My Prius C takes red coolant. I had it flushed at a car care place 3 weeks ago and he added universal coolant by Auto Zone in the orange jug. Then I got second thoughts and decided to drain it and refill it with Valvoline red coolant made for my car with P-HOAT. I may have left about 1 cup of coolant in the engine before I added the red coolant. Should I have filled the system with water and drained the water before adding the red coolant? I heard some scary stories today about some coolants not mixing well and creating a gel. I kind of hate to do the procedure all over again but I would if it was necessary.
Mixing Coolants
- Thread starter Mr_Luke
- Start date
Me, being anal about this I would flush it a few times with distilled water and restart with coolant of choice. You probably wont have any issues if you leave it. I think dexcool is the real problem with mixing coolants.
The proper way is to flush with distilled water until clear water comes out when you drain. Then add the proper coolant.
Compared to my truck with two complete cooling systems and a ton of coolant, your Prius is child's play.
Compared to my truck with two complete cooling systems and a ton of coolant, your Prius is child's play.
I have had 6 or so different mixes of all sorts of different coolants in my basement for the last 2+ years and none of them have had any precipitation or gelling. The only major type I don't have is a dexcool equivalent. I have pieces of steel and aluminum in each jar and there is no weird corrosion on anything yet.
Obviously, nothing in my "science" experiment is being heat cycled or pressurized, but I am not very worried about mixing coolants that claim to be universal especially if you change it every few years.
Obviously, nothing in my "science" experiment is being heat cycled or pressurized, but I am not very worried about mixing coolants that claim to be universal especially if you change it every few years.
Originally Posted by Mr_Luke
I had it flushed at a car care place 3 weeks ago and he added universal coolant by Auto Zone in the orange jug. Then I got second thoughts and decided to drain it and refill it with Valvoline red coolant made for my car with P-HOAT.
Not that it matters but any reason you took it to a shop the first time and are DIY'ing it the second time?
I had it flushed at a car care place 3 weeks ago and he added universal coolant by Auto Zone in the orange jug. Then I got second thoughts and decided to drain it and refill it with Valvoline red coolant made for my car with P-HOAT.
Not that it matters but any reason you took it to a shop the first time and are DIY'ing it the second time?
The only difficult part of using Toyota SLLC/pink is that it is only available in 50/50, although OEM makes a full strength pink P-HOAT. How similar to the original Toyota coolant is the question.
When you mix coolants you are taking a chance that it could form a gel in the cooling passages of the engine block and even gunk up the radiator and heater cores. I would not take that chance unless I knew that the two coolants can be mixed without causing that problem.
Originally Posted by Gebo
Are you sure it takes the Toyota RED coolant? Should be the Toyota PINK.
If it were my car, I'd drain out what is in there and replace it with what the owner's manual calls for. And then I would drain it again
and replace it.
They call it red but it's actually pink and this is the next best thing to OEM that I know of and half the price.
Valvoline / Zerex for Toyota
Are you sure it takes the Toyota RED coolant? Should be the Toyota PINK.
If it were my car, I'd drain out what is in there and replace it with what the owner's manual calls for. And then I would drain it again
and replace it.
They call it red but it's actually pink and this is the next best thing to OEM that I know of and half the price.
Valvoline / Zerex for Toyota
Originally Posted by atikovi
Originally Posted by Mr_Luke
I had it flushed at a car care place 3 weeks ago and he added universal coolant by Auto Zone in the orange jug. Then I got second thoughts and decided to drain it and refill it with Valvoline red coolant made for my car with P-HOAT.
Not that it matters but any reason you took it to a shop the first time and are DIY'ing it the second time?
Because 2-3 weeks after I got it flushed I found a youtube video with a guy explaining how to drain both parts of the Prius C cooling system and it's not hard to do. But before that it seemed like the Prius was too complex for the DIYer to do much work on besides oil and filter changes.
The car care place manager swears the Auto Zone universal coolant would have been perfectly fine in my Prius. He's got a 2019 Toyota pickup that cost about $30,000.
Originally Posted by Mr_Luke
I had it flushed at a car care place 3 weeks ago and he added universal coolant by Auto Zone in the orange jug. Then I got second thoughts and decided to drain it and refill it with Valvoline red coolant made for my car with P-HOAT.
Not that it matters but any reason you took it to a shop the first time and are DIY'ing it the second time?
Because 2-3 weeks after I got it flushed I found a youtube video with a guy explaining how to drain both parts of the Prius C cooling system and it's not hard to do. But before that it seemed like the Prius was too complex for the DIYer to do much work on besides oil and filter changes.
The car care place manager swears the Auto Zone universal coolant would have been perfectly fine in my Prius. He's got a 2019 Toyota pickup that cost about $30,000.
I'll drain it again and this time will run distilled water through it until it runs clear.
I would assume 2 or 3 gallons of DW will be enough to make it run clear.
