Cooling system maintenance

You must flush the cooling system at least every 3 years. The coolant also has another function; it contains additives that prevent corrosion. In most cases they last for 3 years.

Drain what you reasonably can and replace with new, then repeat every two years, you will have no trouble.

mrcheerful

You should check with a Toyota dealer. Many Toyotas are filled with red "forlife" coolant. Only needs replacing and flushing if it's contaminated - either oil due to gasket failure or topping up with something else other than "forlife" coolant.

Why do Toyota owners manuals state to be changed after the first 5 years, then every 2 years ? Changed mine myself when it was about 5½ years old, and it looked fine - unless the previous owner had got it done before they sold it at 3½ years old but I doubt it.

Anyway, it's called LongLife now. I guess the reason for the name change is because it doesn't really last "For Life" :-/

I didn't drain from the engine drain though, just the radiator and the 2 big pipes running under the car (it's mid-engined).

The time limit is for the anti-corrosion additives. Different coolant products have different life expectancies from 2 years and up to 5 years.

Peter Hill wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Are you sure it's for life? We've just got a Toyota with red coolant. I haven't seen the official service schedule, but Autodata says it is renewed every 3 years/36k miles. The handbook says that it should be topped up with ethylene glycol based coolant, ideally Toyota *long* life coolant. Doesn't that suggest that it's just a bog standard long-life (i.e. 3 year) anti-freeze, except that it's red instead of green?

The anti-freeze in the Volvo, OTOH, does not have a replacement interval. Volvo say it doesn't need replacing as long as the strength is checked every year. If you do replace it, they say you must *only* use Volvo anti-freeze. Can't see anything special about it, though. Looks just like bog-standard anti-freeze to me (probably what it is). I'm not sure I like this idea because it gives no oppurtunity to purge any contaminants out of the system.