frankrizz

just after one season I noticed my coolant very rusty colored. My car has absolutely no heating or cooling issues. My water pump is only one year old, all hoses are fairly new and radiator is clean. Just puzzled why this would happen. Any ideas?

gaedbo

You said your coolant is rusty colored but the radiator is clean. So where are you seeing this rusty color at ?

I had the same problem with my Camaro when I first got it. The Coolant Recovery Tank was the main culprit. I finally removed the battery and pulled the Tank out of the car. I flushed it with the garden hose. Man oh Man was it bad, loaded with brown thick junk. I kept flushing it until it was totally clean and re-installed it. I then drained the radiator and added new 50/50 mixture of antifreeze. Then after a couple of hundred miles I would drain the radiator again and refill it with new 50/50 mixture. I did this about 3 times. Now everything is nice and fresh looking.

Injuneer

Appears you changed the coolant one year ago. What coolant did you use? Did you flush the system before the refill? How did you drain the system - radiator drain plus repeated refills with clean water, or radiator drain plus both block drain plugs? Is it possible you mixed both conventional (green) coolant and long-life (orange) coolant?