I was hoping for some guidance - my parents have had my rover for a while and my dad nicely added coolant. But he added Peak European coolant which says its glycol based vs dex cool. About half the bottle is missing...

where do I go from here do I drain and not flush and put dex cool back or do I need drain flush and switch? I am supposed to drive the car back 2 hours to my home and am a touched worried.

 

 

So... dexcool as in the orange stuff. And the green crap was added. Ouch, get it out now. Drain, flush, drain, flush, pray, drain, flush, beer, drain, flush and refill with the correct stuff.

 

The two fluids are not compatible. Drain the system as soon as possible. Flush thoroughly, fill with water, run the engine, then drain and flush again. Refill with one or the other -- most people will say to use green coolant rather than Dexcool.

 

supposedly he put the wrong coolant in 6 months ago - can I drive this home (200 miles) and flush when I get there or is this I need to work this out in my parent driveway?

ultragauge is showing 200 when driving and it gets hot fast when parked.

 

My understanding is that the Dex will form a gel and clog up various small passageways such as inside the radiator. I don't know if its possible to flush it out but myself, I would not drive it as it is. If really pressed for time I would drain, flush, fill with water, run, drain, flush, fill with water, then drive home and try some kind of serious radiator flush including backflushing the heater core and the radiator.

 

If it's been in there for six months, then a few more hours isn't going to make a difference. Are you expecting to be able to make that trip with the issue of getting hot when parked? If so, then knock the trip out and get to flushing the system.

The old fashion green stuff, in general (there are some exceptions), does not have as long of a life as the newer stuff; flush interval is usually two years versus five. This is the time to figure out what fluid you want to run (green, G05, Dex, Asian) and don't mix types.

 

I personally wouldnt risk it.

If it were me, I'd drain it right now and fill it with water, drain it again.. fill with green and go home.

Then tomorrow I'd buy a jug of super flush and flush the hell out of it.

Add green

 

Dex-Cool is glycol based just like every other coolant. This is going to get a bit overly involved, but bear with me here.

All coolants are ethylene glycol based, but have some combination of corrosion inhibitors, generally the following four:

Phosphates
Silicates
Sebacic Acid-based carboxylates
2-EHA

Phosphates and silicates are what you find in traditional coolant, but phosphates interact poorly with hard water and silicates have been known to cause issues with water pump gaskets. 2-EHA is what you find in Dex-cool, and has been implicated in plasticizing some materials in head gaskets, but is otherwise fairly benign. Sebacic acid is what you find in most European and Asian coolants, along with either phosphates (Asian) or silicates (European).

The important thing is, all coolants are based on these and can be safely mixed - for a little bit. There is no combination of these four chemicals that forms any kind of sludge, and there are indeed coolants that have all four chemicals by design. Even the well-known sludge issues with Dex-Cool are primarily caused by oxidation as a result of air trapped in the system, not interaction with other coolants. This is because the organic acids protect through chemical interaction rather than creation of a protective layer like phosphates and silicates, so corrosion protection is quickly lost if the system is not fully submerged at all times. What you do have to worry about is the interaction between the other chemical packages in coolant, such as anti-foaming agents or supplemental coolant additives, which can interact with each other in unknown ways to reduce the level of protection provided to the engine. You also have to consider the life of the coolant; if you mix long-life antifreeze (5 years) with regular antifreeze (2 year), you have to change the coolant every 2 years or risk damaging the engine. So I would change it when you have the opportunity, but I wouldn't freak out because of it if you've only had it in for six months.

 

In other words... drain and flush it ASAP.