i have been doing drain/fill every year for a few years. now, i am seeing orange color coolant in the coolant reservoir. anyone is experiencing this?

are you using dexcool?

+1. Also, are you doing these drain/fills yourself or a mechanic is doing this?? If he is and using dexcool, get the hell outta there ASAP!

hey! i did a flush with dexcool.. no problems with it.

You used it to flush only or are you also using it to cool engine as well??

i did a complete flush with dex cool.. no more green stuff. and yes dexcool is cooling my vq.

Rust?

wtf.. does aluminum "rust"? i dont think so..

Is the only metal your coolant passes through aluminum?

yes im pretty sure its all aluminum..

no flush only drain/fill for the past 5 to 6 years. i am not using dexcool. i have been using autozone 50/50 premix.

some cheap aftermarket waterpumps dont have aluminum impellers..I was just tossn that out there..its rust or dexcool..

is it milky at all

i am not so sure. i will need to check it in the morning.

Have you ever topped off the reservoir with tap water? If the water had rust it will stain the plastic pretty easily.

1st of all, only stick with the Japanese variety of coolant.. Nissan green, Toyota red, Honda blue. The formulations of european and domestic antifreeze is different then what was specified by the japanese mfg. Use distilled water only unless you like hard-water deposits (scale) in your engine.

Also... DEX-COOL is **** and is known to cause issues. Google it ->
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news0...m_dexcool.html

Hope the guy that used Dexcool in here isn't planning on keeping his car long.

same thing I said. I am using Prestone antifreeze concentrate..no pre-mix. Dexcool will make your VQ a living hell when your water pump starts going...

Many GM dealerships wont even use dexcool, and its THIER product. It causes corrosion and electrolosis. Use 50/50 green with DISTILLED water. Tap, Drinking, and spring water all have minerals that cause electrolosis and corrosion. there is some steel piping on the front of our engines and nipples on the IM. Is the impellar steel to poly?

50/50 green coolant ONLY. flush and replace every 30,000 to avoid rusty water and damge to your block. your engine depends on it, unless you like buying replacement heads.

hi! im the one that used dexcool in my car.

been running dexcool for two years, with no ill effects

Good for you bossman..at least its working out good for you...until doomsday comes and your head gasket is gone.. You're probably the only member I have seen using DEX-COOL in a Max...but everyone is entitled to do what they want so I won't argue...

cool deal i'll let you know when the head gaskets let go. and when they do go who cares? vq30's are dime a dozen, my car has over 250k of hard abuse since day one, so something is bound to let go one of these days.

It corrodes though when you put copper into the loop.

Well I am at 304K and never had a catastrophe happened. Changed my OEM alternator at 280K to another OEM one.. Coolant is still green and changed water pump once. T-stat and all other cooling components are still OEM.

good for you! i've never done any of that maybe except for the alt. other than my vq is running just like it left the factory. with some dexcool of course.

Yeah after reading the article here, there is a statement at the end that I will include in this thread for anyone else who is considering this:

"Last but not least, if your car came from the factory with standard "green" antifreeze, don't switch to Dex-Cool."

I always thought dexcool was used for Volvos and ****.

Hello,
I am the technical manager at Prestone coolants. Lots of misinformation here. Nissan specifies nothing more than a EG type coolant and soft water at a 50/50 mix. Not behind the time for 1995-1999 technology. You can use any of the current long life coolants on the market in the 95-99 maxima cars. The talk about dexcool here is really incorrect. GM had issues with dexcool due to ingestion of air into the cooling systems in certain vehicles. There is nothing wrong with the coolant itself, in fact GM not only still uses it, so does mercedes, bmw and Ford and Chrysler are both going to dexcool in 2011. I just drained the dexcool from my 2004 Cadillac CTS-V (dexcool) and it is crystal clear with no particulates. What you cannot do is use the old style silicated coolant that came from the factory in your gen of maximas on a modern car. The silicates in the old green coolant are not compatible with modern water pump seals. I am happy to answer your coolant and cooling system questions at jay.buckley@honeywell.com

annnnnnd

/thread

Not to get on your back or anything but...I owned a malibu prior to my max and rest assured, Dexcool does estroy your cooling system then and it still does now on newer cars...hence why they have reduced their "no maintenance" from 150K miles to 100K. Even if you google it now and check the new manuals, they want to decrease that number as well...

Maybe you need to read up on the bigger issue at hand here. Also, you said you drained your coolant and there was nothing in it but didn't list your mileage... why?? Because it was before 100K or even 150K perhaps??

EDIT: As an added bonus, that car antifreeze was drained several times and replaced because the intake manifold gaskets were replaced 4 times within 100K miles buddy...all myself I did it and OEM parts...and how much the car is worth?? 99 malibu ls fully loaded with leather and everything?? No more than $1,000...and that's coming from the dealership's mouth not KBB.

My 95 max with 304K base model value...$2,000...what does that say about your dexcool and GM's value??

you work for prestone huh? ..been drinking the green koolaid?


the reason why we should stick with toyota blue nissan green or honda red is they DON'T have silicates. The Japanese coolants are non silicate and borate but contain phosphate. silicate is sand before it makes a rust and corrosion barrier it also is abrasive. In our coolant the phosphate coats the cooling system much faster and without abrasive effects. Prestone won't kill our engines but it is not good for them but what do they care if they can sell it to me? kinda like ethanol in gas...

Originally Posted by motorking View Post
Hello,
I am the technical manager at Prestone coolants = Troll