Change Antifreeze -- How Often?

[i_am_jim]

I've been doing the maintenance on my cars for 55+ years. Until recently I've always flushed the cooling system and replaced the antifreeze every two years. But, the maintenance manual for my '04 Camry 4cyl says to replace coolant at 100K miles or 120 months. Replacing antifreeze is one of those jobs I dislike, so I'm happy to put it off 'til 100K miles, but it bothers me a little to go from 24K to 100K, given that it seemed to have crud in it at 24. Have they done something that warrants this longer interval?

[hossmaster]

I would say as long as you haven't added too much water it is fine until 100k. If it still looks the same color as new it doesn't need to be changed. On my Tacoma I changed the coolant at 90k while doing the timing belt service and it looked almost the same as the new stuff.

[Dave's]

Not sure looks is the important thing. Coolant can be tested yourself for freeze protection but there are anti-rust additives and such for which I don't know how you test. I do know many brands of coolant are long life formulas and as long as that is what you have you're probably ok.

[touringcamry]

What color is the original coolant in the vehicle? If it's red, that stuff is supposed to be changed around 30000 to 60000 miles. The pink stuff can go to 100000.

[Punks_Not_Dead5]

I was always told Red/Pink is life time or 100k miles..and green is 20k miles. I know that is what it was for my Grand Prix...i had the Red stuff and never had to change it til 100k miles.

[johnfrisco]

Yeah well Toyota also says that we have "Life time transmission fluid" and doesn't recommend any service intervals. I find this hard to believe. What's lifetime--when your pathetic warrant expires?

In every car I have ever owned I flushed transmission and coolant at 30K.

But maybe Toyota knows better

[njerald]

Originally Posted by johnfrisco

Yeah well Toyota also says that we have "Life time transmission fluid" and doesn't recommend any service intervals. I find this hard to believe. What's lifetime--when your pathetic warrant expires?

In every car I have ever owned I flushed transmission and coolant at 30K.

But maybe Toyota knows better

Do whatever you want and don't let it keep you up at night.

[touringcamry]

Originally Posted by Punks_Not_Dead5

I was always told Red/Pink is life time or 100k miles..and green is 20k miles. I know that is what it was for my Grand Prix...i had the Red stuff and never had to change it til 100k miles.

That's on you, the red coolant is supposed to be changed more often than that. The pink and red coolants are different formulas.

There's already enough confusion about these formulations, please do not add to it.

[i_am_jim]

Originally Posted by hossmaster

I would say as long as you haven't added too much water it is fine until 100k.

I've not added any plain water. I always top off with a 50/50 mix of Toyota antifreeze & distilled water.

I wasn't aware there are two colors of Toyota antifreeze, red & pink.

[njerald]

Here we go again and again.....

[JohnGD]

The pink is premixed, they don't come in concentrates. It's basically half a Dexcool without the 2EHA acid. Dexcool is one of the new generation of Organic Acid Technology coolant. Europeans however use a Hybrid OAT that contains silicates for more effective cavitation corrosion protection.

GM's Dexcool is rated 5 years and 150,000 miles. However, that means you'd be driving 30K miles a year. Since most of us do 12-15K miles, I'd say 5 year/60-75K miles is more realistic (if you use Dexcool).

Looks like the Toyota Pink (half a Dexcool plus other inhibitors) is good until 100K miles. So I'd probably not leave it in there more than 5 years or 50-60K miles.

Originally Posted by i_am_jim

I've been doing the maintenance on my cars for 55+ years. Until recently I've always flushed the cooling system and replaced the antifreeze every two years. But, the maintenance manual for my '04 Camry 4cyl says to replace coolant at 100K miles or 120 months. Replacing antifreeze is one of those jobs I dislike, so I'm happy to put it off 'til 100K miles, but it bothers me a little to go from 24K to 100K, given that it seemed to have crud in it at 24. Have they done something that warrants this longer interval?

[JohnGD]

Ahhh, looks like Valvoline has a new coolant without the 2EHA for Asian imports:

http://www.valvoline.com/pdf/Zerex_A...l_Bulletin.pdf

[AlmightyCamry777]

Originally Posted by johnfrisco

Yeah well Toyota also says that we have "Life time transmission fluid" and doesn't recommend any service intervals. I find this hard to believe. What's lifetime--when your pathetic warrant expires?

In every car I have ever owned I flushed transmission and coolant at 30K.

But maybe Toyota knows better

I concur. I've never replaced a radiator or automatic trans yet, on any of the 10 cars i have owned by following this same schedule.

[Punks_Not_Dead5]

Originally Posted by touringcamry

That's on you, the red coolant is supposed to be changed more often than that. The pink and red coolants are different formulas.

There's already enough confusion about these formulations, please do not add to it.

In the Pontiac owners manual...Red is life time buddy....i know this is a Toyota forum...i'm just saying.

I have my Camry's done on regular intervals....

[touringcamry]

Be that as it may, writing "Red/pink" can lead to confusion that these are the same thing. There was a thread a week or two ago where some guy couldn't differentiate the two and insisted that pink was diluted red. We don't need to go down that road again.