Coolant flush and it's green!
 

Firstly apologies as am currently in the shop to do coolant flush at 130K miles, on a smartphone, with no skills to do an in depth search on this topic. (Yes I should have searched prior to coming).

So we open the overflow reservoir and the radiator cap and they are both empty (well, nothing visible). I'm asked if car is overheating and in fact it has never overheated.

They then start to do a simple flush by removing hose and pouring coolant mix into radiator, the fluid is green and not red!

Does it come red from factory?
Being that I bought the car used, perhaps it was previously flushed with green? Or topped off with green?

Yes speculative but looking for everyone's expert guidance. Technician recommends flushing with green and keeping it that way.

I think he may be right and doing a full expensive flush with red at this point of time may cause mte damage than good?

Thanks all

you're probably not the first owner. The previous owner most likely filled it up with green fluid. I dunno, all the Lexus and Toyota i ever owned had green coolant. Never an issue. The only time i had reddish coolant was when i had water + waterwetters in my Supra.

Unicorn blood only for my baby.

But yah I'd read up a little more. Sometimes Vulcan blood is ok. Apparently there are certain chemicals in certain green coolants that may do long term damage to the coolant lines, or engine block.

Sorry this is for my 1998 GS400 that I bought CPO in 2001 at 30,000 miles and hadn't done a coolant flush to my knowledge.

Anyone know if factory is red or green for this car?

So keep green right?

Pink I believe from Toyota. It doesn't matter much what you put in it. I always use factory fill because I'm anal but, I've never seen a real problem using generic. If you really get it flushed properly, you can put whatever fluid you want in it.

Don't forget the 2 block drains.

2 blocks?

Also, I'm very impressed that the reservoir and the radiator weren't showing any fluid and the car never got close to overheating. Was always a steady reading inside. I guess that means the majority of the system still had fluid (hopefully).

And if I keep it green, guess the flush cycle becomes closer to every year or every other year.

The gauge lies. It reads the same from 140-210F ish. It's only when it's really starting to overheat that it starts to move up. Most cars are this way. I call them "Dummy-Gauges" because they really only tell you "Cold/Normal/Hot"

You have a GS400, the 1UZ engine has 2 block drains right behind the motor mounts. If you want a proper flush, you want to open these drains and drain the coolant out of the block. Just pulling the hoses off won't drain the engine.

I can verify that using my ScanGauge II, the needle will reach just a tick over the 2/5 mark and stay there from about 180-212*F, which is what I've seen so far.

What I wish we had was a battery voltage and oil pressure gauge, too. But I guess when you're rich enough to buy a Lexus, you don't have time for such petty things and can pay someone to fix it for you later. ROFL.

Toyota Long Life coolant (LLC) is Red which is what came with this car. Which you mix 50/50 with water.


Toyota has since come out with Toyota Super Long Life coolant (SLLC), which is a a pre-mixed pink fluid.
There are bulletins that this is supposed to be backwards compatible with LLC, and you can mix it with LLC, but you should treat it only as LLC at that point in terms of change interval.

You should try to avoid mixing green and red if you can; and do a whole flush if you want to switch.
But if you are in trouble, it's better to drive with anything in the radiator versus risking overheating.

One final tip, for levels; you do not need to shoot for Full or Max on the coolant line.
Shoot to be in the middle of min/full instead.

Red is oem, I've had a lil green mixed with my red for over 2 years not a a single problem, theirs countless threads on this...

I suppose if the coolant looks good when doing a drip and replace or a flush, then it should be evident there is no rust/corrosion.

I've seen only a handful of threads of folks with much older cars that when they did a flush, it came out chocolate colored. When they conpleted properly flushing, car no longer overheated and operated normally.

Any 2GS really have radiator or engine problems due to not having proper flushing over the years? Seems many more counts of 2GS with 100's of thousands of miles, some with simple drip and replace of the green stuff!

My 2011 Sienna doesn't require a coolant flush till 100K!

If you care about the car and intend to keep it long term, replace all fluids at least every 2 years. If it's just an appliance you intend to dump some day, stretch out the intervals as long as possible. These extended change intervals are more about bragging by the car manufactures or saving money in the case of BMW. You think a car company cares after a car gets 100K miles on it? They just want it to get there, they don't care what happens afterwards.

BMW pays for all scheduled maintenance for the first 3 years of ownership. That's why they stretch out the intervals. Every oil change costs them money.

The fact you were low on coolant suggest you've got a problem. There should be zero leakage. Maybe they didn't fill is completely last change. Once you get it replaced, I'd keep an eye on the coolant level.