I am going to do a Coolant Flush after Christmas. Is Toyota Red coolant ok to use in a Lexus LX 450? I would hope so; it's essentially a Land Cruiser. Thanks - David

Wished I could give you a clear-cut answer on the coolant, but it's really hard to find one..., it's kind of a confusing subject. From what I've collected, there are two issues at hand. One is there are some ingredients out there that are harmful (corrosive) to the gasket material used in these vehicles. Secondly there are ingredients that can be harmful (corrosive) to the solder used in some of the radiators in these vehicles. Here's an article for your consumption:

http://www.gates.com/downloads/download_co...folder=brochure

As far as the red goes, I've run across one thread that indicated the Toyota SLLC (super long life coolant) is not good for the older vehicles like ours. Toyota LLC "appears" to be the correct one. If you go to Toyota and ask them, it'd be interesting to see what kind of response you get from them on it, and how knowledgable they would be on the subject

FWIW, I use Peak. From what I can gather, it is one of the only green coolants out there that's still made in the mold of the "old" formula green coolants. In addition to that, there's a very highly respected mechanic within the LC community, and that's what he uses. I've never heard him give a straight-up answer as to why (it's hard to get him to bash a Toyota product), but he is pretty clear that he does not prefer the Red based on some of his experiences (the general consensus is he's done the most teardowns for HG replacements on the 80 series Landcruiser, and is extremely familiar with this engine). But I will say, a lot of people swear by the red for whatever reason. The for-sure things out there that I have found are, don't mix coolants, and don't use any of the dexcool products.

Regards,
Rookie

Great. Now I am really confused. I was told to use toyota red on other forums (including this one) in it. I have read up on it and it seemed to me it was the best idea. What exactly are you using for your coolant? How often do you change it? Lexus said that they would be using Toyota Red if they where to do it. -David

Sorry bout that. It is a little frustrating. Hopefully the article helped explain things a bit.

The stuff I used last was just the normal non-premixed stuff from Peak. I don't think they package a bunch of different types, but it was in their regular blue jug. I found it at Pepboys. I'll check closer when I get home to see if it says anything else on the jug.

Can you tell what color is in there now?

Well darn it. I think this is the one you want http://www.peakantifreeze.com/peakanti.html, which doesn't appear to be the one I used. The bottle I checked at home is their Long Life Coolant. I don't think Pepboys had the one linked above. They were one of the few places I ran across that had Peak Antifreeze. If it were me I probably just go with the Toyota Red at this point and semi frequent flushes (18 to 24 months). That seems to be the route the majority of the people on the other forum I frequent go with. I feel confident the green is good, it's just seems too hard to find.

Regard,
Rookie

An update based on what I've been able to find: The Peak antifreeze list the following ingredients: Ethylene Glycol, Dietylene Glycol and water. I haven't found anything that says anything bad about these ingredients other than in another thread there is mention that Ethylene Glycol can be made two different ways. Some companies produce it from silicate others an organic acid, and the comment was not to mix the two different types. Another comment about long life coolants I saw is that they work better in a closed system where air can not act as a catalyst to break down the coolant. Our system is not closed. So that tells me they may not be as "long lasting".

So basically you can dumb it down to, don't mix, don't use the 2-EHA coolants and do regular flushes.

I just try to keep it simple.

I use toyota red. I've never had anything else in my trucks except the red and will not put anything else in (unless it's a total emergency...but as soon as I am able, I will flush and refill with red).