s---, with so much talk about over heating, water,verses distilled, dex-cool, green stuff, well hell i thought i'd check mine. i bought the car, a 99sts(49k mi) in jan 07. a very nice, well maintained, not beat-on vehicle, at that time i run a GM stores used vehicle department, so needless to say i was able to purchase the car right....very right! anyway, to the point. naturally, i had service go all over, and check everything...engine, trans, frt end, fluids, All the stuff....... coolant looked brand new, and no problem there. as a matter of fact, that was one of my main concernes. though was reported to be, coolant, rad,pump was all in great shape..... as a matter of fact this car had not one bit of seepage anywhere! im in
with all the talk i checked all service records....came with car from last owner..... and found the water pump was changed, and flushed, and pelletts were added on 12.15.2005..... i called Canfield to ask if they put water, or distilled water in it. their response was, "not on less the customer brought it to us, we use tap water. OKAY........ so my question is: should i exchange my rad stuff--- should i use dex-cool, or green stuff----- and what about pelletts? i do have all fluids checked, every 2500 miles along w/ lof....... oh, the car now has 71kmi
thanks
rickyd

 

IMO, since the coolant is coming up to 24 months quick, it is time to drain and refill. Unless the coolant looks cruddy, or the reservoir coolant shows gel, mud or crud, i be doing a drain and refill - simple. That will be more than plenty to get to the next 24 months and so on.

Use the coolant that GM recommends, but ignore their time of 10 years. You can follow the official GM 10 year coolant guideline, but if your head gasket goes, GM will NOT be there to pay for it. But you already know that. Are you a gambler?

As i said before, i add one supplement tube/tablet per gallon of mix. All my cars. Others may have different opinions. I am telling you what I do, specially on the heavy duty trucks. You get to make your own choice.

Have you read the FAQ on the subject? It is not car specific,as many of us apply taht to every car.

 

hey stealth....i just went out to check my coolant.......... i didnt realize there is only a recovery bottle to check...interesting. anysway the sts has a little tanish gunk when i put my finger in the bottle.....very little...... should i be overly alarmed at this?.....also, i called my local Castrol oil change place, and ask if they would let go of and replace my coolant. he responded that they hood it up to a machine and it flushes out the old and replaces with the the new........ and said its the same thing as replacing...... sounds like a flush to me..( i thought somewhere you said no flush, just replace) also if i use green stuff its $79.95, and dex cool is $89.95........ QUESTIONS: #1green stuff, or dex-cool? #2 flush, or replace? #3 hows the price?
i will take up 2 gal of distilled water as you recommend..... thanks stealth
rickyd

 

stealth....just got back from shop and coolant replace...i took your advise on the distilled water......the guy thought i was a little anyl,but too bad. also did use dex-cool. every 24 months, right? oh, what was the supplement/tablet per gal you used????? and what does it do?????

 

FYI, my Cadillac dealer changed mine over to green then gave me a two year change regiment.

 

katzmans....yea, i questioned that with mySM,and was told the dex-cool has problems with the driver that does'nt run the car, (if you know what i mean) and if there is a lot of ideling going on.............. in any case, we did dex-cool, and also, on 2yr deal.......... can you tell me anything that you have run into because of dex...?

 

I only own GM's and so far the Cadillac has no issues, the Buick has no issue and the Pontiac has no issues, all running green. My GMC on the other hand running orange has had upper and lower intake gasket failure and head gasket failure, 3 water pumps, the original and two replacements (always AC Delco), it's a 99 with 170,000 km, so just over 100,000 miles.That GMC is a tried and true 350 Chevy just like my 34 year old Pontiac. Now to be honest and to your SM's point, the GMC is driven by my wife on short hops to school and groceriesbut it does get out on the highway most weekend. Both vehiclesmainatined in the same mannerjust different colour coolant. My Cadillac runs green and hits between 88 degrees and 96 degrees even on hot days and long highway runs, saw it hit 102 idling in City traffic in July so that is 190 to 204 and 215 at the hottest. Those temps are lower thanmost readings I see posted here.

 

to clarify,

Katz is talking degrees centigrade at around the 100C level, and
then degrees Fahrenheit at around the 212F level.

the coolant supplement is called in the GM specs on the alum engines, it is meant
to seal pores, preventative .. look in the FAQ section .. there is a whole write up on it.

 

thanks stealth......i think i knew katz is from canada........... katz, stealth,thank you bothfor your info. i am going to change to green next time......
rickyd