Timing Belt Replacement

LOL!! it was meant to be a bit risque. I knew Sharx35 would catch it, but I doubted jsb would... Five gold stars for Sharx35 and gold mettle for ya tooo.

The one I was thinking of was near the north end of 495. They were a multi-line dealer, and my wife's aunt and uncle went there to get a Detroit

3 vehicle, unaware of the dealer's reputation. My wife's aunt wanted the car in light blue, with a vinyl top in the same color, but the only one they had on the lot had a white vinyl top. The salesperson said that they would get them the car they wanted in a couple of days, and sure enough, when they stopped by the dealership, they had one with the right color combination and they bought the car. A week later, when the uncle sprayed the garden hose to wash the car, blue paint started peeling off of the vinyl top, revealing the original white top underneath. By the time they went back to the dealership to complain, it was out of business, and since the problem wasn't a factory defect, no other dealership would provide warranty coverage on the flaking problem.

I think that water pumps are already designed to last 150K miles as long as coolant replacement intervals are followed.

Toyota's Red Long Life Coolant and pink Super Long Life Coolant is pretty good stuff. I have no experience with Dex-Cool but have heard a lot of horror stories.

Heh, heh. Now that all you'alls primaries are over, I have time, again, for this newsgroup.

Probably true.

Me too. I think G-05 is the right answer (and possibly Prestone's All Makes All Models - juries still out on that, but I can't see Prestone being stupid enough to repeat their DexCool? mistake - the All Makes All Models will allow them to sneak away from DexCool? and save face).

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

NICE!!!

No the dealer I'm referring to is at the other end of the state. Sorta rhymes with Baghdad...

In the case of DexCool and other low silicate coolants, that's because the silicates don't abrade the water pump seals.

And that's exactly what they are, stories. If it's changed when it should be, there is little [no] problem. DexCools weak spot is when air is allowed to be ingested into the cooling system (gasket and radiator cap leaks) the air causes the DexCool to jell and clog the radiator and heater core. But the blame belongs to the component failure, not the coolant. Same thing happens to green coolant, just to a lesser extent.

Are there better coolants then DexCool? Certainly. As Bill said, G-05 is pretty good stuff. As a mechanic and a shop owner will I set myself up for the fall by using a non approved coolant? No way.

No vehicle should have any "All makes All Models" coolant used in it. That is the equivalent of using an additive in generic Dexron transmission fluid to make it into ATF+4 (which I'm sure you can identify with Bill) That stuff (coolant) isn't approved by any manufacturer.

"What do you use to flush and fill the tranny?" "We used Dexron with the proper friction modifiers added to meet Chrysler requirements."

hmmm...Chrysler specifies ATF+4, and failing to use it craps out the tranny...

"Um, no thanks..."

The real fun is just beginning. The superduper real fun will begin right after the Nov election when there will be mass hangings or dimmie politicans jumping out of buildings and dimmie advisors falling on their swords, or disemboweling themselves. It will be a bloody mess to clean up.

I've been using Havoline DexCool in my 1993 Ford since the first coolant change, and I've always mixed antifreeze with distilled water, never tap. No leaks yet.

I didn't know that any antifreeze contained sulfates. ;) OTOH Toyota antifreeze contains no silicates and seems to work fine.

How about if the pump used aluminum oxide bearings, as Grunfos solar water heater pumps do? Those things have no seals but are watertight anyway, and they run off puny electric motors.

My understanding is that DexCool? is *zero* silicates - and that is part of the problem with it. Traditional green antifreeze is relatively high in silicates. DexCool went too far in the other direction. G-05 has some silicates - it is found to have some benefits in low concentrations.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

I've got a theory that, in self defense, the entire auto industry is converging on a certain selection of materials for the base metals, solders, and flexible seals, along with the coolant chemistry. For the last few years, the auto manufacturers and coolant manufacturers have been chasing their tails. Because of the neglect and ignorance of the consumer, it's not good enough for an auto manufacturer to have their own unique combination of materials to be used in their product and require a unique coolant chemistry. Even if a failure is the "fault" of the consumer for not following the coolant type and change requirements, the consumer will take their revenge on their next car purchase. So it's to the benefit of the manufacturers to come up with a standardized system of metals, rubber, and liquid chemistries with little variation - for example - every successful coolant in the future will have some - not zero, not a lot of - silicates. That's just *one* of the many variables. And again, I suspect that G-05 and the All Makes and Models are much more alike (as much as allowable by the propriatary constraints) than they are different when compared to other coolants past and present.

Just a theory.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Got me there! :)

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

I know who you're thinking of, we had their service department running profitably and customer -friendly when I left the district. Maybe follow-up DSM's haven't figured out which buttons to push to get them to do the right thing.

Reminds me of the Zerex-stop leak antifreeze I tried in my '68 Mustang - ended up replacing the radiator and flushing the cooling system.

Yup, doing the job over for free doesn't help the bottom line!

Toyota's Long Life and Super Long Life coolant are also silicate-free, so the lack of silicates is not DexCool's problem, if there actually is a problem.

Dimmies are so, so naive. They just do NOT get it.