Is dexcool really the only coolant??

[Shane Musselman]

I have a 2010 GMC Acadia. I’ve recently been reading some posts on other online forums that say you can only use Dexcool coolant in the later model GM vehicles. Is this true? And if so, what could be the consequences of mixing Dexcool with other coolants or flushing and using only other coolants?

Topic

[Rob]

you should follow your owners manual of what kind of fliud to use….. you chould never mix it with the wrong type because that could clog up your cooling system… so in your car if it ask for dexcool you should be red or pink in color not green
mostly thats true I think they came out with that in the 90’s…. to help the animals from dieing from drinking it

[Frank Heiser]

Never ever mix ANY other coolant with Dexcool, it will turn into sludge! I can’t speak for late model GM vehicles but my ’98 S-10 says to only use Dexcool but I’ve been using regular green coolant just fine for years. The main thing is to flush the system so there’s no cross-contamination of coolant types.

Easiest thing for you is probably to just keep using the Dex unless you have some sort of problems come up from using it. My truck overheated while running Dex, puked coolant everywhere, now the frame and transmission are stained orange permanently. I bought the truck that way for peanuts and did a head gasket job using the cheap green stuff and no problems since.

[Justin]

Dex only. If your going to change to a different type, flush, flush, flush and then flush it again. I cannot stress enough how important it is not to mix coolants. If enough is mixed together it will form a gel
Type sludge and ruin your cooling system components. I love working with gm for this reason. We only have dexcool to worry about. Not does this system take green, orange etc… It makes life easier.

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[Shane Musselman]

Thanks for the advice! Everything y’all are saying is consistent with what I’ve read -makes me feel like I’ve hit the advice/info gold mine here!

[Christopher Wilson]

My pontiac came with dex, and they call it fish blood for a reason. I had one car come through my workplace at the time which was so thick with dexcool i could stick a screwdriver in and it wouldn’t fall over. What happens is when it’s introduced to air for a long period of time it chalks up and turns solid. As well, if it’s not changed for long periods of time this happens as well, or mixing with other coolant. I would advise you to flush out all the dex cool and run clean water in your car with a cleaner of some sort you can get at your FLAPS (favorite local autoparts store) for a few days and dump it back out. Run clean water in the system for another day or two (you don’t want pure water in there for longer than 3-4 days due to the water pump needing lubrication, etc prolonged use could wear it out) When the water runs out clean, you can introduce a “universal” coolant which is usually yellowish green. This is what i did with my car and any other cars i service. Dexcool in my opinion isn’t worth anything more than regular eth. gly. It was also known to eat LIM gaskets in the past but GM has remedied that.

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