WOULD IT HARM MY SATURN TO USE A COOLANT OTHER THAN DEX-COOL?

Question

WOULD IT HARM MY SATURN TO USE A COOLANT OTHER THAN DEX-COOL?

Answer 1

No as long as you do a complete flush before you change.......ujn

Answer 2

YES! Only use Dex-cool or distilled water, any other anti freeze will cause the coolant to turn to gel when it mixes with the Dex-cool.

I hate Dex-cool as much as the next guy but if you are going to replace it you must do a complete flush of all areas of the cooling system to make sure there is NONE left.

This is not easy, I do it but what most shops consider a "flush" is not sufficient to prevent the gel effect. It usually occurs in the heater core or radiator and if you price a heater core replacement you will see why I am so adamant in my warning.

Good Luck!

Answer 3

Had to spend time answering this question to dispel some myths.....

First, you can change to different coolants, no problem.  It would be best to flush all the old out only because you don't want the colored dyes mixing together and causing a brown colored coolant as a result.

Second, Dexcool absolutely will not "gum" up when mixed with other coolants.  As a base chemical, it has no different PH than other coolants.  Mixing another coolant with Dexcool will only change the chemical composition of the coolant, rendering the effective life of the coolant to about the old standard of 2 years or 25k miles.

Yes, dexcool coolant has been known to "gum" up, or change from a liquid to a solid, and I've seen it many times.  This is a result of electrolysis, in which there is an engine ground problem, causing a some portion of the electrical system to ground through the engine coolant. Dexcool isn't the only coolant brand to ever do this, although you see it more frequently because GM has had more than their fair share of poor grounding and there is Dexcool in all of their recent vehicles.

Agree or not, it's the truth....

Answer 4

the dex cool has a certain ph range and the computer is calibrated to respond to the way that dexcools properties react to the sensors in the engine. No it won't hurt and the difference that your computer has to adapt to are not noticable. if you add regular coolant in a system that already has dex in it the mixing will cause the dexcool to gum up and start corroding and start clogging stuff up. if you drain out the coolant and completely flush out the engine with water and then flush out the water and add new fresh green coolant you will be fine. but never mix it. Dexcool DOES HAVE DIFFERENT PH LEVEL than regular coolant. if you use test strips for testing ph in a new bottle of dexcool and a new bottle of regular coolant the dexcool straight out of the bottle you will see that the ph of dexcool is so close to maximum acceptable limits its a wonder its used. the reason that electrolysis occurs is because of the ph level. coolant is manufactured and designed to prevent electrolysis. Electrolysis occurs when you pass a moving liquid through 3 or more types of metals and the liquid builds up an electrical charge.  this corrodes the interior of your engine which is the gum you see. this is also why when you mix coolants you also get gum because the ph level goes way out of specification.it is not a myth it is true. if you want to run an extended life coolant still you should run something like prestone extended life which retains all properties of extended life without all the drawbacks of crappy dexcool. it is yellow-green in color and works great. I also am a master tech and used to work for cadillac.

http://www.imcool.com/articles/antifreez...  <----- lawsuit over dexcool.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifreeze <------ not a fan of wiki but it has helpful links at the bottom and also more lawsuits because of this fact. GM would tell us a bunch of garbage about dex cool being fine and well its just not. find another extended life coolant. and if you added green to your dex cool then flush it out.