Olds Achieva - Radiator Fluid?

[sdh31873]

I had a crack in my radiator and the guys at the radiator shop said that it was a common thing with the Olds Achieva. They fixed it but when I got home, I noticed that the radiator fluid was green. The car calls for "Dexicool" only and I know that Dexicool is orange. I called the guy back and he said that Dexicool causes problems and that the regular antifreeze is better for you car. If so, then why does it call for "Dexicool Only"? What impact will this have on my car and is it going to damage the engine by having regular antifreeze in there? Just asking. Any help will be appreciative. Thanks.

[costa510]

its okay to have green antifreeze... as long as your radiator isnt leaking or anything... with this car you will have other things to worry about than the color of your antifreeze... keep an eye on the cooling fan... check once in a while to see if it is too close to the radiator or rubbing... mine cut a nice circle in the radiator and i went through two radiators before we fixed it... but yeah green coolant is fine, better than water....

[sdh31873]

Thanks a million for replying. I was just worried that regular antifreeze would mess something up. I wonder why they put the "Dexicool Only" warning on these cars? I checked the fan. It seems fine as of now. The only main problems that we have had out of this car is the ignition had to be replaced 3 times because the key wouldn't come out. I don't know what the deal was with that. The alternator keeps going out and we have replaced 4 of them. Then the a/c knobs keep stripping/breaking. We have to keep buying new knobs from our local dealer. They are way overpriced. Other than that, this is a good car so far. It has 130,000 miles and I haven't had a tune up yet. It still runs great. Thanks again.

[TedKazinski3]

Contrary to what some may say, you can indeed mix Dex-Cool and conventional coolant with
no ill effects. However, if there is more than 10% of conventional coolant in the system this will reduce the
concentration of the Carboxylate such that conventional coolants change intervals mu st be followed. In
other words, if you mix it, you can't leave it in for 100,000 miles or 5 years, but instead should treat a mix just
like conventional coolant and change it every year until the concentration of Dex-Cool is over 90%.


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