I changed the coolant on my 2002 Solar a year ago with the Toyota Long Life Coolant (Red). Is this different from the Toyota Super Long Life Coolant (pink)? I saw you video on HOAT coolant and trying to determine if the red is a HOAT, OAT, or IAT. I read that the red coolant is only for 2 years or 30k miles, not sure if this is true. Should I flush it out then and replace it with the pink? FYI I flushed my Kawasaki motorcycle with and filled it with the red coolant as well. Is that okay?
The main difference is that super long life (pink) is premixed while long life (red) is not.
You don’t wanna mix them together, so yes, flush out the old stuff first, then add the new coolant in.
Two years is usually the recommended life span of any coolant, green, red or pink. When I do a flush, I remove the thermostat and reverse flush the engine and heater core, then I blow it out with compressed air, the refill and properly burp the system with a new thermostat.
According to another site that I also read (Louis Althazan's agcoauto.com), after the first few years, change intervals for coolant are approximately three years. Althazan goes into why this is so (corrosion and ph changes).
< http://www.agcoauto.com/content/news/p2_articleid/321 >
As for flushing water (and it should be distilled, BTW) through the system, I haven't done that, because however you cut it, some water remains in the engines, changing the 50/50 mix to something closer to 60 percent water.
As for the thermostat, my original thermostat (Camry 2008) was on for thirteen years plus. I changed it for another OEM thermostat, this last flush, because the O-Ring was obviously degrading. (Althazan has noted that, at times, older thermostats, after a coolant change, may malfunction. So, there's a point to be made, as a preventive measure, to occasionally change out thermostats, when draining and refilling the system).
Burping the system is easy, with a special fill funnel and some patience. There are many tutorials on YouTube as to how to do that.
As for the coolant, use what's recommended in the owner's manual. Mixing chemicals can produce some undesirable consequences. Toyota Red is different from Pink, in terms of the silicates in the formula, for example.
