SteveO

Does anybody know if there is a difference between the RED antifreeze that the Toyota dealership uses, and the standard green antifreeze you can get at Autozone.

I just had a 60k service, and an ASE tech (who used to work at a dealership) stated the only difference was the dye color.

I thought Toyota has some different inhibeters that worked better with the aluminum heads in their RED antifreeze.....

kyle_22r

the toyota stuff is different, but it won't hurt if you use it in your truck. i'd just pick one and stick with it though

i've heard you can damage stuff by using orange gm dexcool in toyotas though

cruizin01

Yeah I believe the red is different leave it to toyota to try to sell you a $16 gallon of antifreeze. If you wanted to flush your system you could use standard green antifreeze.

rwmorrisonjr

I believe the red Toyota coolant is a low silicate formula so it won't corrode as quickly and tear up the water pump seals. I just flushed mune today after a 27k miles year and it looked okay, no major particles in it. Am using the red so I don't void the extended warranty on the truck (not giving them any reason to deny a claim).

jx94148

It'd be great to have a chemist or someone that actually knows reply here.

I want to know about the chemical properties of the green Glycol based Prestone stuff and the red Toyota $16-gallon stuff and how they react with the metals and gaskets and stuff in my old engine. I also want to know when Toyota started putting the red stuff in their new trucks.

Does anyone have any FACTS on this subject?

Nerve

Probably won't answer all your questions...

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=19862

The link to the thred at the bottom was insightful.

hillbilly

Careful. You could be asking for some aluminum corrosion problems if you attempt to change your anit-freeze from a ethylene glycol (EG) to a propylene glycol (PG) based. Page 3 mentions a few precautions...

http://autorepair.about.com/library/.../aa052601a.htm