Rick, make sure when you do, unbolt the coolant reserve tank, and dump it out. I literally had jello lumps of coolant come out of my reserve tank the FIRST time I flushed my coolant, and that was when the car had 20,000 miles on it. Ever since, I always make sure to remove the coolant overflow and clean it well.

 

That's insane. Thanks for the tip!

 

Have you guys ever considered swithing away from the dexcool to normal green coolant/antifreeze? That dexcool is awful stuff. It eats gaskets and gums up as some of you have seen.

 

I have considered it, but when you are under warranty, its not an option.

Also, yes it does have a bad reputation, and frankly it does suck. However, when its changed on a regular basis (treat it like its green coolant, and flush it every 25,000 miles) it seems to be perfectly fine. One of the main reasons Dex-Cool has the bad reputation is because the factory and dealers push this "extended life" coolant stuff, and people believe it. So they just basically never change their coolant, or change it every 100,000 miles, and think its fine. Its not!

On top of that, many of the gasket related issues were not JUST Dex-Cool's fault. The engines actually have gaskets made of poor quality, and bolt patterns that do not allow the gaskets to seal correctly.

YES, I did have coolant Jello up in my over flow tank at 20K, BUT my car also sat on the dealer lot for 1.5 years new, just sitting there, and it was NOT gelled up in the radiator or block, just the overflow.

All this said, my NEWER generation engine (3500 V6) which has supposedly re-engineered gaskets, and still uses Dex-Cool, has never has any problems with gasket failures and i'm now at 111,000 miles.

So I think it is safe to say that Dex-Cool is ok, but NOT for extended service, if you have to run Dex-Cool (especially for warranty) I highly recommend you change it at least every 25,000 miles.