just be safe and run Toyota red/pink

 

Yeah guess I'll need to flush the radiator again. What's the cheapest place to get it at? Would a Toyota dealership be cheaper than Lexus or are they all the same?

 

hmmmmm......answering a 5 year old thread

 

Not sure which sells the pink n which sells the red but try calling..


FYI

Pink = 50/50 mix i believe

Red = 100% coolant
i thnk

 

Toyota would be cheaper - you know anyone who is a mechanic or you have access to a shop uniform, dealerships and parts houses do give discounts for shops.

Red and Pink are two different beasts - Pink is a HOAT with sodium sebacate and phosphates, while red is full strength with phosphates minus the organic acids. Pink is pre-mixed too.

To flush the system, drain the block and radiator and fill up with distilled water. Run the engine till the fans cycle, shut down. Let 'er cool off and drain. Repeat this until the flush water looks like well, water. You will have residual flush water in the heater core and the hoses. Fill up with the right coolant.

 

I didn't want to mess with the block, and I didn't know where to look for the drain ***** and the filling cap, so I only did the radiator. Is that bad?

 

You have 2 coolants in your car now, a HOAT-based one(Toyota Pink), and a crappy excuse of a OAT-based coolant(Prestone Dex-Cool). A complete drain and a few flush cycles are needed to flush out most of the Dex-Crap out of your engine. The block drains are on both sides of the block, with a 3/8" drain nipple if Toyota hasn't deviated from tradition on the GR engines - a 12mm wrench opens them up.

 

Thanks for the help. The car I did this on is an RX350(the engine is sideways). So I think I need to remove the whole underbody to find the draincocks, since when I was draining the radiator I didn't jack the car up so I had limited room.

I noticed a few things though....there are some sort of blue bolts right infront of the tires, one on each side. You can access them without removing anything. What are they for? If you want I could take a picture.

Also, how can I find the filling cap for the block? I have no idea what it could look like.

 

The coolant drain for the block located under the exhaust manifold on each side of the block.
You fill the coolant at the radiator cap. Makr sure you get all the air pocket out of the system. If you're not sure what you're doing then take it to the shop.

 

I used this guide for reference.
http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/cooling/coolant.html

The guy talks about a Water Inlet Housing...I think I just realized that he doesn't have a radiator filler cap like on the RX350. So if I fill up my radiator, it will flow to the block as well? Sorry for the simple questions

 

The cooling system is filled from the surge tank - unless there's a radiator cap on the t-stat housing like the older 3MZ-FE powered RX330/ES330 and Camry/Avalon/Sienna/Highlander.

The blue bolts are suspension bolts.

 

I find maintenance threads like this quite amusing. We purchase $40K+ vehicles and worry about if we should put a $15/gal OEM coolant in the car or a $9/gal OTC coolant that's totally different in composition in the car. Did we all spend every last penny that we have to buy these vehicles? Come on here.

You guys that save the $6/gal... do you drink at DD instead of Starbuck? Do you use generic toilet paper in 10000 count rolls, instead of Charmin? Do you buy generic store brands instead of name brands?

Call me non-frugal, dumb, simple, uneducated, whatever, but I'm not risking the $5 in coolant, $900 on synthetic over conventional oil over a 200K mile range, and other "dollar savings" on my LS because if the gamble goes against me and a radiator blows, or a water pump malfunctions, there goes any savings I may have gotten.

 

If Prestone/Dex-Cool is so great, then how come GM is having issues with intake manifolds and their gaskets degrading and cooling systems failing left and right?

 

Possibly the same reason GM is looking for a bailout, they build a POS! Their cars would probably leak even with genuine Toyota coolant. LOL, whoever makes that (we all know that toyota certainly contracts out for things like coolant)

 

Toyota/Honda/Nissan/Subaru/Mazda/Peak(and O'Reilly, Full Force, Final Charge) - Intac, the US arm of CCI, a Japanese OEM coolant supplier
Ford/Mopar/Mercedes/VW - BASF and Ashland
GM - Honeywell and Chevron since they hold patents/licenses for Dex-Cool. Honeywell makes Prestone, and rebottles it for Wal-Mart, CSK and Autozone.