Stupid Dexcool question [Archive]

FGCA_XRL

10-14-2008, 08:49 PM

So my low coolant light came on tonight, Checked under the hood and the coolant tank is a little under the halfway filled mark. Figured that would explain the problem. Did some searching and reading and found a lot of hatred for Dexcool, but frankly I don't want to go through the hassle of changing it all out 20k miles early, as I probably won't have this car 20k miles from now, I'll let the next owner deal with that.

So this dexcool stuff, it seems like I have to mix it in a 50/50 blend with distilled water, and then put it in the little tank. It appears that there's different brands of Dexcool? Can I use the Prestone or any other brand without any problems (it reacting with thecurrent dexcool)?

Thanks in advance.

Ritz

10-14-2008, 09:06 PM

So my low coolant light came on tonight, Checked under the hood and the coolant tank is a little under the halfway filled mark. Figured that would explain the problem. Did some searching and reading and found a lot of hatred for Dexcool, but frankly I don't want to go through the hassle of changing it all out 20k miles early, as I probably won't have this car 20k miles from now, I'll let the next owner deal with that.

So this dexcool stuff, it seems like I have to mix it in a 50/50 blend with distilled water, and then put it in the little tank. It appears that there's different brands of Dexcool? Can I use the Prestone or any other brand without any problems (it reacting with thecurrent dexcool)?

Thanks in advance.

Just buy the premixed crap at Wallymart (or any auto parts store) and dump it in. That'll do 'er.

Cheers,

Tom92SCm

10-14-2008, 09:11 PM

Dex-Cool can be made under different labels like Prestone or Peak or whatever.

I don't like the pre-mixed stuff. They seem awfully proud of that water they add in there.

FGCA_XRL

10-14-2008, 09:26 PM

So basically what you're saying is that I probably blew the situation out of proportion in my own head? Fair enough. Time to travel to the 4th Circle of Hell (though one could easily make claim it's actually the 3rd or 9th circle,) and get some of this mixed stuff.

Hopefully I don't have to go all the way through Lucifer.

Ritz

10-14-2008, 09:32 PM

Dex-Cool can be made under different labels like Prestone or Peak or whatever.

I don't like the pre-mixed stuff. They seem awfully proud of that water they add in there.

Well, he said he didn't care. For anyone that's going to keep their VUE, I'd flush all that DEXcool crap out and replace it with G-05 coolant.

http://www.valvoline.com/pages/products/product_detail.asp?product=10

I've seen too many cooling systems with relatively low mileage choked with crap when factory filled with Dexgoo.

Cheers,

FGCA_XRL

10-14-2008, 11:30 PM

I got the Dexcool and put it in, everything is all good now. For now at least. I wa surprised by just how much it took, almost the whole bottle.

Ritz

10-15-2008, 07:57 AM

I got the Dexcool and put it in, everything is all good now. For now at least. I wa surprised by just how much it took, almost the whole bottle.

Ruh roh. It shouldn't be possible for you to lose that much coolant without having either a leak or a head gasket issue (and the 3.5L isn't known to munch head gaskets). Sure you don't have a leak someplace?

Cheers,

FGCA_XRL

10-15-2008, 12:26 PM

I've got an idea what happened. About 3 months ago there was an intermittent short in the coolant sensor (or so they said), and so they replaced the tank and the sensor in one thing. I think they just didn't put the coolant back into the new tank when they did that.

But I might have a leak somewhere. I'll have to keep an eye on it.