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Coolant Type For 98 Es300


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Hi,

Bear with me for simple questions as I'm getting used to these forums for general maintenance and checkups. My 1998 ES 300 engine coolant reservoir showing very minimum level of coolant and is in orance color when engine is coo and level goes up little when engine is hot. What kinda of coolant I have to add and how to add (Just remove overflow cap and fill or remove radiator cap and fill ?)

Please let me know and I appreciate it someone give how this coolant mechanism works on engine with radiator and overflow reservoir... Thx

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check the level when the coolant is cold. It should be between the L and F markings. Only use the type of coolant that you have now....ORANGE (some say RED). Whatever you do, don't add the green stuff to it. You can buy 50/50 premixed Toyota Long Life Coolant at any Toyota or Lexus dealership. Bring the level up in the coolant jug not the radiator.

The coolant level in the reservoir will vary with engine temperature. If the level is on or below the L line when cold, add coolant to the jug. Bring the level up to the F line.

steviej

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Thanks much steve, I appreciate it.

Can I find premixed or diluted "Toyota long life Antifreeze " coolant from toyota dealer that way I don't need to buy distilled water and add 50% of distilled water. I hope Toyota sell premixed coolant.

What about "Redline Waterwetter" ? Does it help Radiator life / I'm thinking of to buy this as others posted and add little to coolant.

Thanks again

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The pre-mixed Toyota Long Life Coolant is a fairly new product and alot of dealers are not stocking it yet. But they should be in the months ahead. Walmart carries distilled water for 58 cents a gallon.

Your radiator and cooling system will last 30 years / 500,000+ miles if you simply use the factory original fill 50/50 mixture of genuine Toyota Long Life antifreeze and distilled water and change it every 2-3 years or 30,000 miles. I'm up to 436,000 on a '92 Toyota which has had a steady diet of Toyota antifreeze and distilled water and no additives.

Using additives increases the risk of serious side effects and the authors of the car care web sites that recommend additives are typically young, performance enthusiast people who have never owned and driven a Toyota for anywhere near 30 years or 500,000 miles. So they havn't been on the planet long enough to know why

Lexus / Acura / Infiniti engineers have never and will never recommend cooling system additives.

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Monarch,

I did a flush and fill this year. Was actually pretty easy. But was thinking that it would be easier for me just to drain and fill yearly rther than flush and fill bi-yearly.

Do you drain, fill with distilled, run and drain again, then fill? or just drain radiator and maybe the front drain plug?

The pink-pre-mixed extra long life was not worth it for me. It cost about double that of the straight coolant.

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The 98 models DO NOT HAVE LONG LIFE coolant in them. It is just a regualar EG coolant with a dye in it.

Every 1989-2003 Lexus shipped from the factory with Toyota Long Life Coolant (red in color)

The 2004 models shipped with Toyota SUper Long Life Coolant (pink in color)

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Do you drain, fill with distilled, run and drain again, then fill? or just drain radiator and maybe the front drain plug?

If you just drain and refill the radiator yearly, with a 50/50 mix of Toyota Long Life Coolant and distilled water, no flushing is ever needed, because the cooling system will stay clean for decades.

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It is just regular EG coolant. That is per Lexus.

I think Lexus/ Toyota is playing on the term Long life. Long life means Dexcool in coolant market. it is rad, orange or purple with some coolants.

Toyota long life coolant is just regular coolant, nothing special about it and it is not long life. It has the normal life span, nothing long about it! If it is, does that mean Toyota regular coolant is only half the life span since it is not long life? What does Long life mean?

Just another way for Lexus to get more $$$ out of you with it saying long life when it is average life coolant at best.

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Also, flushing IS needed since you will have coolant drop-out unless Lexus Long life is low silicates (which it is not).

I have seen people say that all the time, then they have coolant issues. This is a HUGE deal in diesels (which I own). Use regular coolant and never flush, better have towing on insurance.

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Also, flushing IS needed since you will have coolant drop-out unless Lexus Long life is low silicates (which it is not).

I have seen people say that all the time, then they have coolant issues. This is a HUGE deal in diesels (which I own). Use regular coolant and never flush, better have towing on insurance.

Flushing is not needed because genuine Toyota Long Life Coolant is silicate free. Says so right on the bottle. The radiator and cooling system of my 16 year old Corolla with 238,000 miles has never been flushed and it's crystal clean to this day: http://www.saber.net/~monarch/238..JPG.

The engine block has never been drained either. Just the radiator was drained and refilled once a year with a 50/50 mix of genuine Toyota Long Life Coolant and distilled water.

