Is it safe to use Toyota Red Coolant in 07 Camry rather than the pink stuff?

[redtigerrocks]

Is it?

[JohnGD]

The Red is a 2-year coolant and the Pink is a 5-year coolant that showed high weight loss (corrosion) in lab tests with copper/brass radiators. Specifically the high lead solder used.

The Pink can't be used in earlier bi-metal engines and copper/brass heater cores. But you can use the Red after thoroughly flushing the system with distilled water. And you will need to change the Red more often.

If Aisin pumps are now using carbon-ceramic seals instead of cheap rubber seals, I wonder if Valvoline G-05 or VW G12+ (BASF G40) can work better. The $15/gal G-05 is a proven 5-year coolant used in Mercedes and the $24/gal G-40 is a silicated OAT coolant using sebacic acid (similar to the 1/2 of Dexcool and toyota Pink). Both are concentrates.

Any reason for the switch?

[touringcamry]

My guess would be that the pink stuff is only available diluted 50/50 with water.

There is also Peak Global coolant. Website says non 2-EH formula that is phosphate-free and silicate-free

[molson.david]

I've flashed my cooling system 2 weeks ago or so.
I had red coolant in the system for some reason.
dealer told me that I can switch from red to pink and back coolant, but system has to be flashed couple times to be perfectly clean off pink stuff.

I didn't buy toyota coolant, dealer wants $23+tax! for a gallon and it is 50/50 coolant, not concentrate.

bought 2 gallons of Valvoline Zerex Asian cars coolant for $25.
flashed system with distilled water twice and than added Zerex.

felt difference very next day: cooling fan turning on less often than before.
don't know why, but my red coolant was dark and had some deposits in expansion tank.

p.s. here in TX we don't need to worry about freezing , we don't need 50/50 coolant, we got opposite problem during summer-to f...g hot! so keep coolant ratio around 35-40% and you'll get better cooling.

[gdanaher]

Here in Dallas, the winters normally get to about 15 degrees, and the last time I checked, that was below freezing on the Fahrenheit scale, so leave clear water in the system if you choose, but leave the engine idling when the car is not in use.

[molson.david]

35-40% coolant handled even RI-MA winters and winters there bit colder than in TX.
freezing point for that ratio around -23-25F.

[Donald E. George]

Valvoline Zerex Asian Car coolant from NAPA. About half the price of Toyota's pink stuff.I bought the Toyota stuff when it was $15.00 a gallon but not going to pay $24.00 for it. No way.Nothing but a back shop money maker.

[leakyseals]

Originally Posted by molson.david

I didn't buy toyota coolant, dealer wants $23+tax! for a gallon and it is 50/50 coolant, not concentrate.

bought 2 gallons of Valvoline Zerex Asian cars coolant for $25.
flashed system with distilled water twice and than added Zerex.

felt difference very next day: cooling fan turning on less often than before.
don't know why, but my red coolant was dark and had some deposits in expansion tank.

A noticeable drop in cooling fan operation after changing coolant brands indicates a drop in coolant temperature at the radiator. Less heat at the radiator means more heat at the engine surface. Because the temperature gauge reflects coolant temps, the higher engine surface temps will not be reflected on the gauge. IMO cutting costs with coolant is not worth the risks. Heat related problems take time to appear, when they do its usually a costly repair

[somick]

Originally Posted by leakyseals

A noticeable drop in cooling fan operation after changing coolant brands indicates a drop in coolant temperature at the radiator. Less heat at the radiator means more heat at the engine surface. Because the temperature gauge reflects coolant temps, the higher engine surface temps will not be reflected on the gauge. IMO cutting costs with coolant is not worth the risks. Heat related problems take time to appear, when they do its usually a costly repair

Radiator and engine are connected with big hoses which take antifreeze from hot engine to radiator where the antifreeze cools off. If the system is not clogged. There will always be temperature differences between engine and radiator. I unfortunately do not know how much, but it always will be some.

Clogged system (especially radiator) will show big difference between radiator temperature and engine temperature.

The fact that cooling fan comes on "less often" is not very scientific. There are many variables that affect this: ambient temperature, driving style, traffic, you name it...

The actual question was whether it is safe to use Red after Pink. The Toyota manual says: "Yes", but you need to change antifreeze more often.

Has anybody replaced Pink with Red?

Sam

[leakyseals]

Originally Posted by semyonlibman

Radiator and engine are connected with big hoses which take antifreeze from hot engine to radiator where the antifreeze cools off. If the system is not clogged. There will always be temperature differences between engine and radiator. I unfortunately do not know how much, but it always will be some.

Clogged system (especially radiator) will show big difference between radiator temperature and engine temperature.

The fact that cooling fan comes on "less often" is not very scientific. There are many variables that affect this: ambient temperature, driving style, traffic, you name it...

The actual question was whether it is safe to use Red after Pink. The Toyota manual says: "Yes", but you need to change antifreeze more often.

Has anybody replaced Pink with Red?

Sam

I agree with what you said as a general rule, but I think you missed what I was responding to in the quote, I bolded to make it clear:

Originally Posted by molson.david

I didn't buy toyota coolant, dealer wants $23+tax! for a gallon and it is 50/50 coolant, not concentrate.

bought 2 gallons of Valvoline Zerex Asian cars coolant for $25.
flashed system with distilled water twice and than added Zerex.

felt difference very next day: cooling fan turning on less often than before.
don't know why, but my red coolant was dark and had some deposits in expansion tank.

What hes saying is - cooling fan comes on "less often" than before immediately after changing the brand of coolant from Red to Valvoline Zerex Asian. That immediate change was what I was discussing. This assumes he knows his car well, how it behaves, etc. He must, otherwise he would not have noticed the change in fan use. The following day would have close to the same temps, etc so I think its worth discussing one of the few clues ever mentioned changing brands. This also ties into the original question for that reason, even though its Pink vs. Red.

As far as the actual question, the dealer told me its ok to go forward with the red on cars specced for pink, not ok to go pink on cars specced for red. Mixing he wasn't sure. Based on the answer, I'd say its ok to mix red and pink on cars specced for pink. Hope that makes sense.