topping up coolant

[Jspec Fish]

my coolant is below the "low" level. it has an unknown red coolant in it. just want to know if its possible to top up the red unknown coolant with the toyota red coolant?

i know you cant mix red with green coolant. can you mix red coolant with different branded coolant?

[TRDYUS]

You would want to drain the previous coolant out anyway and mix it according with specified water.

[Guest]

Hi.

At the above member said, Just drain all the coolant from the engine/radiator and then completely refill with the appropriate coolant for your car (which i assume is the toyota red coolant you have purchased)

It is never a good idea to mix coolants unless it's an emergency situation.

Edited September 26, 2008 by mick.wheelz

[lateralus]

It is never a good idea to mix coolants unless it's an emergency situation.

exactly. mixing coolants can have a reverse effect with the corrosion inhibitors in the coolant.

[Hamish M]

How thouroughly do you need to get all the old coolant out?

Today I drained all my old coolant on my 1990 Celica ST184R SX with the 5S-FE engine...I just drained it from the drain on at the bottom of the radiator. It was a bit dirty so I left the drain open and flushed it out with water to try and clean it a bit. I got it a fair bit cleaner but the water that comes out of the botom now is still a little bit browny/red...

I also filled the radiator up with water then started the car and left it idling and then opened the drain tap and as the water level went down in the radiator i constantly kept topping it up with fresh water. The water was obviously circulating around the cooling system as it became hot after about 5 minutes of idling. I turned the car off (it hadn't overheated which was good...I kept checking the temp guage) and then drained all the water that was in the system from the radiator drain plug.

Is there anywhere else that I should be draining coolant/water out of the system from? Is this a thourough enough clean?

Cheers,

Hamish.

[the_random_hero]

How thouroughly do you need to get all the old coolant out?

Today I drained all my old coolant on my 1990 Celica ST184R SX with the 5S-FE engine...I just drained it from the drain on at the bottom of the radiator. It was a bit dirty so I left the drain open and flushed it out with water to try and clean it a bit. I got it a fair bit cleaner but the water that comes out of the botom now is still a little bit browny/red...

I also filled the radiator up with water then started the car and left it idling and then opened the drain tap and as the water level went down in the radiator i constantly kept topping it up with fresh water. The water was obviously circulating around the cooling system as it became hot after about 5 minutes of idling. I turned the car off (it hadn't overheated which was good...I kept checking the temp guage) and then drained all the water that was in the system from the radiator drain plug.

Is there anywhere else that I should be draining coolant/water out of the system from? Is this a thourough enough clean?

Cheers,

Hamish.

Sounds pretty adequate for me. As far as I'm aware, red coolants will mix with red coolants, but not with green.

[Hamish M]

Ok cool, well I ended up flushing it more anyway just to be safe. I also used a radiator cleaning fluid and then fresh water flushed a few more times....took quite a few hours but now I have a nice clean radiator that seems to be working great...haven't had any issues with overheating and as far as I can tell there are no leaks. :D :D :D

Now I just need to sort my power steering leak. One of my high pressure lines needs replacing. I think I'll get the mechanic to do it as I've heard it is a b!tch of a job and he only wants $250 in total. Seems alright to me as the hose is supposed to be pretty expensive.

Cheers,

Hamish.