It takes a long time for it to empty for some reason.
I leave the radiator and reservoir caps off it while I'm draining it.
I would assume 2 or 3 gallons of DW will be enough to make it run clear.
It takes a long time for it to empty for some reason.
I leave the radiator and reservoir caps off it while I'm draining it.
As above, fill & flush with distilled until it comes out clear. When you are 100%sure that all the old stuff if out then yuo can use whatever you want.
After you have let it drain, how are you gonna use the DW? Are you gonna fill it up and then drive it around til the engine heats up to operating temp? And then drain out the DW and see how clear it is?
I don't know anything about changing the coolant on a Prius but in a friend's Honda, I had to run distilled water through his engine 2 times before it became "clear."
DW is cheap. I guess it's up to you how "clear" you want it to be.
I don't know anything about changing the coolant on a Prius but in a friend's Honda, I had to run distilled water through his engine 2 times before it became "clear."
DW is cheap. I guess it's up to you how "clear" you want it to be.
Originally Posted by Gebo
After you have let it drain, how are you gonna use the DW? Are you gonna fill it up and then drive it around til the engine heats up to operating temp? And then drain out the DW and see how clear it is?
That's how I do it but with 5-6 cycles. Two doesn't cut it.
After you have let it drain, how are you gonna use the DW? Are you gonna fill it up and then drive it around til the engine heats up to operating temp? And then drain out the DW and see how clear it is?
That's how I do it but with 5-6 cycles. Two doesn't cut it.
I don't think it's advised to run only DW in a Prius. Or if it is, this is the first I've heard of it. I drained it again today and filled it up with DW about 3 times until it ran clear. I also flushed the reservoir. Then I added new Valvoline red coolant. I guess I'm going to run it as is and hope for the best.
I will. I do appreciate this forum and hearing from you people but I don't want to be too obsessed over my car. The guy at the car care place who flushed my system with tap water and then filled it with Auto Zone universal coolant, probably didn't hurt my car in any way and most likely helped the system by flushing it. Then I got 2nd thoughts and drained and refilled the system 2 more times and rinsed it with DW. I became concerned about mixing coolants if there were a cup or so of previous coolant left in it to cause an adverse reaction. That wouldn't have been an issue after the car care flush and refill but maybe after I drained it and refilled it without flushing. But after the 2nd time I drained and refilled it, that pretty much removed the chance of mixing coolant being an issue, so I now have about 99% or more Valvoline red coolant in my system. No need to do anything more. Just drive!!!
I think my cooling system could easily go 5 years now. I drive up to 5k miles per year.
It's now time for me to keep an eye on the coolant level, but to run the car and obsess no longer.
I think my cooling system could easily go 5 years now. I drive up to 5k miles per year.
It's now time for me to keep an eye on the coolant level, but to run the car and obsess no longer.
I mixed what the auto shop guy said to use, now i've known these guys for a while so though okay.
Added premixed coolant (not same color) and as i always do checks on fluid levels i saw the coolant tank was a brown ish almost goo like stuff.
It looked nasty !
Had the system flushed to say the least.Fresh t.stat too.
Guy said they made a big baddie in having me use wrong stuff, was supposed to be the stuff next to the one i grabbed but the stack got mixed.
They refunded my money.
Now question.
Can i just drain coolant and add all new w/o the bleeder valve opened or ? (3.4 v/6. Base Impala.)
It's got to be about 4 years old and i always change it for piece of mind, it may be a waste of money but...like my oil changes...i change it often. Battery get's changed every 4 years.Stuff doesn't cost alot anyway. I don't trust what a book says or a dealer on how often to change fluids.Best safe and secure than sorry.
I change my P/S fluid every year, pull out some old brake fluid ( i use a turkey baster to suck fluids out) then add fresh an do it for 2 weeks, then i get pretty clear brake fluid. I only take out enough to not get air in.
Added premixed coolant (not same color) and as i always do checks on fluid levels i saw the coolant tank was a brown ish almost goo like stuff.
It looked nasty !
Had the system flushed to say the least.Fresh t.stat too.
Guy said they made a big baddie in having me use wrong stuff, was supposed to be the stuff next to the one i grabbed but the stack got mixed.
They refunded my money.
Now question.
Can i just drain coolant and add all new w/o the bleeder valve opened or ? (3.4 v/6. Base Impala.)
It's got to be about 4 years old and i always change it for piece of mind, it may be a waste of money but...like my oil changes...i change it often. Battery get's changed every 4 years.Stuff doesn't cost alot anyway. I don't trust what a book says or a dealer on how often to change fluids.Best safe and secure than sorry.
I change my P/S fluid every year, pull out some old brake fluid ( i use a turkey baster to suck fluids out) then add fresh an do it for 2 weeks, then i get pretty clear brake fluid. I only take out enough to not get air in.