Toyota Coolant

The Toyota Red is not already diluted. Use distilled water for best results. Always add it to the reservoir, not the radiator (unless doing a complete change).

Check for parts specials at your dealers. Sometimes these are on their internet sites. I found the price in my town ranged from $10 to $20.

Wrong, Toyota Red (LongLife) is available as both a 'concentrate' and as 'pre-mixed'. Probably the same for the pink coolant the OP has - although I've never heard of this.

Don't know why the OP needs to 'top up' coolant though - I'd be concerned if it was losing some.

- although I've never heard of this.

Are you saying that Toyota has _two_ different coolants, pink and red? Or is pink coolant simply _red_ coolant that comes _pre-mixed_ (and thus is pink)? Does anyone, i.e., Toyota techs, really _know_ this?

Over the years I've had many different cars of many different brands. I've never owned a car that didn't need to have additional coolant added _occasionally_. Anyone who lives in an area where it hits a hundred degrees in the summer on a regular basis understands evaporation.

Apparently the pink is pre-diluted, but same as Red (according to another poster). I was not aware of this and stand corrected (although I did say that "Red" was undiluted). But it sounds like the price quotes the OP was getting was for Red (undiluted), or he was getting ripped off.

The other poster said that pink is 'super longlife'.

Another poster mentioned 'pink' being a 'super longlife' coolant - I'm not familiar with that though.

Here are two photos that explain it, incase anyone thinks I'm making it up ;-)

"Toyota Long Life Coolant, Pre-mixed Red":

"Toyota Long Life Coolant, Concentrated Red":

Well my manual says to change the coolant completely every 2 years. You may be right about the evaporation - but we don't get that here in the UK :-/

Coolants don't need to be "top off." It runs on a close system, and minute amount may eveporate from the reservour but other than that... Yer looking to spend$ where it doesn't need it.

Thanks for the photos. I just returned from a Toyota dealer, the one which last week said they sold undiluted red for $15. I told the parts guy the same thing I said on the phone:

04' Highlander, '04 RAV4. He said that would be the premixed at $18. I told him that was different than what one of his guys said last week, but the same as the _other_ dealer. He went in the back and brought out a printout/table of model vs. year and confirmed the premixed. He said that in '03 they started to make the changeover and in '04 essentially all models used the premixed. He said that the proper names are "super long life" (premixed) for '04 and newer, and "long life" (not premixed) for '02 and older (pretty much).

One gallon of the premixed was $18.64 plus tax = $20.28. Twenty dollars for what is essentially one half gallon of actual coolant. That sure seems like a ripoff.

I'll ask the question again since no one responded the first time: is there a suitable aftermarket coolant for Toyotas? Distilled water is $1.29/gal at the grocery store. That and a gallon of acceptable coolant is all you need.

No kidding. We were in London in the summer once when it was in the 80's. I thought the locals were going to faint from heat prostration. Seemed cool to us.

Genuine Toyota coolant is silicate-free and because it is silicate-free, should not be mixed with coolant containing silicates.

The other effect of mixing the red/pink coolant with the yellow/green/orange stuff if that the resulting mixture ends up looking like rusty water so it looks like the cooling system is contaminated.

I use only genuine Toyota coolant in our 2 Toyotas and Lexus.

I wouldn't even _consider_ mixing the two kinds of coolants! Let me rephrase the question:

Is there a virtually identical coolant to Toyota's available as an aftermarket product? (And if not, why not?)

This isn't rocket science, it's just _coolant_. It's difficult to understand how in an entrepreneurial, democratic, capitalistic society one company can be the _sole source_ of a product on the entire planet Earth.

If you want to go with an aftermarket coolant, stick to something that is name-brand and silicate-free and dilute it with distilled water and you should not have any problems.

-Dana -

I'm from South Africa and have 2 Toyotas - a 1986 HiLux 4x4 double cab and now also a 1 month old Prius. Here are some relevant comments:

Both the vehicles handbooks recommend coolant change after about 2 years in use. Note - NOT distance related. I also have on my home dwelling a roof mounted indirect hot water solar heater system, and they also recommend changing the yellow/green anti freeze every 2 years - they say it becomes acidic and hence damaging after long use.

Chatting to Castrol technical people here I learned Toyota Red is possibly the only coolant with a phosphate additive. So it is incompatible with any of the more common yellow/green types.

None of my current vehicles nor previously owned ones [3 Audi saloon models since 1989] or the others in my family [ Wife's - Renault Clio and previously Opel Corsa, Opel Monza, Opel Kadette & Daihatsu Charade] have ever needed topping up of coolant. All had overflow/recovery systems. Temperatures here can exceed 40'C/104'F and when I've been in the remote parts of our subcontinent [Namibia, Botswana & Angola] in my 4x4 where it has been even hotter and the engine working harder than any city car would ever do - I have never had to top it up.

Re the two types of coolant: This hits a raw spot - this is a current message to a Toyota dealership I await a reply to:

** Please ask your parts person, Dennis - from whom I got my HiLux 4x4 spares last week Friday [Invoice 90260M], to comment: When I last bought [in 2002] Toyota Long Life Coolant - it was part # A08889-0GLLC and was concentrated and one diluted it to suit the lowest temperature needed. Cost about R30/litre. For use I bought 3 litres and diluted with 4 litres water. Total cost about R90. Now Dennis has sold me Toyota Super Long Life Coolant part number 08889-80089 costs R23.21 /litre and it is pre-diluted 50% so I need 7 litres which costs me R172.50. Something is wrong! Please ask him to call me and discuss if I can get the older coolant.

Hope this assists. Peter

Toyota coolant is best for protecting the Toyota engine. The dealer flushed my seinna and installed the longlife coolant. While reading my manual I noticed that my 05 sienna wanted super longlife coolant which is a 5 year coolant. Had to return to the dealer, and do the argument, the service manager tried to convince me that it makes no difference. Don't get beat down by these tough guys. Stand your ground, bring reinforments for comfort. . It took some effort and finally he would switch to the correct coolant.

In tests on metals and gaskets in the cooling system, and at differing temperatures, Toyota coolants always out performed.

Don't fool around with the all the others, they may work , but why take a chance , for a pittance in savings.