Honda not happy with Dexcool?

[GearGuy]

Read the 6th paragraph down in the section 'What Preceded OATs'.
Coolant Confusion (http://www.motor.com/MAGAZINE/Articles/082004_04.html)

[burnout]

I've got Honda Type II Coolant in my vue :)

...blue... of course

The 'Dex was starting to get pretty nasty in the overflow tank around 30,000mi.

[greyhound bus]

I've been concerned about this every since we took delivery. In my opinion, Dex-cool is garbage, and I have converted several vehicles back to green coolant, but they have all been out of warranty. I have been tempted to switch the Vue over, but I don't want to jeopordize any potential warranty claims by giving the dealer something to blame it on. Any opinions out there? Even if I do keep the Dex-cool in, I WILL NOT run it more than two years and will flush and refill.

[Ritz]

I've been concerned about this every since we took delivery. In my opinion, Dex-cool is garbage, and I have converted several vehicles back to green coolant, but they have all been out of warranty. I have been tempted to switch the Vue over, but I don't want to jeopordize any potential warranty claims by giving the dealer something to blame it on. Any opinions out there? Even if I do keep the Dex-cool in, I WILL NOT run it more than two years and will flush and refill.

I'll flush mine also after 2 years and refill with something like this:

http://www.peakantifreeze.com/peak_global_lifetime.html

I've also never been a big fan of Dexcool.

Cheers,

[djb383]

I just got back from a couple of parts stores and Walmart. Every brand of coolant on the shelf said 'exended life 5 yr/150,000 mile (or lifetime), mixes with any color or brand, safe for all metals'. Now, who's flushed their Vonda Vue and what was your proceedure? Thanks.

[mellissam]

I found this article...may be of interest to Honda pp owners.....

http://www.subscriptsforum.com/boards/suburban1105/messages/600.html
(halfway down the page)

"The questions about 2-EHA were raised not only by Ford (and reportedly DaimlerChrysler) but within Japanese coolant development circles, as well. When Honda introduced its long-life coolant, it specifically excluded 2-EHA, and we can tell you there is unhappiness at Honda regarding DexCool in the new Saturn VUE with the Honda-supplied 3.5L V6. The system is being filled with DexCool because that's what's in the plant for everything else. It would not be simple to set up a separate coolant fill system for the Honda engine.

We can't tell you how this dispute is going to play out, but you do have to make a choice when it's time to change. The engine already has been protected with DexCool (unless there's an assembly line change in the works) and it's reasonable to install that when you service that engine. However, to extend gasket life and protect the water pump impeller and chamber, it wouldn't be a terrible idea to flush the system and switch to a coolant with phosphates and/or silicates (conventional American or G-05) at this point. "

[jasonkrupert]

2004 Saturn Vue

Which coolant is good for me?

[Ritz]

2004 Saturn Vue

Which coolant is good for me?

I'm going to replace mine with G-05 coolant.

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

Cheers,

[jasonkrupert]

Thanks Ritz.

Can you tell me what year & model you are driving?

I just want to make sure this is also appropriate for my 2004 Vue.

Probably another naive questions, but how can I tell if it is a Honda engine or not? I did not see any obvious stickers or markings.

Thanks again.

[Ritz]

Thanks Ritz.

Can you tell me what year & model you are driving?

I just want to make sure this is also appropriate for my 2004 Vue.

Probably another naive questions, but how can I tell if it is a Honda engine or not? I did not see any obvious stickers or markings.

Thanks again.

It's right there under my avatar pic. :) 2006 3.5L. I believe you've got a Honda engine like mine. If it says 3.0L it's the old Vauxhall engine. In either case, the G-05 is going to be better than Dexcool for protecting your engine.

Cheers,

[GearGuy]

After reading through the posts at this site
www.consumeraffairs.com/automotive/gm_dexcool (http://www.consumeraffairs.com/automotive/gm_dexcool.html)
that BobbyP provided, I thought the following was interesting...

