|
I know that Dexcool was shown to cause cavitation of the water pump during its testing in vehicles, before its introduction in 1996. This cavitation leads to coolant loss, which shows no sign of leakage onto the ground. I have experienced failed water pumps on two of my GM vheicles: 1996 and 2003 model year (Regal and Grand Prix respectively). In the 1996 Regal, which experienced the problem in 1998, I had to have the water pump changed. Then mechanic changed the coolant over to the traditional coolant after thoroughly flushing the system. Now the vehicle has 160,000 miles, it hasn't had a problem since. On the 2003 Grand Prix, we experience the first water pump problem at approximately 15,000 miles. The dealership said that GM was working on a fix for this, not sure what the fix acutally will be though besides changing the formulation for Dexcool.
Dexcool is a long-life coolant and cannot be directly mixed with the traditional coolants. There is no harm in flushing the system thoroughly and then changing over to the traditional coolant. Dexcool was more of a marketing/sales campaign to say that you can go longer between maintenance. Just don't directly mix the long-life (acid based) with the silica based coolants because the will gel up. Flush first and you will be fine.
|