What came stock, green or yellow coolant?

I'm getting ready to flush the coolant on my explorer. To my knowledge it still has the original coolant from the factory. I noticed that it is the yellow/orange type coolant. I did not know that ford used dex coolant in their cars? When I told the guys at O'riley's they did not believe me that my 3 gen ex has the yellow type coolant in it.

To confuse me even more, the resevor cap appears to have a warning to not pour yellow type coolant into the system.

What type coolant did the 3gen explorers come with from the factory, green or yellow?

Thanks.

owner's manual?

Owner's manual is no help. All it says is to

"Add Motorcraft Premium Engine Coolant (green-colored), VC-4-A (U.S.) or CX-10 (Canada) or Motorcraft Premium Gold Engine Coolant (yellow-colored), VC-7-A (VC-7-B in Oregon), depending on the type of coolant originally equipped in your vehicle"

In the Lubricant Specifications chart it says use either green or yellow Motorcraft coolant.

The Manual is not helpful.

Depending on location, could it be possible that some explorer's came out of the factory with green and others with yellow coolant?

Thanks.

My 04 came with the yellow coolant. I should probably be thinking about changing it soon...

Mine has the yellow also?????

Okay, thanks for the confirmation. I was just wondering if the explorers originally came with dex cool, as I understand this is not a common coolant on Fords. I am not the original owner of my ex so I didn't know if the original owner did something funky to the coolant.

BTW I just finished flushing all the coolant. I had the garden hose run through it for about 20 minutes. The coolant was still good. But I saw tons of specs of dirt coming out of the hoses while I was flushing it! I assume it is all degeneration from hoses and seals inside. The original coolant was over 6 years old!

For the new coolant I just decided to use a plain jane universal coolant for all cars. I mixed the coolant with distilled water.

Thanks.

G-05 coolant is good too. Otherwise, I like Peak Global Extended Life for a universal coolant. I use that in place of Dex-Cool in GM junk.

Correct me if I am wrong, but is not dex cool known to break down seals?

On a lot of the GM cars in the 90s, the dex coolant would break down the intake manifold gasket, causing the coolant from the coolant channel in the intake manifold to leak into the air passage. This was a slow leak, but when the car was left in the garage over night some owners got in their cars that morning only to find that the engine was hydrolocked.

Has GM changed their formula ever since then?

E.B. Cornburner said:

in GM junk.

Click to expand...

I am interested in knowing, why are you not fond of GM vehicles? From my experience GM trucks seem to last forever with minimal repairs.

Your first question answered a lot of your second. No, Dex-Cool did not change. Nor did the material the OEM intake gaskets are made of. Planned obsolescence is what it is. Look at the 3.1L V6. Prior to 1994 they used a fibre/graphite intake gasket which held up just fine...Those engines would run 300,000 miles if maintained good. A year later and the plastic intake gaskets came out. Why? There was nothing wrong with the original design, nor did anything else change on that engine to increase power, efficiency or anything else. Just a new gasket that was designed to fail after a long enough period of time that few, if any, would be under any warranty.

Why not use the new Prestone that is good for both and you dont have to worry.

E.B. Cornburner said:

Just a new gasket that was designed to fail after a long enough period of time that few, if any, would be under any warranty.

Click to expand...

So.... since our 3gen explorers apparently contain dex coolant, and since they now incorporate plastic manifolds, could our explorers be classified under the "planned obsolescence" category?

Another supporting piece of evidence of our explorers falling under "planned obsolescence" would be the 5R55W. I'm sure you know of all the negative publicity it has accumulated. Just click the first search result when googling "ford explorer transmission". A total of 182 transmission failures on carcomplaints.com. With the "sealed for life!" or "No maintenance required until 150,000 miles!" hogwash found in the manual, it just makes me wonder.

Our vehicles do not, and I repeat...DO NOT, take GM Dex-Cool coolant. It's a long-life coolant, but it's a different formulation than Dex-Cool.

Our manifolds are designed much much better than the ones I had pointed out from GM. Yes, it's plastic, but no, it's not going to fail like clockwork.

The "filled for life" transmission...Don't even get me started on that. I see their point only about half way. The manufacturers (not just Ford...Most everyone now) claim that a lot of warranty claims are caused by the uneducated consumer overfilling the transmission, so they eliminated the ability for the average shadetree mechanic to add fluid to his tranny (at least not easily).
The overall concept is not all that bad, but don't advertise it as a "lifetime" fluid fill. What does that mean anyways...Lifetime. The lifetime of the vehicle, or the lifetime of the transmission??!? Who really knows how long that is anyways? That's like saying that a room could be any temperature and still be room temperature.

Well thanks for the input.

So if our explorers came stock with the yellow/orange type, what should we be using to top off the coolant level prior to the complete flush/change?

Thanks

I was not able to determine the type of coolant at all. All i know is that the truck uses "motocraft yellow type", as found in the manual. I think this coolant is only available from ford. When I flushed my cooling system I just used generic type coolant that is compatible with all types.

I went on a little road trip which is why i was asking. 100+ miles in 98 degree heat. I was just checking out the fluids on the EX before i left and noticed that I needed to add a little coolant. i ended up just putting in PEAK 50/50 premix that said it was compatitble with all types & it could be added to any type. I guess it didn't make a huge difference. I could have just gotten the Super Tech Wal Mart Brand that said the exact same things for a little cheaper. I don't know why I got the peak, since I trust the ST oil filters and synthetic oil!

Two good coolants I'd recommend for these vehicles are Peak Global Extended Life, or any coolant designated G-05. Zerex G-05 coolant is water clear, so on a compete flush/refill, it would look like plain water in the system. I haven't really looked at other brands to see what color they were, but that was just bizarre.

We use Peak Global in just about everything at the dealership. It's actually cheaper than Dex-Cool, and doesn't sludge up whatsoever. Even older cars that took green coolant can benefit from the long-life properties of the Peak coolant.

Dex-Cool is orange. Ford long life coolant is yellow. Ford does not use Dex-cool. Whats the difference in formulation? I have no idea. Long life coolants from all manufactureers have low silicilates etc to decrease deposits just as distilled water decreases deposits.

2002 and earlier Ford Explorers used IAT (Inorganic Acid Technology) green antifreeze. This is a non-longlife technology that typically get's changed every 2 years/30,000 miles although Ford calls for the first change at 45,000 miles.

From 2003 and later they used G-05 HOAT (Hybrid Organic Acid Technology) yellow antifreeze which is a longlife antifreeze good for 5 years/150,000 miles, although I don't remember what interval Ford calls for.

Under no circumstances should GM's DexCool OAT (Organic Acid Technology) orange antifreeze be used in Explorers. DexCool OAT contains the corrosion inhibitor 2-EHA (2-ethylhexanoic acid) which is a plasticizer meaning it softens plastics. All engine parts that may come in contact with 2-EHA must be designed to do so. GM has done this to their engines, but Ford has not.

Rumple