Coolant.....Shot In The Foot? Or Not?

Guess I am asking for trouble now. I have to much info. about coolant now. To little before I had mine flushed/changed to 'Peak Global LifeTime'. I found a website with 'coolant experts', that you can ask questions to. After a few emails, I now am waiting for my car to leak, blow its water pump, and self destruct ! Now I am told that DexCool is a 'HOAT' coolant. Which I think it a 'top top' quality coolant. It is somekind of hybrid coolant, that GM invented...for their cars. But I still hear/read that 50% of mechanics/people think it is liquid acid, 50% think it is liquid gold in the coolant system.

Now I am being told that the Global ISN'T a long life coolant, it is like a 2-3 year one, and just wait for the leaks to start, and the water pump to fail! I changed it because it was 10 years old, I am TRYING to protect the pump, the old stuff must not have any protection left in it. Right? When it was flushed, it has SOME gunk in it, took 3-4 flushes to get rid of it all, so that sounded bad.

Now it has clean NEW coolant with new protective chemicals in it. So thats good...right? It's like I thought I bought a 'diamond' for my car, and I really got a 'cubic zirconium'. Anyway anyone have an opinion? About getting rid of 10 year old coolant, and putting in new 'Peak Global Lifetime coolant', did I get screwed, or should I have gone to Chevy and gotten DexCool, even though it is 50/50 that it is considered liquid death to a coolant system.

At the risk of being redundant; From my experience, anything marked as "OAT" (organic acid technology) will destroy gaskets and pump bearings in short order, no matter what brand, or marketing jingles. To combat this, I prefer to use the boring old green ethylene glycol based coolants that have been around before I was born. I mix these with plain old water from my well in a '50/50' mix.

With ethylene glycol coolant it is common to see gaskets and water pump bearings last well beyond 250K miles or more. With DEXCOOL I have never seen an engine last much longer than 100K before something is eaten away. In an Aveo, water pump bearing life is not a high point as they are usually replaced with the timing belt around 60K. You should probably be fine.

Unless you mix the two. I think you are fine either way.

I typically use the yellow universal stuff. It cools well, provides heat. I have never had an overheating issue, and if i get stuck on the side of the road running low, I can use either traditional coolant to top off (who am I kidding, I would use water)..

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by petrified.rabbit

Unless you mix the two. I think you are fine either way.

I typically use the yellow universal stuff. It cools well, provides heat. I have never had an overheating issue, and if i get stuck on the side of the road running low, I can use either traditional coolant to top off (who am I kidding, I would use water)..

---

Thank you 'Petrified Rabbit. It was fully flushed out, and is now a light yellow or as Peak says, it is amber. I called their toll free number and spoke to one of their 'specialists'. I know they have to give the 'company line'...but I am putting this behind me. They say that it is a lifetime coolant. Not a 2-3 year coolant, and it is not going to eat away at my gaskets and dissolve my water pump. Hell if that didnt happen in the 10 years already, with the DexCool, this wont do it! I am going to think that new fresh coolant ,with new fresh anti rust chemicals and protective chemicals in it, it will run/work better than 10 year old DexCool. Just got to ge that timing belt and water pump out of there! Maybe Santa will send me a hunk of cash:)!!