I won't reveal the year of the car yet, if you can guess that you get bonus points.

Just want to make sure I get the right coolant for my car. Is it red or pink? Go!

 

Well your profile says you have a 97, and the signature says its an ES300 .

So you need to use red coolant since Toyota brought out pink coolant for 2004+ model year cars.

 

Haha! I tried to delete the year in my sig, but I guess I was too late

I read few old threads stating that Pink was backwards compatible (and even read that pink was just red mixed with water ). Since this car is used I'm not sure when it was done last, so I don't want to mix red with pink if its been updated to that.

 

My dealer said they were compatible, and pink is just red+water. Since premixed Super long life pink is $17/gallon (and you'll need two), and Long life red is $25/ gallon, I bought the red one and will mix it with distilled water, even though my car should have pink.

 

I remember hearing that Pink won't stop some of the engine metals from corroding, so you can still use it but it won't provide the best protection possible. I personally bought Red Coolant and mixed it with distilled water. You will need two bottles if you're doing a complete drain and fill.

 

Yea that kind of stuff is what I remember reading, making me very hesitant to use pink, even if offered by Toyota. Just want to make sure I keep red with red.

On that note, does anyone have a writeup on how to do a coolant change on an ES300? If I remember correctly there are two drain plugs on the block and obviously one on the radiator. I'm not very well versed in radiator flushes and can't get fully under the car, but would just draining the radiator and refilling it be bad/good?

I've read all sorts of things about using garden hoses and what not, but can't find a definite source on a proper way of doing things. I would prefer to just make it easy and gradually introduce the new coolant, but I may be wasting my time.