Power6

Yeah that is right I am going there...

It appears I am headed for a new radiator...so of course I need to start freaking out about which coolant to use...Pink or Red. I like a super long life coolant if I can use it, but the original coolant is the Red stuff. People love to repeat stuff without doing their own research so I had to wade through a lot of crap. If you are going to repeat stuff you don't know about head out of this thread now ;-)

So this latest info I can figure: This link right here does a great job explaining the difference between coolants and why you would not want to use the pink stuff in an old Toyota. Bottom line it is not good for brass and lead solder, which most older cars will have in their heater core and possibly even the radiator.

Our cars have aluminum radiators. So the question is if we have brass or aluminum heater core? I spent some time looking at used heater cores on EBay, they look aluminum to me, the 96-earlier ones look obviously brass. Anyone replace theirs and can comment? Is there anywhere else in our system that has brass or lead solder that I am missing?

if we don't have a brass heater core there is no reason we can't use the Super Long Life pink coolant...

LeX2K

I am pretty sure your car still has some brass components, and solder in the heater core. In fact I think the heater core is the same unit as used in the generation 3 Camry, the gen3 Camry accepts the ES300 cabin filter. The transmission cooler lines, those are either brass or copper AFAIK. But it's your choice, if you want to be the test bed for the Pink coolant to see what happens long term, by all means go for it!

Power6

I probably will try the pink. It looks like our heater core is not compatible with pre-97 cars from cross referencing parts. All the 97-up Camry/ES used ones are silver colored, I'll take a look at the tranny cooler lines...but there is trans fluid in there not coolant right? I hadn't looked close it looks like the typical end tank cooler circuit that runs the trans fluid through. Have to look at the oil cooler that could be a brass or copper sandwich heat exchanger.

This guy was running pink from 2006 to 2012 at least when he posted the DIY coolant change thread, so perhaps there are not any disastrous consequences if he ran it for 6 years. I guess its just one of those things, if we are all "better safe than sorry" we'll never know. There is no evidence that we don't have an all aluminum cooling system, I think the advice has been repeated from older models pre-96. Though it is a good point that these cars came with the red so that is the safe bet. Toyota has never released anything other than a TSB to say "the two are fully compatible"

01LEXPL

iTrader: (10)

I run [and the car has had] pink since I can remember.... years. It's not even OE toyota stuff either, just one of the typical brands that my mech gets from his supplier.

Hayk

iTrader: (1)

What is the life expectancy of Pink vs Red? I thought the only advantage with Pink was that it comes premixed.

Power6

Pink is different stuff, longer life, 5 year coolant vs the red 2 year.

Hayk

iTrader: (1)

Interesting. That means I'm due for a coolant flush this summer.

Power6

You know what, the car is at the Toyota dealer now getting the timing belt water pump done. They were the ones who told me the radiator was bad ($600 to replace) they have to drain and fill much of the coolant. I'm thinking I'll see what they use over there and stick with it, rather than flushing it all out again to swap the rad.

msekanha

I just out of the lexus dealership today and the service tech. told me that it doesn't matter what color you put in your car (red or pink), despite all the opposing viewpoints i'm hearing. He said the only difference between the two is one comes pre-diluted and the other concentrated. And obviously, the pink lasts longer.

My Es is a 2005, so i'm not sure if that applies to the earlier years.

Oh yeah, mine came with red coolant so i'll probably stick with that. And it's cheaper : o)

LeX2K

He would be wrong. If you read the label on each container they are indeed different formulations.

msekanha

Yeah, he didn't look like the brightest bulb in the box...
Hence the reason I don't take my car there too often...

But i mean, are these different formulations critical enough where they're not compatible with certain vehicles? Or are these formulations just different in regards to life of the coolant?

It makes me wonder now if my car has the right coolant.. There's currently red coolant in it and I haven't had any problems... yet...

LeX2K

The Pink is formulated to last longer obviously, so my guess is they made some compromises in that it does not properly protect some types of metal.

Power6

The link I posted explains it. Cliffs Notes: Some of the newer very long life coolants released for new cars were thought to be fine in older ones, turns out they allow too much corrosion in copper/brass/lead. Toyota never reversed their position that the newer coolant can be used in an old Toyota.

Got the car back, the dealer used the pink stuff, guess I'll stick with it.

LeX2K

Toyota never said that AFAIK. The TSB talks about fluid compatibility, and states Red and Pink can be mixed, Red can be used in place of Pink, but don't specifically say the reverse is true. That part is where it gets very convoluted.

My take, I use what the car came with unless I have a reason to switch. I've used Toyota Red in some really old cars (not even Toyota's) and it is excellent, keeps the cooling systems spotless.

Power6

http://www.toyotapart.com/ENGINE_COO...T-PG010-02.pdf

You are right it does say the red can replace the pink, I read it wrong, interesting. Apparently the dealers took it as a cue to stock and use only the pink stuff.