Radiator Fluid Questions

[keylay31]

Hey guys, long time...

I was changing my oil at the 60k mark and noticed my radiator fluid was low. I thought I would just hop over to my local autoparts store when I found out they don't carry the "pink stuff", only Toyota dealers. I drive over to the dealer and find that they are charging $23 for this stuff. A few questions:

1) Do I need the pink stuff?
2) When I do buy it, should I flush it or just top it off?

 

[riceandpho]

only use the pink stuff at the dealer, also i did paid 24 for it too, but if u want it for free, u might want to have them do the next oil change and they always top of the fluids right?

 

[ClockWork]

You can top it off with distilled water. I do.

 

[KB084RUNNER]

Do not top off with water. I recommend the pre-mixed Toyota long life coolant which is made with de-ionized water and will contain all of the corrosion inhibitors you need to refresh your coolant. Yeah, it is $26 a gallon but replacing corroded cooling system components or overheating an aluminum engine because you added water can cost hundreds or even thousands. I would drain the radiator and refill. I do this every 50k miles and never have any issues.

Cheap insurance.

 

[MikeInNH]

Prestone and others make universal fluid that's safe for ALL MAKES AND MODELS. I've been using it for years without any problem what-so-ever.

 

[message]

When I had my timing belt and water pump changed they re-filled with generic pink/orange, which most any auto part store carries. No need to spend money on the expensive name brand stuff.

 

[BlackWorksInc]

Prestone and others make universal fluid that's safe for ALL MAKES AND MODELS. I've been using it for years without any problem what-so-ever.

That I don't trust, OATs based coolant is not compatible with glycol based coolant. Toyota uses glycol based coolant in their applications, in a pinch you can use standard "green" coolant, color does not matter, as long as it is glycol based. Though I personally recommend using the super long life "pink" coolant because of the additive package.

 

[keylay31]

Ok, so how do I go about draining the fluid? Is there a drain plug? How might I go about this?

 

[BlackWorksInc]

There is a plastic drain plug on the bottom edge of the radiator.

 

[kobresia]

The pink Super Long Life Coolant is good through 100k miles, according to Toyota. Replacing it at fewer than 100k miles would be kind of wasteful, just topping it off should be sufficient at 60k. I'd wonder why it's low.

 

[jimithing]

I'd wonder why it's low.

Me too. I'd keep an eye on it after you get it back up to the proper level and see what it does.

 

[KB084RUNNER]

The pink Super Long Life Coolant is good through 100k miles, according to Toyota. Replacing it at fewer than 100k miles would be kind of wasteful, just topping it off should be sufficient at 60k. I'd wonder why it's low.

I never replace it all. Just drain and refill the radiator which takes about 1 gallon. I do this every 50k and never have to get into flushing the whole system because the additives never get depleted. I have done this for many vehicles & boats and gone 10-12 years with no issues.

 

[croks]

I'll be traveling to Mexico, spending time in remote areas. I'm bringing some Toyota Red (sounds like a wine), but what if I need to top up and I don't have any of it left? Can I top up with water, and and what do I do when I get back to civilization? Replace it all with original red/pink?

 

[4Rfor4]

My friend Mechanic told me: "don't be cheap and buy the toyota pink, its worth it. The other stuff corrodes toyotas. do a complete flush every 50k mi. make sure to use de-ionized water.'' ... my 2 pennies.

 

[teampwr2]

:trophy:

That I don't trust, OATs based coolant is not compatible with glycol based coolant. Toyota uses glycol based coolant in their applications, in a pinch you can use standard "green" coolant, color does not matter, as long as it is glycol based. Though I personally recommend using the super long life "pink" coolant because of the additive package.

What He said.... Its funny , people pay 30 grand for these things then scoff at a few bucks price diff. on something that only needs attention every couple of years ! LOL....Maybe 50 dollar diff over the life of the vehicle ...
:bravo scratching head ) LMAO !

 

[kobresia]

I never replace it all. Just drain and refill the radiator which takes about 1 gallon. I do this every 50k and never have to get into flushing the whole system because the additives never get depleted. I have done this for many vehicles & boats and gone 10-12 years with no issues.

Huh, that's actually a pretty good idea. My reading comprehension was sucking a bit the other day, and I guess it's just when I see the words "cheap insurance" in the context of maintenance, that usually means someone is doing something that is ridiculously premature and wasteful.

On a sort-of related topic, my 4Runner is in a weird place, where I've pretty much been ignoring most of the maintenance recommendations altogether. There's such a big difference between the wear and tear that "miles" put on something (some miles are severe service, some miles are negligible impact), versus hours. I'm used to maintaining my heavy equipment based on "hours", and it boggles my mind why car makers don't follow the example of large trucks & machinery and put engine hour meters in vehicles, and then give the service intervals in hours.

 

[the dutch man]

Everyone,

Aftermarket coolant the same as Toyota Pink does exist. Take a look at the bottom two links. One is for Zerex Asian Vehicle coolant (same as the Toyota Pink Long Life)

Valvoline.com > Products > Zerex > Antifreeze Zerex > Zerex® Asian Vehicle Antifreeze / Coolant

The second is a new line of coolant that is like the above, and made specifically like the Toyota Red and Pink coolants. This line is from Beck Arnley

Beck/Arnley Genuine OE Fluids

 

[PR Fiebru]

When I had my timing belt and water pump changed they re-filled with generic pink/orange, which most any auto part store carries. No need to spend money on the expensive name brand stuff.

timing belt???

For my understanding 4th gen 4runners v6 have timing chain...

 

[88mustanggt]

I use the beck/arnley at my shop it works fine

 

[BlackWorksInc]

Everyone,

Aftermarket coolant the same as Toyota Pink does exist. Take a look at the bottom two links. One is for Zerex Asian Vehicle coolant (same as the Toyota Pink Long Life)

Valvoline.com > Products > Zerex > Antifreeze Zerex > Zerex® Asian Vehicle Antifreeze / Coolant

The second is a new line of coolant that is like the above, and made specifically like the Toyota Red and Pink coolants. This line is from Beck Arnley

Beck/Arnley Genuine OE Fluids

Our dealership is transitioning to Valvoline products instead of the MOC we were contracted with before; I spoke quite a while with the guy from Valvoline and they showed me some documentation and chatted about ho they actually had to really work at getting the right formula with the Asian stuff. I would stand by those options from Valvoline after talking with the factory guys a while.

Something else to note is that Toyota has specific additive packages for their vehicles and those will be different from say a Ford or BMW (most of their engines use magnesium parts and so they need protective additives for those metal combinations and such) these additive packages are specific to Toyota's engine design specs to protect the materials used in their engines vs. others who may use a different material for a gasket or something. Its not just the Aluminum and steel/iron that the coolant has to protect corrosion/reaction from in a car.