Also, look at how cool my '92 Toyota pickup runs after 428,000 miles using a 50/50 mix of genuine Toyota Long Life Coolant and distilled water http://www.saber.net/~monarch/428.jpg

Take home lesson: The Toyota/Lexus factory engineers know what's best for Toyota vehicles;

i.e the genuine Toyota Toyota Long Life Coolant antifreeze they developed way back in 1987 - years before any American antifreeze company offered a silicate free antifreeze.

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Looks nice and I would hope it is, since you have gone through like what, 33 gallons of coolant. Never mind the price and waste..But it looks good.

Also low silciate anti-freeze was developed before 1987. This has been around for years since it was developed for diesels then propagated to cars. Many probelms with wet-sleeves/linear in diesels; Ford back in 1986 through 1989 had problems at first. I also think International (navistar) made the low silciate back in early 80's.

And yes Toyota people know best about the cars, since they designed them.

I still agree with 90's of manufactures, racers, etc that a flushing is needed to clear passages, channels of dropout and contaminants. You want the best heat rate that the coolant can supply, so flushing is that best way to insure this...But do what happens you happy

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Also low silciate anti-freeze was developed before 1987. This has been around for years since it was developed for diesels then propagated to cars.

I still agree with 90's of manufactures, racers, etc that a flushing is needed to clear passages, channels of dropout and contaminants. You want the best heat rate that the coolant can supply, so flushing is that best way to insure this

Toyota Long Life Antifreeze is 100% silicate free. It's not merely a low silicate antifreeze. Whereas Toyota has had silicate free antifreeze since 1987, there isn't a single person on this forum that could buy a silicate free antifreeze at NAPA, Pep Boys or any other auto parts store until the mid-1990's when the Dexcool coolants came out. And to this very day auto parts stores still don't any antifreezes with the same hybrid OAT chemistry as Toyota Long Life Coolant (i.e. Organic Acid Salt combined with Hydrated Inorganic Salt)

You say flushing is "needed to clear passages, channels of dropout and contaminants." However, Toyota & Lexus owners who always use the factory original 50/50 mixture of Toyota Long Life Antifreeze and distilled water don't have any buildups of solids, gels or anything else in their cooling systems that could interfere with the heat transfer capability.

Example: Here is a photo of my '89 Corolla thermostat housing after 16 years of doing only partial coolant changes by just draining the radiatorand never flushing the system: http://www.saber.net/~monarch/89thermohouse.JPG And when I drain the radiator, the old coolant is transparent and still looks like new: http://www.saber.net/~monarch/89drained.JPG

So the whole cooling system will stay super clean for decades and unlimited miles when using a 50/50 mixture of Toyota Long Life Antifreeze and distilled water.

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I do not think Toyota & Lexus owners always use these products (factory original 50/50 mixture of Toyota Long Life Antifreeze and distilled water). I do agree that Toyota & Lexus do go for a long long time but look at their service book. They want you in like once per month! The coolant in my booklet says to “flush and change coolant” every 15K miles per my manual and (3) Lexus dealers I talk to about this and a timing belt. All three recommended flushing as do many manufacture of cars/trucks/bikes I every looked in my wife’s ML-420, my gsxr1100 motorcycle, and even my tractor & all these state drain flush and fill.

Also your coolant will break down overtime and cause buildups. It is a proven fact. It that were not true, you would not have coolant filters on many trucks/tractors etc.

As you could be correct but I think I will use continue using Diesel coolants since they are tried & true long below 1987. I have friends that trust this stuff from there small tractors up to the New PeterBilt rigs (over $200K.).

Lastly, Toyota might be zero and diesel could be low but, you nor I, don’t know what low means (ie in terms of percent.) I do not shop at NAPA, Pep boys etc so I do not know the validly of this statement. It could be true. Also many autopart stores will not carry hybrid coolants because the average “joe” does not care that much about his anti-freeze and the price will be do high. They all go to Wal-mart and buy Prestone (yellow) for $4.99 and think that it is fine.

At least you care about the car to look up the info and debate on it. That is great. Many people do not care or go to the dealer for everything and it cost more then the car.

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I think the key point is that the Toyota Red (long life= product marketing+ sounds great doesn't it) is silicate free and performing a drain and flush annually should do the trick of never letting too much build up. Since I flushed this year, I will probabable perform a drain and fill annually for the next 3 or 4 years ( or as long as I don't see debris in the reservoir).

As long as you flushed the system, I would think you could use any coolant (as long as its no or low silicates). I stuck with the red, looks different :D

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Toyota came out with a new coolant. It's pink and supposed to last 90k ;) . You can't mix these pink coolant with the red one. Some of the dealership stock these already.

JPI

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