In 2013 my 1996 S10 with the 2.2 engine with 113000 miles developed a heater core leak. I had this fixed (big job obviously) along with a bunch of other things. Water pump, new hoses, new belts ....just a bunch of other little things that would get me some more life out of the truck.

Now, at 127000 miles I went to top off the coolant and noticed something potentially problematic; it has green coolant, ethylene gycol, NOT the Dexcol it's supposed to have. (There's a big sticker on the fan shroud put there by GM, "Use Dexcol Only".)

So the shop that replaced the heater core in 2013 used the the wrong coolant. In the intervening period I haven't noticed any issues. Am I going to have problems later on? Anybody know? Should I switch back to Dexcol after a good flush? Stay with the green coolant?
Anybody had any experience with this?

And the shop that did it ....I'll let them know and see what they say but I imagine 4 years after the fact they aren't going to do much.

Thanks!

 

green is fine as long as it wasn't mixed with the dexcool as that will create sludge, being 4 years later and no problem ...it was most likely flushed and then the green added .... I doubt you will have any future problems due to the coolant.

 

Agree.

 

Dexcool was a real problem for GM. It came with all GM cars and trucks starting in 1996. Two problems: It didn't last 5 years as advertised. It would go for maybe 2 years. Second: it would turn to a brown sludge if the pink Dexcool was ever mixed with 'Green' coolant. Then it was difficult to flush out! I would drain it and flush it now and go with a Prestone product which says all makes and all models. They have a 50/50 and a full strength Prestone in this.

 

I just checked the Prestone product guide and they have two products that you might be interested in. One is the Prestone Extended Life and second is Prestone Dexcool extended life. So you have two products to choose from. Notice that is Prestone's version of Dexcool. I would never use the old GM version of Dexcool coolant if you would be able to find it. Why? The sludge problem it presents. There was a Dexcool class action suit against GM which they never admitted to.

 

GM has not changed DexCool, it's the same as always and the product was not the problem. The engine coolant systems that GM used were not an airtight system and the small ingress points allowed outside air to mix into the DexCool causing it to react and form the notorious sludge. Combine that with the poorly designed engine gaskets that leaked and let coolant mix into the oil system and you had disaster. These issues have long since been corrected and DexCool is still used today with none of the old problems. We have multiple DexCool threads, let's not get another one going, please.

 

Thank you all very much!!
I was getting concerned about future problems for my truck and this has put my mind at ease.
I thought the shop messed up but for all I know, maybe they knew about the Dexcol issues and put in the green coolant instead.
Thanks again.