Recently I was running slightly low on coolant so I went to my shop guy. He topped the coolant tank up with a little Prestone. And I use Dexcool red. Is mixing two coolant brands bad for the car in any way? Corrosion or anything?

He says he only poured in a tea-cup full of prestone.

thanks.

 

I have always heard to never mix the coolants

 

if it was the green stuff you cannot mix with dex cool but companies are now making long life that is compatable with both green or red.
you will have to find out through him what he used

 

Mixing coolants is a no-no. And if it was only a "teacup" why did he put any in at all? He probably put in more than that and know feels like a putz.

 

Mixing them IS ok. All you do is shorten the life span of the Dexcool. Like its good for 150k miles anyway....

This info can be found right on Texaco's Dexcool website. They are BOTH ethelyne glycol based.

Do a search, this is covered fairly regular.

No being able to mix them is the same type of BS myth as needing back pressure for torque.

 

Thanks for your replies. Here is an informative link related to what greed4speed said:

http://www.imcool.com/articles/antif...l-macs2001.htm

 

the real question is, why were you low on coolant?

 

Apparently there was a leak in the line which dropped coolant on the heater (I used to see white vapor smoke from below the hood every now and then). Finally the shop guy sealed the line so the heater is no longer operational - I don't need in this part of the world. So no more leaks now.

 

if it only needed a tea-cup full he should have used distilled water instead of mixing different kinds of coolants.

my

 

Add Water.

Presto.

 

flush the system and get rid of the dexcool. it softens plastic. any mechanic will tell you of the current intake gasket replacement problems, and of the blocked heater cores. there is a ton of articles on this discussion. honda absolutely will not recommend that coolant. gm is the lone ranger on this one and has nothing but problems that were not there a few years agos. they are not about to change their opiniion either. part of the problem stems from lack of maintenance. the antifreeze if 5 YEARS or 150,000 miles. whichever comes first. this includes the time the vehicle was built not bought. i flush the old out and install green. no more intake gasket problems.

this will open up a can of worms

 

Yes it will.

The GM intake manifold gasket problems were there before Dexcool. Spend some time on a 60*V6 board or own a 60* V6 and you'll learn all about it. People like to blame dexcool, but the fact that GM redesigned the gaskets multiple times goes unnoticed.

As for the heater core blockage, I've got almost 80k miles on my SS and the wife's Grand Am has over 150K miles and we haven't had any problems. On her car I have mixed with conventional antifreeze, added radiator stop leak and mixed it with tap water. Only cooling problem was the t-stat going out at 140k miles.

I personally won't trust the 5 yr 150k mile life, but I know people with very high milage trucks (higher milage than our Grand Am) that have gone the lifespan and they haven't had problems.