Home
Cooling System
FAQ's
ANSWER:
For regular anti-freeze (usually green in color), vehicle manufacturers
recommend changing the coolant every two to three years or 30,000 miles.
Anti-freeze maintains a proper PH (acid) level for your engine. When
anti-freeze get old the PH level changes and it looses its corrosion
protection, this causes gaskets and aluminum parts to deteriorate. When
this happens you have expensive repair bills for radiators, intake
manifolds, heater cores, water pumps, head gasket and cylinder head
replacement. It also has additives that suspend small particles in the
coolant. When these additives break down the particles attach themselves
to the metal in your cooling system, usually plugging up the radiator,
heater core and other small passages. This causes problems and you have to
take your vehicle in for service. If the problem is severe enough flushing
the cooling system will no longer solve the problem, you will have to
replace parts. Anti-freeze does a-lot more than keep your engine from
freezing in cold weather.
So, you now see that properly maintaining you vehicles cooling system can
save you a-lot of time and money in repairs. To keep your cooling system
in good shape most people recommend flushing the cooling system every two
years, and even more often if you drive more than 15,000 miles per year.
General Motors has a long-life anti-freeze called "Dex-Cool" in its 1996
and newer cars and trucks. This ant-freeze is dyed orange and is supposed
to last 5 years or 100,000 miles. You should still check this coolant
periodically and if you see a bunch of crud around the radiator cap or the
coolant is rusty you need to get it flushed as soon as possible. (Only
remove the radiator cap after the engine after engine is completely cooled
off.)
Never mix green and orange anti-freeze together, this will reduce the
corrosion protection to that of regular anti-freeze.
