2003 I4 Camry coolant

[nutmeg]

I have a 2003 Camry I4 with 41,000 miles. I want to change the antifreeze and thermostat. I went to the dealer parts department and the guy said the car uses the Pink, super long life coolant and does not need to be changed until 90K miles (he looked it up in a book).

I went home a checked the maintenance manual that came with the car and it says 2 years or 24K miles.

I also checked an invoice from the dealer in Jan 2007 (27K miles), where I had the water pump changed under warranty. The invoice calls out one gallon of antifreeze (part # 00272-1LLAC-01).

So is it pink or red? I'm guessing the parts guy made a mistake and its the red.

Thanks
Tony

[touringcamry]

You can't tell if you have red or pink by looking at your overflow tank or the fluid inside the radiator?

The red stuff look like cranberry juice and the pink stuff looks like pink lemonade.

I don't really like buying the pink stuff. It's only available as a 50/50 mix and costs the same as the red stuff which is undiluted.

[nutmeg]

Touringcamry,
Thanks for the reply. The overflow flow tank looks like cranberry juice, not pink lemonade.

Do you know when Toyota made the change over to pink?

Thanks
Tony

[TRD VVTi]

Most 2005's and up have the Super Long Life pink coolant. Previously Toyota used Long Life red coolant.

As stated above, the Super Long Life coolant comes premixed. I imagine Toyota did this so that people wouldn't add regular tap water to the coolant and decrease it's performance.

Use the Long Life red in your Camry.

A search would have revealed this information. There are a lot of threads dedicated to this topic...

http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/t239767.html

[nutmeg]

TRD VVTi,
Thanks for the info, and the link to that tread.

Thanks
Tony

[Jeff Lange]

What the factory used:

All 2003 and earlier models use red long life coolant.

All 2005 and newer models use pink super long life coolant.

Some 2004 models use red long life (models produced before August, 2003), all others use pink super long life.

If I recall correctly, the only 2004 model year cars produced before the cutoff are the Matrix, Corolla, and Sienna.

[nutmeg]

Thanks Jeff.

[DressUpYourPet]

I imagine Toyota did this so that people wouldn't add regular tap water to the coolant and decrease it's performance.

And i imagine they did it to double their profits on anti freeze sales.

[TRD VVTi]

Originally Posted by DressUpYourPet

And i imagine they did it to double their profits on anti freeze sales.

That's because you don't know what you're talking about.

[Jeff Lange]

Also, for what it's worth, and I'm not sure about the USA, but in Canada, super long life is cheaper than the red long life, because it is pre-diluted. (Though it is not half). One of the advantages to super long life is that it is premixed with distilled water, so it does not have the minerals, etc, that tap water has. Those minerals can be part of the reason that coolant needs to be changed sooner.

Jeff

[CharmCityES]

funny jeff, becase in the US the pink is much more expensive than the red coolant....very odd....
most late build 03 models and all following camry models came with pink coolant...early build 03's (like mine, nov 02 build) came equipped with red long life coolant....i change my red every 30k, but super long life pink interval is 100k for first change and every 30k following that i believe...correct me if im wrong as im not sure of the interval after 100k.
i just use a mix of 1/2 red long life coolant and 1/2 distilled water in my camry and she holds up well

[JustAnotherAsian]

purple coolant ftw.

[mybuddytmil]

Originally Posted by TRD VVTi

I imagine Toyota did this so that people wouldn't add regular tap water to the coolant and decrease it's performance.

Originally Posted by DressUpYourPet

And i imagine they did it to double their profits on anti freeze sales.

Sounds like a whole lot of imagining to me?

[higgledy]

I am curious. Under normal operating condition, should the coolant overflow jug ever contain coolant? Seems to me it only overflows if the car overheats. Is this correct? Thank you.

[JohnGD]

Yes, it should be above MIN mark when cold.