wvuguy

Hello every one,

I am about to change out the anti freeze coolant in my 99 rx300 since I am not sure when it was changed last time. I have heard Either Toyota red or pink coolant should be used. Currently it has green coolant in it and I am not sure how long it has been in there for. Hasnt caused any problems so far. I am guessing if I change to red coolant I will have to make sure all the green one comes out inlcuding from the engine block. Would you guys recommend I stay with green coolant? Toyota red coolant is $28 for a gallon here. Thanks.

Nad1370

Our Rx comes with Super Long Life coolant (pink) from the factory.
Already a 50/50 mix. No need to add water.
The Red one is just regular coolant like the Green one that's in there. Needs a 50/50 mix.

These two are not the same.

If you really wanted to use the Super Long Life (SLL), you need to flush the whole system completely. Any trace of green in there would dilute the SLL's chemical properties which will make it just a regular coolant.

No harm will done if you just stick with what's in there now.

carguy07

Pretty sure yours would have come with red originally.

Personally I'm in love with the red coolant. Best stuff I have ever seen. I would flush the green out and replace with red.

Nad1370

I stand corrected.
Coolant color change happened in the 2002-2003 model RX.

For some reason both my Bros. 99 and my 2000 RX have Pink in them.

code58

Nad- Maybe someone snuck up in the night and changed it on you. My wife's '02 Camry came with the "pink" ELL stuff in it and at about 30+ K I drained and flushed it and put the red in. I know the red is only supposed to be LL and the pink is ELL but I didn't like the pink personally. Whenever you would open the cap or ANY of it got a chance to get out it left this dried trail of what looked like talcum powder. I had changed the red in my DIL's '99RX at 97k mi when I did a bunch of other work on it and the cooling system was absolutely like brand new and the red coolant was also just like it had been poured in. Original coolant! I agree with Carguy, the best stuff I have EVER seen and I've worked on cars my whole life. Even at $28. a gallon I wouldn't use anything else. I have 3 gal. of it ready to put in my '04 F-150 when I change it. I have NEVER seen a cooling system look like that at that # of miles.
More on this later.

bob2200

How do you know they have pink in them? The Red is diluted 50/50 with water, so probably looks pink once diluted. My understanding is that all RX300s came with Red antifreeze, but I could be wrong.

Nad1370

I was with them upon purchasing their RX's. Heck we changed them before Winter came with SLL.
It's definately lightish in color as oppose to the red at 50/50. I know since my Uncles 2001 Camry has Red in it and it's clearly darker.

Lol..I know what your talking about Rog...Even my over flow reservoir has traces of it around the cap.

wvuguy

Thanks guys. I have heard great stuff about the red coolant too. I will flush out the system with water first and then add the red coolant.

artbuc

At 50/50 the red coolant is still a definite deep red.

salimshah

I would suggest read the DIY posted by Ron/Lexmex.

The mix ratio of 50-50 may not be good (and can be inconvenient), where you live. The fill capacity for my 99 RX300 was over 2gallons. I bought 2 gallons distilled water and and 1gal toyota red concentrate. I used the full jug of concentrate and roughly 1.25 of distilled water. With more water the cooling is better, but we need to protect the freeze condition.

Hint: Always partially fill the overflow reservoir before the main radiator (you dont want to be left high and dry if you use up all of the mixture in the radiator).

Note: Dispose the old fluid responsibly, it is poison for animals and at the same time the smell attracts them.

Salim

code58

Very true Art. The pink is definitely pink and the red definitely red.

wvuguy

Just got done changing the coolant with Toyota red coolant. The green coolant that came out looked pretty clean. I opened the radiator drain petcock and the front engine drain bolt next to the filter but could not get my hands on the one right side of the engine. I found it but could not get the ratchet on it. The space is too tight. To flush out the old coolant I filled the radiator up with tap water, warmed up the engine with heat turned on full and then drained it. I did this about 3 times till the water ran clear. When I was draining the water the third time, I turned on the engine with heat on and added water to the radiator as it drained for a few minutes. Also cleaned the reservoir bottle. One thing to note is that if you turn on the engine while the coolant is draining, the temperature gage might not show the actual engine temperature. This is because the sensor senses the temperator of the coolant and if most of the coolant is out you might not see the gage go up and could damage the engine. I turned on the engine for maximum of 30 seconds while coolant was draining.
The radiator filled up after about 1 gallon of the red coolant and one gallon of distilled water. I am guessing some of the water I was adding for flushing might already have been in there.

Nad1370

^^ Now doesn't it feel good doing it your own?

salimshah

Just keep in eye on the coolant level for next few days.

Hot engine and cold coolant can cause catastrophic failure, so I always work with cold engine.

Salim

wvuguy

Definately a good feeling of accomplishment once you are done. Thats a good point salim. I am guessing this would cause rapid contraction of the metal once you put the cold coolant in. I will keep an eye on. The coolant bottle suggested the method of adding water to the radior with engine on and petcock open in order to flush.