I suspect the Toyota Long Life Red Coolant thing has been beat to death here as well as all the other WEB yack sites.
Thought I'd pass this along.
I'm not to hot on paying the local dealer $18.50 for a gallon of coolant. There are too many others that meet the OAT/HOAT requirements, so I contacted Valvoline(they make Zerex) and asked if they made a coolant that met Toyota's stringent requirements..ie..the equivalent of the Long Life Red stuff.
Their answer was YES. Check out the following URL:
http://www.valvoline.com/pages/prod....asp?product=11
On another Yota WEB yack site, a dealership tech said the Red coolant was required for warranty situations. If a vehicle came in that was still under warranty and it didn't have the "red" stuff, they would not honor the warranty. Also, if work was done while under warranty, the "reed" stuff was put back in.
Now for the interesting part.
If the vehicle was out of warranty, this dealership used basic green coolant. The tech said they used whatever their lubricant supplier had available. He also said that he has never seen any Toyota fail for not using this so called miraculous "red" stuff.
So I suppose you stick with their "red" 'til you're out of warranty, then switch to whatever you like.
The down-side of the Zerex Extreme in my locale is I can't find it. I've been to Auto Zone, Advance, Pep Boys; Oreilley's. No Kragen/Checker where I live.
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