Hi, I was driving home on the highway last night from work, and less than 5 minutes on the road after the car sitting off most of the day, I felt something weird while I was accelerating. I look down at the gauges and notice the coolant temp was high and red light was on. I immediately pulled over because I had a bad experience with my previous car overheating (Cadillac Deville). My mechanic is checking it out... to be honest I never even checked after it overheated if it was running low on coolant because it was at night and I didn't have a flashlight. On a side note, about a month ago I was parked facing downhill and the low coolant light came on. When I leveled off, it went away so I forgot about it, til now.

My question is:

Does anyone know if it's ok to run standard green coolant in these cars? or should I stick with the orange dexcool? The reason I ask is because I bought this car with the green stuff inside and just kept it that way.

 

Gotta go by MY. The 1999MY was a split year. Before a certain VIN - traditional Green coolant was used; after, an OAT formula was used. Engine components and sealants are specced to be compatible with the coolant, so not advisable to switch.

 

ok I've got a 98 so I should be good with the green stuff

 

Lively, multiyear discussion on that subject. DexCool is fully compatible, or the same as supplied by Jaguar. Ford moved to the long life green stuff about the time the XK8 came out but Jaguar never changed. Consensus of discussions seems to be either but not mixed. DexCool claims otherwise. I may have told you more than I know. I moved to the green only because all my other Ford cars used it.

See this discussion from Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifreeze

Good luck with the overheating. The aluminum blocks, and especially the heads do not appreciate high heat. You do not indicate the model year but if you have the plastic tensioners they, even more so, do not tolerate high heat.

Early water pumps shed their plastic impellers.

 

as it turns out the car was only slightly low on coolant, it's another issue, which I'll start in a new thread.

 

GM Dexcool.....