M L of San Rafael CA (08/26/06)
*WE'VE FIXED THE PROBLEM(S)!! And while it's irritating to look back and see how much $$ I've needlessly thrown at my '92 K1500 Chevy Blazer, several radiators, head gasket, heater core, trans cooler lines, uptake gaskets, pretty much everything that has come into contact with cooling fluids has either corroded or slowly disintigrated. All due to what turns out to be a basic electrical design flaw at GM.

Whether Dexcool was involved it's hard to say, radiator guy hates Dexcool, suspects that perhaps it's the electrolisis that causes the Dexcool to turn to a jelly goop. Says the higher the amp reading in the radiator, the more goopy Dexcool seems to be. My story: The original radiator in my '92 Chevy lasted a good while (hint: older radiators had A LOT more copper in them). The trouble really all started and in a big way, after replacing the original radiator. I did pay the $500.00 for the new GM radiator. (hint: the newer made radiators have little to no copper in them. They are mostly aluminum and steel) Within a couple months, I started having to dump money into my K1500 Blazer, LOTS of it!

When radiator #3 started leaking, I got fed up with my mechanic, who kept saying, it's a high milage vehicle. I should expect this. Not thinking it was even slightly odd that everything seemed to be connected to the cooling system or somehow come into contact with it, even though nearly every repair seemed to require draining the radiator?? So, I looked for the oldest, greasiest, busiest, radiator shop in my area. First thing the guy did, after hearing the list of repairs I'd made, was to drop a probe in the radiator to check for a charge, in other words, electrolysis. An acceptable reading is .03 amps. I was running at .38 amps!! Turning the engine off it would only drop it to .27 amps.

So, he replaced leaking radiator #3, and rechecked it,.. .58 amps!! It went up! He shrugged and said, new one must have even less copper than the last one. I've seen a lot of these GM's with this crap going on. I've been doing this thing that seems to fix this problem. Then an off-duty local cop pulled in with his Blazer, newer than mine. We got to talking, he'd had most of the same problems and this radiator guy fixed it for him 3 years ago, and hadn't had a problem since.

Here's what my guy did...

#1 - Attached three, braided ground cables, randomly to the radiator and the block, and grounded them.

#2 - Then took a piece of copper pipeing aprox 3 long, with the same hollow as the heatercore hose, soddered a copper ground wire to the side of it. Midpoint on the hose running from the radiator to the heatercore, he spliced this small copper pipe into the line using hose clamps. Then using the ground wire he had soddered to it, grounded it to the engine block.

#3 - Drained and refilled the cooling system with DISTILLED water and GREEN coolant. Dexcool in his experance is CRAP, and I quote him. He did all this very quickly, then dropped the probe into the radiator and poof .02 amps! It cost me $100. He has me come in to recheck the amps once a month. And still 6 months later, .02 amps, and no new problems. I was averaging 1 problem per month, a leak here, a suspicious gasket there. Now nothing. So, it seems to me that there are really two problems. One affecting the other. A cooling system grounding problem, electrolysis resulting in corrosion and dissintigration of parts and gaskets. And then Dexcool which is unstable in an electrically charged enviroment and turns to goop. Maybe I'm wrong but my '92 K1500 Blazer now has 212K miles on the original engine

Interesting....

[vue04]

So anyone has the directions to change out the coolant? There's no filler cap so I haven't done it. Sounds like you have to fill through the reserve tank. Does GM know no bounds to cost savings? At least no bad caps to worry about.

Thanks!

[VUESBROTHERS]

So anyone has the directions to change out the coolant? There's no filler cap so I haven't done it. Sounds like you have to fill through the reserve tank. Does GM know no bounds to cost savings? At least no bad caps to worry about.

Thanks!

vue04,

This was discussed here:

http://www.saturnfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=94472&highlight=G05+antifreeze

Appears Zerex G05 HOAT is the latest and safest but you do need to do due diligence on this as some have said here.

If you are in warranty, it would pay you to continue with what the factory put in and flush it out each year so as not to put yourself in the cross hairs of Saturn in the event of an issue.

Regards,

Jim