Engine running hot
#11
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Mentor, Ohio
Posts: 12,236
Ill be damned.... I decided to completely flush out the dex cool and put conventional green antifreeze. Runs great now. I did this about 3 days ago and it hasnt overheated since. Temp guage hasnt even hit the halfway mark.
Ive always heard of people switching from dex cool to green but i never expected it to make such a difference.
Ive always heard of people switching from dex cool to green but i never expected it to make such a difference.
This is a topic of much debate over years, Dex vs Green. GM recommends and uses Dex in their modern cars from the factory. I know enough people (this is both online and also people I know local to me offline) who switched from Dex to green during a flush. Zero issues. If you spend the time to completely flush and purge as much to all of the Dex from the system and then use green, I don't believe it will be an issue.
Despite that statement, both my Grand Am and Monte Carlo are still running Dex (and I've done routine flushes on them).
#12
So what's the recommended flush interval? I'd like to do one soon - soon as in the next few years. Mine has 94k and I have yet to do a flush myself in the 31k I've owned the car. I highly doubt that a flush was done by the dealership (Ford) that I bought the car from. That being said, I can't say if the coolant I have in mine now is the original or not.
#13
I believe it use to be 5 years 50,000 miles when dex-cool first came out. I usually do a flush on about that schedule or when I change out the thermostat , When I flush system I usually try to back flush the heater core also, on gen 6 cars it's pretty easy to do just pop lines off heater core and would imagine gen 7 cars would be about same.
#14
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Mentor, Ohio
Posts: 12,236
GM recommends:
So I may not always flush the system. But I will drain and/or flush it about every 2-5 years or roughly 30k +/- miles. I personally think 100k with any coolant is a bit much unless the car is never driven.
The cooling system is filled with DEX-COOL engine coolant. This coolant is designed to remain in the vehicle for 5 years or for 166 000 km (100,000 mi), whichever occurs first, if you add only DEX-COOL extended life coolant.