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Recommended Coolant/Anti-Freeze

150K views 14 replies 10 participants last post by  Ric Hard Car Guru 
#1 ·
Any recommendation on the best coolant (refill) for 2004+ Sienna's?? From the owner's manual, it would appear that only factory Toyota brand coolant is recommended...
Is it the same 'pink' coolant used standard by GM (Dexcool) or the like, or something that can be picked up at a PepBoys??
 
#7 ·
I have a 2000 Camry. The local Toyota dealership wants $26 per gallon for the anitfreeze / coolant.

Can anyone give examples of coolant that meets the Toyota specifications, aka silicate and borate free?

I found Prestone Prime which i believe matches the requirements, but can't find it locally.

Thanks.
 
#5 ·
The Prestone is green. They make a brand called any color any car. They say you can add it to the pink stuff. Lots of confusion in the market about what kind of anti-freeze t use. I'm sure they are marketing this to address that confusion. As far as I know this stuff is safe to use in the Sienna.
 
#10 ·
buddy of mine has a 96 model chevy pickup that has green colored coolant, he mixed the orange colored dextron into the system and it made mud. Whole system had to be flushed by radiator shop.

I would buy dealer coolant and he happy, check on having them do the flush

You will have to buy two gallons of coolant, but you do not need that much for a drain and refill.

Also use distilled water to finish the system fillup.

good luck,
 
#11 · (Edited)
Save yourself some headaches and just go to the dealer parts department and get the Toyota long life. I was down about 10 oz in my overflow tank, bought Prestone's 50/50 prediluted green (not the Dex-Cool) which claimed on the label it was good for any color antifreeze. Two weeks later my Toyota radiator was sizzling fluid from about 10 places. Was it the mixture? Or did the green just eat my radiator? This is not entirely Prestone or Toyota's fault. Toyota does recommend changing the fluid every 30K miles. I never looked at mine until it started to leak at 120K

By the way, the dealer service manager quietly suggested a place in town to have a non-Toyota radiator installed. He implied that I would get a better quality radiator, and I think he was right. The Toyota radiator looked cheap and flimsy.

2004 FWD Sienna LXE w/ 120K miles
 
#13 ·
Just bought an 04 at 92k mi which had been dealer-serviced by prior owner. We had the AF flushed when we did the timing belt and toyota-coolant put in, and now I see some pink accumulations at either end of the top of the radiator - I assume the Toyota coolant has stop-leak properties, and these are some tiny leaks which seem to be self-sealing at present. I see above that the 04 radiator wasn't great - do we simply replace? On other forums people have recommended epoxy for fixing small leaks. Any experience/recommendations?
 
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