Toyota Long Life Engine Coolant, How long is that long life coolant good for?? (pink)

Leave it in as long as you want....Of course Toyota engineers say it needs to be changed at 24 months or 30K. I would suspect they know more about it than we do...

I don't know...honestly...I have heard that if you filter the stuff instead of replacing it you can use it forever, but even at the outrageous price they charge for the TOYO coolant you ain't a gonna find me out running a couple of gallons of it through a coffee filter....although I heard Wonder Bread works better.

But again, I figure Toyo knows better than I do on some of these things...just like you can leave the timing belt go past 90K....and I do...until about 110K....figuring they must put some 20 percent or so safety margin in there....but for about 18 months after I hit 90K I sorta have some misgivings from time to time.

Yeah, the Toyota schedule for 03 Camry does say 2yr/30K miles (!). Too short for an expensive coolant. That schedule would be understandable for the good old Red coolant, which is much better at fighting corrosion than the new pink. The pink was tested to have "significant [metal] weight loss" by a lab. IIRC 20-30x the acceptable 1mg/cm^2/ week.

Originally they spec'ed the pink to be good for 100K miles and then

50K miles after that. But the pink is basically a GM Dexcool knock-off without the 2EHA acid (fast-acting inhibitor). The reason Toyota doesn't want 2EHA (a plasticizer) near its cooling system is probably because the cheap plastics used that can soften and cause leaks.

However, owners reported no problems with the Prestone All-Makes coolant, which does contain the 2EHA in earlier Camrys. So go figure. Prestone, owned by Honeywell, makes OEM Honda, Toyota, etc coolants. Maybe they do know better. But before then, I'd recommend Toyota Red with DISTILLED WATER.

Toyota Red Long Life Engine Coolant is not, in fact, a "long life" product comparable to the other long life coolants that have been marketed in recent years (as explained by another post in this thread). The chemicals in true long life coolants can damage other engine parts (seals, water pumps, etc) and Toyota has (wisely) chosen not to use a true long-life coolant, which accounts for the Toyota coolant maintenance schedule with Toyota Red.

Toyota marketing thinks that consumers are too stupid to understand that the long-life coolant products can damage engine parts, so they also use the "Long Life" description in Toyota Red to do everything they can to encourage consumers to use it instead of the other crap.

Wander how Prestone gets away with their "long-life all makes", that's supposedly good for anything? Think they'd be facing a few lawsuits from fleet runners.

Personally I am leary of using the long life stuff.

The coolant itself is long-life. As to whether it causes premature damage to other engine parts, just about all other coolants other than the Toyota Red will cause some premature wear of engine parts, not the just the long-life coolants.

Actually, Valvoline filed a complaint against Honeywell (maker of Prestone) with the National Advertising Review Board (NARB) on it's "All-Makes" claim. However, Honeywell, who also makes Toyota original factory fills, simply "declined to comply" with the NARB "recommendation." And I heard nothing after that so go figure.

That's another reason why I didn't want to use the All-Makes besides the fast-acting 2EHA acid inhibitor content. But like other said, they reported no problems in the short years it was used in their cars. But long term? Don't know. Then again I might try All-Makes later.

I can see that it would hard to prove that the radiator fails after

6yrs due to Prestone Allmakes.

Impossible to prove fault.

I am sure people are using all the different forms in many cars, and many are getting mixed even so incompatable. After all, on purchasing a used car, which antifreeze would one use to do a top up? The red, pink , blue, yellow, ????

Have to flush every used car. Some long life ! Shoould be called short lived.

I am frustrated, and can see that they have figured out how to sell us on long life, and we see even shorter life.

Even more pissed that Toyot called the two year red as long life. Very misleading indeed.

That's another reason I'm staying away from the All-Makes (for now), because Prestone seemed to avoid answering the old silicated coolant's effects on the cheap water pumps with rubber o-ring seals. Silicates were no problems to domestic and European pumps with unitized carbide seals, but they grind down the rubber o-rings fairly quickly. Maybe the organic acid technology becoming more prevalent the rubber seals will come back (!)

So even the regular Prestone lasts as long as Toyota's "long life"? Maybe Toyota was using only water as a coolant, and compared to water the red was long life ;)

I'd just use the Toyota Red with distilled water and drain/refill every 2 years.