Coolant: Dexcool Verses Green For Your Vehicle

Who here has heard of Dex-Cool antifreeze.

Me and many others that bought a GM.

OK here is my problem that i am currently having with my Chevy Sonic.This is second time this has happened since last year.My Chevy Sonic's thermostat is stuck open again.And need's replacing.I will flush the engine and replace it with green coolant the 50/50 mix.I have never have had this issue with the 50/50 mix.

Unknowing to me the car's is using Dex-Coolant.This is very bad for car's and truck's.So bad that there was a class action lawsuit against GM here is more info.https://www.girardgibbs.com/dexcool/


Here is a video with more info on this coolant.



Here is another video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWnOBahaK5Y

 

The biggest problem with the Chevy Sonic is that it's a badge-engineered Daewoo...

 

I have used Nulon Long Life Coolant for at least 20 years and never had any problems. http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/Pr...l-Concentrate-6-Litre/384350?menuFrom=1021656
It gets changed every 3 years or if it goes from bright glow in the dark green to slightly darker (indicating it got very hot) but this only happened once when the two electric fans failed on my old Volvo 740 turbo wagon on a 40ºC day and the car got pretty hot but didn't boil.
When I used to have my 80 Series Toyota Landcruiser we did a lot of travelling and went from Central Australia where the temps are up to 45ºC to the Alpine areas around Mt Hotham in winter (to go skiing) where the temps are down to -12ºC. In summer my Landcruiser often towed a friends 7 metre aluminium cuddy cabin boat with a 200Hp Mercury outboard on the back all the way to Lakes Entrance (about a 4 hour drive at highway speed) without any problems.
The last two vehicles I have had are both turbo Volvos and I always get the wagon with the biggest motor and turbo and my current Volvo has the high performance 5 cylinder BMW turbo motor with sequential 6 speed transmission and I use the Nulon coolant which has been very good.

 

Tell us more about this engine.

 

Yep it is a 2.5l inline 5 cylinder motor originally designed by BMW for Volvo and is called the Modular Series motor and my motor is designated the B5254T7.

My Volvo is a 2009 V50 2.5l 5 cylinder T5 AWD wagon with the 6 speed sequential sports transmission with all wheel drive which is really an auto but can be driven like a manual with an up/down sequential change on the gear shifter. It only runs on premium unleaded (98RON) fuel and if you have been giving the car a bit of stick, then the intercooled turbo needs to cool down for a minute or two before turning off the motor to stop the turbo bearings overheating.

Here are the motor details of my motor from Wikipedia
B5254T7
The B5254T7 is 2.5 L (2,521 cc) straight-five. Bore is 83 mm (3.3 in) and stroke is 93.2 mm (3.7 in) with a compression ratio of 9.0:1. It is turbocharged and intercooled with a power output of 230 PS (169 kW; 227 hp) at 5000 rpm with 320 N⋅m (240 lb⋅ft) of torque at 1500–5000 rpm. It is equipped with Bosch ME9 engine management. For models with the AW55-51 automatic transmission torque is limited in first and second gear. The turbocharger is still integrated into the exhaust manifold, but is of a different design.

• 2008–2012 Volvo S40 II badged as S40 T5[124]
• 2008–2012 Volvo V50 badged as V50 T5

This picture is the same model and colour as my car
http://swedishprestige.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/spcw29.jpg

 

Thanks joffa.
I mistakenly thought Audi designed that engine.

 

Dex Cool had many formula flaws. Like the fact it would plug up a heater core, or worse if you added the wrong coolant. Also, there was a chemical reaction with coolant system gaskets and Dex Cool in the early days, and this caused leaks like no tomorrow. There are compatible substitutes by Prestone and Peak. If you do mix green and orange, it coagulates and I wish you the best of luck. Also, if Dex Cool runs low in a cast iron engine, it tends to make sludge.

Each color coolant is specific to the engine design. If you use the wrong coolant, you run the risk of damaging the system and costing yourself a bucketload of money in repair costs. You should NEVER MIX coolant formulas.

Your average diesel engine uses orange or red heavy duty, and most cars use the green variety. Some engines even use purple, pink, or yellow. Many Toyotas use red. There are additives which are specific to each formula, and you really do not want to mix them. Coolant containing silicate is a NO NO, and old bottles should be disposed of properly.

 

Hmmm.....I think Audi and Porsche only helped with the inlet and exhaust manifold design and the integrated turbo was done by Porsche.
The 5 cylinder modular motor was built by Volvo in Sweden and they also did the final production engineering in house but I believe BMW were involved in a lot of the internal motor and cylinder head design pre production. It is hard to get the full story as they are not really saying who did what and when.

I know Renault designed a petrol motor for the 300 series Volvos and they also supplied a diesel motor for some markets (not Australia). My brother had a Volvo 360 GLE in the 1980s and that was a pretty strong car.....pretty gutless but strong.

Some of the more recent 2.0l 4 cylinder motors were based on the European Ford Focus motor.

 

Mmmmmm. The Audi five cylinder inline diesels Mercedes put in the 300 series back in the day. Yum; an inline five...

 

Lucky my brother had the 2.0l 4 cylinder Renault motor and 5 speed manual. It went OK once you got going but taking off at the lights......it couldn't pull a greasy stick out of a dog's a*$e.........or it couldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding

His other car at the time was a Cordia turbo hatchback and that was great if you could stop the front wheels spinning and the steering wheel hadn't been torn out of your hands by the savage torque steer..........driving the Cordia around corners in the wet was definitely a challenge and not for the faint hearted........also it accelerated really well but didn't have brakes to match the performance and after some brisk driving they used to start smoking and then had serious fade

 

The old Mazda Miata was a fun ride. Nice tight base, good math, and an engine that could really rev. The first gen model was A LOT of fun!

Still have a third gen F body, and it's still under construction

 

Hmmm.......... those Miatas looks like the MX-5 we had over here............one of my friends (who owns a panel shop) shoehorned a supercharged 5.0l Lexus aluminium V8 and 6 speed transmission into an MX-5..........the scarey thing was trying to stop it so they put Brembo competition brakes on it then they flared all the guards so they could mount off set wide wheels to increase the track by 100mm.
I was taken for a spin before they installed the roll cage and racing harnesses and it was scary fast and I didn't want another ride until they had proper safety equipment. I don't scare easily as I used to race national class 1 offroad buggies and my buggy could do 140MPH offroad and I also used to race a Datsun 1600 SSS rally car so speed is no big deal but that MX-5 was so fast it was dangerous. Imagine having a Hayabusa motor on a tiny gokart and that was how the MX-5 accelerated........wheel spin in every gear at any speed

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazda_MX-5#First_generation_.28NA.29

 

I've never had a problem with DexCool in my Colorado. The link TimW covers the early negative issues that involved the GM coolant. Like most stories like this, the truth is a bit more complicated than "_____ is bad!"

Like the article says, not using the coolant that your vehicle manufacturer recommends can void your warranty and can cause needless damage to your vehicle. My truck is out of warranty, but I have no intention of using anything but DexCool until GM indicates otherwise.