Antifreeze ref guide

[iamthebestheather]

I'm looking for a quick check reference guide for what car uses what antifreeze. It would be so helpful! We have one at work but its so darn inaccurate its fustrating. Thank you!!

[curtis73]

You mean what it originally came with? Almost all cars came equipped with plain old 50/50 Prestone or similar green anti freeze. Somewhere in the mid 90s, some manufacturers started switching over to Havoline's Dexcool which is orange. GM, Isuzu, and Mitsubishi were some of the Dexcool converts, but I'm not sure of who else.

To the best of my knowledge, all common car manufacturers used some version of Ethylene Glycol coolant in their cars, which basically means either green or orange.

Of the cars equipped with the orange dexcool, most owners have switched to green due to problems with dexcool, so your data may be accurate, but the coolant changed.

[DRW1000]

Yeah "Death-cool" as it has been called.

There are many GMs with head gasket problems that some are trying to blame on Dex-cool.

I think Dex-cool's claim-to-fame is that it lasts for 5 years instead of the conventional 2 years. Now as I understand it:
You cannot wear out water of course but the 50% that is coolant starts to turn acidic and this wears the water pump seals as well as corroding the insides of the rad, engin and heater cores.

I also hear that it is very bad to mix the 2 types so if you are switching you must flush out first and not simply empty and fill.