I need to flush my cooling system 2001 pontiac grand prix. The manual says to use only dexcool. At the autoparts store I saw prestone fluid that said it could be mixed with any color antifreeze. Has the same lift 5 years 150,000 miles. Can I use this instead?
Sure you can use it. As a matter of fact, I would suggest that you get rid of the DexCool and use anything other than that!
Tester
What’s wrong with Dexcool? (curious)
They don’t call it deathcool for nothing. Let’s just say it’s not one of GM’s better products. Hoor stories abound.
DexCool is the first OAT(Organic Acid Techology} anti-freeeze put on the market. And GM jumped on this bandwagon without realising what effects this new coolant would have on REAL LIFE ENGINES.
The problem with DexCool is, once air is entrained into the cooling system, from something as simple as a hose leak, the coolant turns acidic. This then causes things like head gaskets to fail.
These new coolants, such as those offered from Prestone, have taken their time to address the problem when air gets entrained in an OAT coolant, and it doesn’t rot out the inside of your engine.
Tester
Thanks for the explanation!
I would not use that all-purpose stuff in anything.
The problem with DexCool is, once air is entrained into the cooling system, from something as simple as a hose leak, the coolant turns acidic. This then causes things like head gaskets to fail.
These new coolants, such as those offered from Prestone, have taken their time to address the problem when air gets entrained in an OAT coolant, and it doesn’t rot out the inside of your engine.
If one owns a new GM vehicle using Dexcool, would it be wise to change over at some point to a better quality antifreeze ?
There are many good long life coolants on the market; and if you prevent leaks you will not kill the local animals or polllute the environment. This situation reminds me of the time whem GM phased out whale oil in their transmission fluids, and the new replacement stuff was not up to scratch and ruined many transmissions. The Prestone Long Life says “DEX-COOL approved”" so that the car owner car rest assured it will not void his GM warranty and protct the engine at least as well.
“What’s wrong with Dexcool?” If you haven’t already done so, just Google “Dexcool.” You’ll see.
I’ve had a lot of people have me flush the DexCool out of their GM vehicles as soon as they went out of warranty, Only back then, the only alternative was to replace it with the regular green anti-freeze. But now, with these new coolants coming out, they work with any cooling system. So now, I only need to keep one type of coolant on the shelf. Instead of two or three.
Should you change out the DexCool? Well, you have remember when DexCool came out, GM claimed it COULD not would go 5 years/150,000 miles before it needed any service. See the disclaimer there? This made people believe they didn’t have to service the cooling system in that time and mileage. A lot of GM owners found out the hard way what can happen if you ignore the cooling system. And ended up with sludged up cooling systems. Just because they purchased a vehicle from a company that led them to believe that they never had to open the hood because of the long-life coolant and engines that didn’t require a tune-up for 100,000 miles.
But if you open the hood, and check the fluids on occation, you’ll see if you’re losing coolant. And if you are, and there’s DexCool in the radiator, get the leak fixed. And if you’re more of the preventive type of person, on you’re next coolant service, have the DexCool replaced with these newer long-life coolants.
Tester
all the times you see replys that say…follow the manual. i guess this isn’t one of them though.
you can drain out the antifreeze. use one which says for use on aluminum engines.
but the bigger issue is… make sure you PROPERLY dispose of the old antifreeze. NO, draining it down the storm drain at night. thats is NOT the right thing to do. you must take it to get it recycled. ask where you buy it from if they have a collection drum for old antifreeze. dumping it in the groundwater is bad for animals, and our drinking water.