The problem with Dexcool is it states it CAN go 5 years/150,000 miles before requiring replacement. It doesn’t state it WILL go that time/distance. So people are led to believe they don’t need to service the cooling system for that period.
However, most people purchase vehicles that give these long service intervals in the belief that this means less maintenance requirements to the vehicle. But when a problem arises that the owner isn’t aware of or they’re not car savy about, it ends up causing damage to the cooling system.
Those of us who are aware of the importance of vehicle maintenance avoid these issues because we’re car savy. But those people who aren’t, and then allows air into a Dexcool cooling system ends up with this or worse
I truly believe that a LOT of people think 5 years/150K means that it’s okay to leave the stuff in for 150K miles . . . at which time 10 or 15 years may have passed.
And most any 10 or 15 year old coolant will be junk
We mechanics know that it actually means 5 years/150K, whichever comes FIRST
I believe this is a classic case of poor reading skills causing a problem
The problem is Deathcool will rot out your cooling system if air is introduced which turns the coolant acidic. Dexcool is an Organic Acid Technology antifreeze. No other antifreeze turns acidic when air is introduced into the cooling system.
If Dexcool is such garbage (NOT according to me), why aren’t all the hundreds of older GM vehicles in our fleet suffering catastrophic cooling system failures?
The real problem, for me, is that I’m just not seeing all of these problems that you guys are talking about. And I’ve worked on the Dexcool equipped vehicles for awhile now.
You maintain the vehicles! So you know if there’s a coolant leak you fix it.
But Joe Blow who knows nothing about vehicles drives his Dexcool vehicle where air gets into the cooling system doesn’t know there’s a problem until the low coolant warning light comes on or until the engine starts to overheat. Then that’s where the Deathcool problem raises it’s ugly head.
I can’t tell you how many GM vehicles I’ve seen with the Deathcool curse over the years. And some were only 4-5 years old.
I have seen other coolant sludge up like Testers Dexcool picture so I don’t think that is a Dexcool exclusive. I also have to agree with db on this one, Dexcool isn’t the problem, neglect is the problem and it affects all brands and types of antifreeze the same.
And exactly how do you keep oxygen from coming in contact with antifreeze in any system? I have an air gap at the top of the overflow tank in every vehicle I have so all the antifreeze is in contact with oxygen. The vehicles that I used Dexcool in didn’t have a problem with this.
Also, we had a contributor (Colt Hero) in the past who bought an Impala at the same time I bought my Saturn. Someone here spooked him into dumping the Dexcool and replace it with regular antifreeze “before any damage is done”. The intake manifold gasket still gave out when the car got to be three years old, just like all the Impala’s that kept the Dexcool. The problem was teh cheap gaskets GM bought, not the Dexcool.
I attempted to remain true to the manufacturer’s specified coolant for quite some time but as more and more often cars showed up with soups of unknown blends, often overheating from the subsequent sludge it was necessary to consider my options. A severely restricted radiator required rodding out but often a thorough flushing would clear up the sludge and the universal antifreeze seemed compatible with the residue left from whatever was in the cooling system so I quit stocking anything but the universal antifreeze in the blue jug and never saw any indication of it causing a problem.