My 2005 Chevy van with a 4.8 V8 got "Orange" coolant when the shop put in a new water pump ,
I have no idea what brand "Orange" coolant ,
Can I top it off with the green coolant or ?????
This is in the overflow tank and probably only down 6-8 oz
Thanks for your ideas
No. Add some distilled water to top up.
no... Orange and green do not mix... Orange is likely Dex-cool and you should be able to find compatible coolant at the autoparts store. I would probably consider adding water before mixing coolant types.
Don't mix green with orange. It will gunk up the cooling system with this wired translucent jell stuff. Caused by a reaction between the two coolant types.
The color of automotive coolant is dye. Color is not an accurate test of "can I mix"
That said, there are a ton than can mix, and a ton that can't mix
clear as mud, right?
They may or may not be compatible depending on the specs, but since you don't have the specs on the orange coolant still in the system it's best to just top up with distilled water rather than to risk getting it wrong. There may even be incompatible orange coolants you could put in.
In reply to GameboyRMH :
100% of this is correct!
I would not even trust the shop to give you a reliable "compatibility" suggestion, at this point!
Distilled water for the winner!
What about the Prestone stuff that claims you can mix it with anything? Do we believe them?
Berck said:What about the Prestone stuff that claims you can mix it with anything? Do we believe them?
i feel like that is other wise known as bottled water :)
A side question. How many different coolants are there for cars?
Bonus question. Is one type better than another for cooling.
In reply to dean1484 :
Green, orange, red, pink, blue, yellow, gold....
Water Wetter for the win
TRMV
And.. There are different shades of Green. (Looking at you Pentosin) I wouldn't put anything other than distilled water in at this point. Figure out what you have when you do a flush and fill for the winter (if you do that sort of thing).
Thanks Guys , as said above , clear as mud !
How did we get to this point ? and what about the average Joe that shops at Autozone ?
easy for me as I only need a little so distilled water is OK,
Cheers
Since when can't you mix coolants? news to me.
californiamilleghia said:Thanks Guys , as said above , clear as mud !
How did we get to this point ? and what about the average Joe that shops at Autozone ?
easy for me as I only need a little so distilled water is OK,
Cheers
I'm sure it's the all makes all models formula because it's also cheaper. And even at that, they don't have the coolant my vehicles require. I need motorcraft yellow, Evans waterless, and dexcool.
camopaint0707 said:Since when can't you mix coolants? news to me.
Along about the mid to late '90s DexCool in factory GM was the first to start having problems. Longer life coolant developments started the problems, as well as adding in more AL and cast iron compatibility.
dean1484 said:A side question. How many different coolants are there for cars?
Bonus question. Is one type better than another for cooling.
How many different coolants? Lots, there are at least 4 different basic chemistries out there.
In terms of performance a watery mix of a minimal anti-corrosion & surfactant additive like Water Wetter or HyperKuhl is best for cooling.
dean1484 said:A side question. How many different coolants are there for cars?
For off the shelf, mainly only three. Tons of colors (simply a dye, that means ABSOLUTELY nothing) I would have to look up the names (glycol,OAT, )
Green, up till 90's was commonly used for standard (so called) antifreeze. Now, any blend can add green dye. The "mix with anything" sometimes can be mixed, sometimes can't!
I always end up buying the concentrated Prestone, mixing 50/50 with distilled water. I work on GM garbage and never had an issues with whatever old dexcool is left in the system.
I try hard to use the right coolant for the right thing, but I really want to know if the Prestone "All Vehicles" stuff really is. Yes, distilled water is fine for topping up, but the bigger problem comes with a flush/fill. With most systems, it's basically impossible to get all the old stuff out, and even with a couple of water flushes, you're just diluting what remains. So if mixing the stuff is really bad, you really need to know what was in there to begin with. My Audi A4 came with some orange stuff, but the "proper" Pentosin stuff is pink. It's impossible to know what was in there or what it was mixed with, so I flushed it best I could and put the Audi-specified stuff back in there. If the Prestone magic stuff really is safe to mix with everything, it solves that problem.
dean1484 said:A side question. How many different coolants are there for cars?
Bonus question. Is one type better than another for cooling.
A lot of the different coolant formulations are related to the water quality where the cars are manufactured, I was told in coolant class. Countries where hard water is common will use one formulation, countries where soft water is common will use another.
I forgot the exact details because I am not a chemist. My main takeaway was that it's best to use premixed coolant, because the coolant manufacturer knows what kind of water they are using.
The other interesting thing is that distilled water can increase corrosion. Water is a solvent, a very good solvent, distilled water is a solvent that is aching to dissolve things. Hard water has its own problems but it is less likely to erode your aluminum cylinder heads.
Can someone explain the difference between the freezing and boiling points of ethylene glycol percentage mixes? Up here in the great white north we need coolant that won't freeze below -32 F. I usually try to get a 60/40 mix of glycol to water mix. What's that do for my boiling point?
Last winter I discovered that power steering fluid doesn't flow out of the container at -24 F after blowing out the power steering hoses on both of my vehicles.
In reply to 03Panther :
weird. I honestly just use whatever and I've never once had a problem. Though now in my racecars I mixed water and water wetter.
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