dexcool issues are limited to very select GM vehicles.

Nail on the head I think, some folks are alway "the sky is falling" I suppose it is if you have one of those. I for one have not.

Plus .1% isn't even enough to worry about!

 

[PT1]

I have had 2 boats and 5 vehicles with Dexcool. Never a problem. Would I switch a vehicle to Dexcool...no. But the gasket eater thing is way overblown. That happens only in select GM vehicles and it was the gaskets incompatibility with the coolant. Not the coolant itself. There are millions of GM vehicles out there running Dexcool successfully.

 

[Donald]

I would never go to Dexcool. If you need a non silicate AF then Peak Global is the one for you.

Zerex G-05 is great AF and I am switching my 2001 Jeep back from some kind of green stuff to G-05, but its low not no silicates.

 

[crazyoildude]

And there are millions of them not running on dexcool (using something else) also
Maybe all the ones that don't run successfully are only in my town because we see a lot of that kind of sludge in the cooling system problems..

 

[mechanicx]

I think Dexcool gasket eater thing and being a monster in general is blown out of porportion, but 2-EHA has been shown to be more aggressive against some plastics and gaskets, so putting it in a car that didn't call for Dexcool is probably more risky.

Most of the time Dexcool works fine. But it can't be denied that in vehicles that had a faulty pressure cap on the radiator, the coolant gets low, and especially on iron engines it wreaked havoc on the cooling systems in short order. This happened to many vehicles.

Unless you want to be checking the coolant level under your radiator cap almost daily and the function of the cap, I would not run it in a car that had the pressure cap on the radiator and especially not if it had iron block and heads. Having to keep your eye on it constantly kind of defeats the purposes of it being a long life/low maintenace coolant.

If your engine calls for Dexcool and you have a pressure cap on the reservoir, then I wouldn't really hesistate to use Dexcool. That's how I see it.

 

[Drew2000]

FWIW, Both my Yamaha FZ1 and Honda ST1300 get the Honda "Type 2" coolant available from Honda car dealers. It's the same as the Honda bike coolant, but less expensive from the car dealers.

The Type 2 used to be dark green (no relation to conventional green coolant) now it's a pretty blue, but the exact same formula, no silicates, and designed for all-aluminum engines.

I just changed out the Type 2 from the Yamaha after 5 years and both the radiator and coolant look great. Personally, I stay away from Dexcool for all my vehicles.

 

[ZGRider]

Originally Posted By: The Critic
I switched my father's Toyota minivan to Dexcool three years ago.

I have not had any problems with the cooling system. In fact, when I changed the coolant recently, I replaced the coolant with Dexcool again. Personally, I think all of the Dexcool issues are limited to very select GM vehicles.


Yeah, Dexcool's so good, it even knows which vehicles to implode. Just how could Dexcool only affect certain models? What you mean to say is only certain models easily present the right conditions for Dexcool to destroy the cooling system and engine gaskets? Any engine could have those right conditions - air in the cooling system, low coolant level, etc.

But hey, if you like to take chances go ahead and use Dexcool, after all there are NO alternative coolants available are there? I mean, they are sitting right there beside the Dexcool on the auto parts shelf, how hard is it to find these other coolants like G-05 or Phosphated OAT?

 

[Corvette Owner]

I switched a Accura Integral to Dexcool, no problems. Run it in my Chevies, no problems. You do need to keep air out of system. Old problems were due to bad gaskets.

Usually I stay with OEM coolant. Little extra cost, but great piece of mind.

 

[Ross]

I just obtained an 06 buick lucerne with 57,000 miles. It is my first dexcool car. I insalled a block heater in it this past weekend and had to drain the radiator and block. I was curious to see what things looked like with 4 year old dexcool in it.

1. The radiator was spotless when looking down under the cap with
a flashlight.

2. I removed the overflow tank to clean it out, and to my surprise, there was no signs of any sediment. I just wasted time
taking it off and cleanin it out.

3. The inside of the block that I could see when the freeze plug scew out thing was removed was also spotless.

So, I can only conlcude that this car is doing fine with dexcool so that is what i put back in it.