schmoozer

Yea that's what I meant. I just wanted to make sure if I went to the Toyota dealership and asked for red, and they come back to me asking if I want Red 1585 or Red 1560 (Dex was a bad example haha)

LeX2K

Compatibility is the fluids themselves, not the car they go into! And the examples you cited happen to fall in the area where Lexus was transitioning to a new coolant and at the same time built the systems that tolerated the new coolant before the new fluid was rolled into production.

You keep saying the Red and Pink are compatible. They ARE, but the cars they go into may not be. Important distinction.

LeX2K

Ask for Toyota Long Life, no confusion. If they try and give you Super Long Life, repeat your request lol.

GSteg

iTrader: (15)

There is only one red and one pink. They'll know what you're looking for

GSteg

iTrader: (15)

I'm not talking about fluid compatibility. I'm talking about the car itself. YES they are interchangeable because the TSB is there for the exact reason. Saying the fluids are compatible, but not the car is conflicting. If mixing pink with red is okay, then guess what, you already have pink in a car that originally came with red! If the older cars cannot use pink at all, then mixing would be an even bigger no-no.


The examples I gave you has nothing to do with Toyota designing a system for the new coolant. If you want to take it a step further, 98-03 GS came with red coolant while the 04-05 came with pink. Nothing changed as far as cooling and engine design throughout those years. The same applies to the 98-07 LX470. You can't be telling me they were already thinking of changing coolant back in 1996-97. It's a heck lot cheaper for Toyota to design a coolant that is backward compatible with older cars, than it is to design a whole new cooling system and then make a coolant that can only be used with those cars. It's redundant, adds complexity, and adds cost.

This is why most dealer will offer pink for your car even if your car came with red. That's the memo Toyota sent out and that's why the dealers are selling pink.

I agree with you. Run whatever came with the car (I know I do), but I'm just saying you can go with pink if red is nowhere to be found.

LeX2K

Wrong!

Red can be used in a newer system that specifies pink, because the red formulation offers adequate protection for the type of metals in the system. But Pink does NOT properly protect the metals in older systems, mainly brass and copper components. In fact, from what I read, many people were saying it can actually cause excess corrosion of these parts. Do you understand this?

There were model overlaps, where either can be used. But that does NOT include all models, like the ES300 1992-2001.

schmoozer

But if I go to a dealer and all they have is Pink then what am I supposed to do??

Surely if they recommend pink for my year and make it should be ok?

LeX2K

Don't be so sure about that. They will have the Red coolant, well very likely anyway.

Here are the ingredients of both coolants. First one is Red, second is Pink. They most certainly different fluids that happen to be chemically compatible, but not universally viable in all applications.

Ethylene Glycol(107-21-1),Diethylene Glycol(111-46-6) Water(7732-18-5) Orangic Acid Salt(532-32-1) Hydrated Inorganic Salt(1310-58-3)
Water (7732-18-5), Ethylene Glycol (107-21-1), Diethylene Glycol (111-46-6), Sebacic Acid (111-20-6), Potassium Hydroxide (1310-58-3)

schmoozer

Let me throw a curve ball at you...

WHAT IF the person before me did coolant changes at Jiffy Lube and used some off brand. Will there be any problems if the system is not 100% flushed? And consequently if I leave the car at the dealer to have them do it...they may do as they please and put in the Pink stuff regardless of what I say

LeX2K

The dealer will put in what you tell them to, I don't see why not. It does not matter if all the old coolant is not removed, they are both ethylene glycol type coolants and can be mixed without issue. The only real issue is that "green" coolant is often of questionable quality. This excludes Honda fluid (and a few others) which is green but excellent and very similar to Toyota coolant.

SmoothV63

OK guys I have a 94/95 and I swore I saw not pink or red. so I'm thinking its really dirty so i dump the over flow add water. So what type do I need? What happens if green is in it??? Thanks

LeX2K

Flush/drain out as much of the coolant as you can and put in Toyota Red, 50/50 or greater mix. 50/50 is best for warm climates like yours (better cooling) and up to 70/30 for extremely cold climates. I run 60/40. (first number denotes % of coolant)

If your system is very dirty, a flush may be required, which involves filling the system with distilled water and adding a bottle of cleaner, then draining, filling with water again, drain, then add the fresh coolant mix.

yeldogt

With so many coolant formula changes over the last 15 years its not surprising that we have this problem.

Jaguar had three coolants in the 98/ 00 period -- all different. Manufactures are obviously trying to extend the service intervals for everything. So as new models come out the cars are designed specifically for a given fluid -- that is why you can see two different models using the same fluid having different change intervals.

Toyota still sells the old fluid -- my 05 says to only use the "super long life" ......so who knows. That TSB is from 2002? I have no idea what is up.

I put the red in my 2000 -- its always had red -- I do a simple dump of the radiator and refill. It has 225k on it and nothing in the cooling system has ever been touched. Using a different coolant may have no ill effect - it can take many years to show up.

All the proper fluids are available from the dealer. Many manufactures do not overcharge for fluids -- but people assume they do or listen to others when they say its all the same. So you save $20.00 on a service that you do to a car every 5 years. The proper Toyota transmission fluid is $5.00 from the dealer and you use 4 quarts for a refresh plus the seal ring -- but we have endless discussions regarding the fluid.

The car was designed around particular fluids and has a history of covering many many trouble free miles using those fluids -- why change?

schmoozer

I haven't put the car up on ramps yet, but I stuck my head under just for fun and couldn't find the radiator drain anywhere. It appears as if its protected by the skid plate down there..

Do I need to remove this?

GSteg

iTrader: (15)

Red can be used in a newer system that specifies pink, because the red formulation offers adequate protection for the type of metals in the system. But Pink does NOT properly protect the metals in older systems, mainly brass and copper components. In fact, from what I read, many people were saying it can actually cause excess corrosion of these parts. Do you understand this?

There were model overlaps, where either can be used. But that does NOT include all models, like the ES300 1992-2001.[/quote]

No not wrong. Think about what you're saying.

If Red is adequate for 'newer' systems then there is no reason for Toyota to even formulate pink. It's redundant, no? You keep on mentioning brass and copper. I see this online all the time because one person says something and it spreads like wild fire. A lot of coolant are not backward compatible because many are OAT based. This is not the case with Toyota Pink. It's HOAT (Hybrid form) which is slightly different because it allows protection of "older" systems.

Toyota knows it's a HUGE liability if they told their dealers to use pink if the car wasn't meant to use it. I haven't heard of a failure regarding the use of pink in red, because it shouldn't. The HOAT formulation in pink is what allows the fluid to be used in. They sent out the TSB to dealers for this very reason to clear the confusion as to whether they can use pink or not.

Per TSB:
They haven't even discussed anything about mixing at that point.


Show me examples damaged older systems with pink coolant and I will show you 10x more examples of undamaged systems. If the coolant are vastly different, then they cannot be mixed in the first place.

You are more than welcome to avoid using Pink in your car. Me and millions other are okay with it.