Saturn Coolant Supplement Pellets?

C. E. White said:
Saturn uses Dexcool instead of conventional antifreeze. The base ingredient is the same but the anti-corrosion chemistry is different. It is a bad idea to mix the two.
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Actually, in the beginning, they used conventional antifreeze. They switched to Dexcool in midyear 96, I think. The ones with Dexcool have an orange dot on the coolant reservoir cap. The others have a green dot on that cap. And it is indeed a bad idea to mix them.
 
Texaco makes a green-colored ethylene glycol antifreeze that's phosphate free that I try to use. But recently I bought "turbo power" coolant that looks appropriate.
 
Thanks to all for the follow ups.

Mixing won't be an issue since I will be flushing the Peak completely if that is what is called for. Our Saturn had no dot so its not clear what coolant was used or when this was done last by the previous owner.

I guess from your response that Dexcool would work? I'll have to do some research to see what is listed as being in that brand/type. The owner's manual specifically said Ethylene Glycol and I knew that Peak and Prestone were both EG based coolants so I used Peak. I didn't think that Dexcool was EG since it was a 5 year life coolant.

Bob
 
The manual only indicated they needed to be added in the event of a change of the coolant (and not every year). I would be reluctant to add that much powder to the system out of fear that it would cause problems.

Bob
 
Ed,

Thanks for the URL and other input. I learned a good deal about Dexcool (I never had a vehicle that used long life coolant so have never used it before).

The 1996 Saturn definitely had the traditional yellow (was not orange) antifreeze in it so it agrees with the info on the web site that Saturn did not convert to Dexcool till 1997 model year. Based on the previous owner's records, this vehicle experienced the common single overhead cam head defect (blown head gasket). As a result, the head itself, all of the hoses, the coolant recovery bottle, thermostat, and coolant were all replaced under warranty about 3 years back. I figure that the yellow stuff is what got put in at the dealer, so it appears they followed the advice given not to convert as the new fluid would be permanently "contaminated."

Looks like I need to check out some of the generic traditional yellow coolant to find one that is Phosphate free and then flush and refill. Thanks to Jeff McDonald for the suggestion to look for the Texaco product. Unfortunately, I doubt I will find this where I live since there are not any local Texaco stations that I am aware of.

Bob
 
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