Dex-Cool

[Festivus]

To Dex-Cool or not to Dex-Cool? That is the question.

My kid's 2001 Alero 2.4 has had this stuff in it from the start. The car has only 48k miles on it so I think that the coolant change that I had done yesterday may have been the first. Not sure.

Anyway, the shop put orange 'extended life' in it. I'm assuming this is dex-cool. I asked for regular coolant but they apparently forgot.

I've read so many conflicting opinions on this stuff. But it seems to me that once dex-cool is in it it's pretty tough to flush all of it out. And bad things can happen when mixing dex-cool with regular coolant. So it might be best to stick with the dex-cool and change it every 2 or 3 years like the regular stuff.

Any other opinions on this?

[BNaylor]

There is nothing wrong with running Dex-cool as long as the maintenance replacement interval is followed. 5 years or 150K miles, whichever comes first. We still use Dex-cool in our 3.4L Alero with no issues and it was replaced before 5 years since hitting the mileage was impossible based on our driving habits. Even the regular aftermarket extended life coolants are now 5/150.

Dex-cool is orange in color out of the bottle. And do not mix the green anti-freeze with it or it turns to sludge.

[Airjer_]

The 2.4 doesn't have nearly to cooling system problems that the other GM engines have so whatever you put in it will be more than fine.

Its not a good idea to mix them but flushing a dexcool system to regular coolant with a flush machine will get almost a 100 percent of the coolant changed if done correctly.

Since your cooling system is pretty solid for the most part stick with the dexcool and service again in another 5 years (appears it doesn't see a lot of miles) if its still around.

[463]

same thing in my son's 03 alero 2.2. just did a flush and add new dexcool. dexcool does not play well when air,the green stuff or other stuff is introduced into the cooling system.