I just bought a new Koyo aluminum radiator and since i'm flushing out the old coolant anyways, I wanted to put in something better. The previous owner used green coolant, but I know that Toyota uses red coolant. Is there a difference between the red and the other colors? I prefer to use Toyota stuff, but of course it costs more too.

no colors don't really matter anymore
dont' use toyota junk......

prestone makes an "all colors" thingy or what not

just use normal prestone

there was some scientific reson for using red coolant that i cant remember... personally i think its a way for toyota to milk us for every penny .

-lagos+Aug 2, 2005 - 10:47 PM

Wasn't it because some older Toyota aluminum heads were affected in negative ways by the green stuff and Toyota's red coolant is formulated not to negatively affect those heads?

yep i think that was the marketing phrase i was thinking of .... lol

the red stuff is supposed to be better at lower temps, that's why I use it, but I doubt you have to worry about temps reaching -50F like I do.

I was reading stuff onlne and they said that toyota's red coolant isn't that great. Here's an excerpt from one of the sites I was reading:

"The Toyota red coolant on the other hand seems to age just as fast as the old style coolant, is impossible to litmus test (because of the red dye), and seems to generate a lot of radiator clogging residue. We recommend removing the Toyota coolant and installing Prestone as soon as the warranty expires. The Mazda orange coolant is reportedly different from the Greens and Toyota red, so unless we find out it's safe to do otherwise, we're going to recommend continuing to use the Genuine coolant in cars with orange coolant."

Here's that website: http://www.artsautomotive.com/coolingstory.htm#6

i told ya to flush it and then add water with water wetter, its cooler than coolant and its from redline products!

water wetter rules.....but you add it in addition to your normal coolant >>

-playr158+Aug 3, 2005 - 9:26 AM
yes but runs cooler without coolant >>

-LewFX+Aug 3, 2005 - 2:41 PM

Yea, it does work better without coolant, but we don't all live in Southern Cali haha. I actually need the anti-freeze for winter here.

-playr158+Aug 3, 2005 - 5:02 AM


Yeah I used that when I got into an accident in my corolla. The prestone multi color works well

green coolant is 30,000 mile, red is 60,000 mile i havent seen any problems with the red coolant just don't mix them, and u can use green just make sure its safe for aluminum