DexCool

[olddog]

I had posted this before when I was deep into Vettes and, to be honest, I came upon the problem from a technician who owned a Pontiac. He told me that DexCool was just poison to engines.

DexCool is a problem in that it seems to eat some gaskets (intake-head), clog heater cores, thermostats and some lines. In short - it is bad stuff. Seems the stuff not only turns to a snot like gel, but it also eats at components. To be honest I didn't believe it and was told to Google either 'DexCool law suits' or 'DexCool class action law suits'. Phew! Now this sure got my attention. There are pages of suits over this stuff.

After doing a lot of homework I was able to find out that the problem is the organic acid that is used in this stuff. Seems the GM approved Zerex replacement is only different in their organic acid and they have NEVER had a complaint etc about their coolant.

I have changed to their coolant in a Duramax, two Vettes, an Impala and my STS-V. The one vette now has over 80K on it and the coolant is fine. I no longer own this car and I DO recommend changing coolant at about 50K for my cars. How bad is it? My Duramax/Vette and Caddy were one day old when I ditched this stuff.

I asked the folks at Zerex whey DexCool just does not change the organic acid and was told that if they did they would immediately lose every law suit against GM over this stuff.

[KHE]

The issue with DexCool is in cast iron engines such as the 4.3 V-6 used in the Blazers and Astro vans. If venicle owners let the coolant get low, the insides of the engine would rust and that combined with the coolant could create the sludge the everyone saw on the news.

There has not been issues like that in the Northstar engine. I have had Northstar engines opened up for timesert installation and there has not been any issues such as sludge.

The GM coolant specification for DexCool is GM 6277 and that is the same spec. that Zerex meets.

[JimD]

....To be honest I didn't believe it and was told to Google either 'DexCool law suits' or 'DexCool class action law suits'. Phew! Now this sure got my attention. There are pages of suits over this stuff.

Do not hop on the hearsay bandwagon of the "accusations" made in those class actions. The evidence never made it to jury. The actions specified only a few GM engines; 3.1L, 3.4L, 3.8L, and 4.3L engines with intake gasket "problems" supposedly caused by Dex-Cool. I expect the sharks attacked GM because GM had deeper pockets than the gasket supplier.

The curious part of the class action accusations was the year range specified as 1995 through 2004. What makes that curious is Dex-Cool was not the GM factory fill coolant until the 1996 model year.

Bottom line is, GM settled out of court BECAUSE the cost of defending the action was becoming a cash-flow drain at a time that GM could see the potential for bankruptcy looming over the horizon and decided to cut their loses and walk away. The sharks were the only winners.

After doing a lot of homework I was able to find out that the problem is the organic acid that is used in this stuff. Seems the GM approved Zerex replacement is only different in their organic acid and they have NEVER had a complaint etc about their coolant.

Zerex is not licensed to bottle a product labeled as Dex-Cool so they had to resort to the innocuous "GM approved" terminology.

I asked the folks at Zerex whey DexCool just does not change the organic acid and was told that if they did they would immediately lose every law suit against GM over this stuff.

Zerex can "tell" you whatever they think you want to hear.

[Texas Jim]

I have had 4 Chevy vans with the 4.3 V6 that was named in the lawsuit.

Three 1999 Astro Vans and one 2006 Astro Van.

Maybe I was just lucky, but I never had any trouble out of "ANY" of them.

I bought all of them new.

Two of the 1999 vans had about 75,000 to 90,000 miles on them when I sold them in 2003.

The third 1999 Astro Van had just a litte over 250,000 miles on it when it burned in my garage fire that also destroyed my first 2006 DTS.

The 2006 Astro Van now has about 130,000 on it.

I sold it last year to my Brother.... I am sure I would hear about it if he had any issues with it...

I have also had two, 2006 DTS's ... the first one that burned... in Nov of 2006 had 40,000 on it.

The one I have now... purchesed new on Christmas Eve of 2006, has almost 114,000 miles on it.

I had the coolant changed on it at 93,000 miles, and it still "LOOKED" ok...

I know you can't tell how the inhibitors are by "LOOKING"... I just meant that it was not thick or jelled up looking.

It "LOOKED" just like what was put back in it.

That's about all I know about DexCool.... Just the experiences that I have had... personally.

[BodybyFisher]

This and other posts like this, are the reason I resigned from my staff post at caddyinfo. It gets tiring, saying the same things over and over.

The constant flow of new uneducated, bias, tainted, jaded and in some case know it all owners becomes tiring and having to answer the same questions, defending GM, repeating the Guru's legacy becomes tiring.

Recently, I suggested that owners clean their throttle body once a year (a reasonable PM job to ensure continued performance and easier than changing the oil), and a member had the nerve to say, no I don't think so, it depends upon how you drive your car. Insert the ETRADE shocked baby face here, it seems that some people NEED to be argumentative or express opinions counter to reasonable advice! That was the straw that broke the camels back. While I will participate when i see a topic that I can add some experience to, I refuse to continue to respond to the same old dexcool, gm sucks, northstar head gasket, heal a seal, junk, a search of the archives basically covers everything even this beat to death topic of dexcool. At 58 im getting to old to repeat myself over and over and to enjoy doing so. Fighting against mis and dis information is tiring.

Old man, don't take what i say personal, my rant is not directed at you. We have had this battle before many times on dexcool and I wanted to make it official as to why I have pulled back.

[rockfangd]

Honestly I have no problem with Dexcool. We have had twenty to thirty astrovans ranging from 1999-2003 and these were driven hard daily (fleet). we put minimum into them and even at 200,000 miles and up they were still going strong. They all had the 4.3l engine.

And as to the post above I am truly sorry that you did not agree with the post I wrote on the other topic. It is strictly my opinion and to each its own. I meant no offense to you and your sophistocation. Agian I am truly sorry and if posssible Mods lease delete the post. I would hate to cause any kind of a problem. I love this forum and enjoy it and would like for everyone else to think the same

[BodybyFisher]

Don't worry about it Rock, it has been coming for a long time, you were kind of the straw, and I am very sensitive to a fault. I have needed to focus on my life with all of this hope and change taking place and having not had a Cadillac for about 3 years my skills and experience has become stale.

We should present our ideas in such a way that the facts are what do the talking and not put down someones advice, unless of course they are dead wrong.

[olddog]

Didn't mean to start a fire - sorry. I DID have the problem with DexCool in an LT1 Impala and I WAS told of this as an issue by a certified technician. I also know that the only difference in the Zerex is the organic acid.

Do I want to cause grief? Of course not. That stated, after having the problem and having reported on a Vette site I just thought I would nention it. And to be honest, because I am paranoid, I will not use it in my vehicles.

Again, sorry to have caused a stir; that was not my intent.

'dog

[BodybyFisher]

olddog, we feel your enthusiasm and know you are not trying to start trouble

If you do an ADVANCED SEARCH and search only TITLES and use the search term DEXCOOL you will see that the topic has been beat to death, with some heated discussion. Using the advanced search feature can really focus your research and net tremendous results.

Now do me a favor and tell us how your STS-V performs, this article was very positive. I think I have to set my sights higher than a z-rated 2004 STS!

http://www.cargurus....-Overview-c7751