2002 Opinion Worth Changing from Green Coolant to Gold? | Ford Thunderbird club group 1955-2005 T-Bird models

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2002 Opinion Worth Changing from Green Coolant to Gold?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Racer27
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Racer27

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2002
As per the CARFAX, the car has been serviced/maintained/inspected every 2500 miles at a Ford Dealership. I see at 7200 miles, June 2019, the dealer performed coolant flush/change and Trans Fluid Change. The coolent is definitely Green, not the Gold I expected Dealership to use (I don't have the bill just the CARFAX Report).

Is it worth doing a full distilled water flush and change to switch over to Gold ? I could probably do it myself or maybe provide the fluid and distilled water and have a mechanic with vacuum system do it.

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Racer27 said:
As per the CARFAX, the car has been serviced/maintained/inspected every 2500 miles at a Ford Dealership. I see at 7200 miles, June 2019, the dealer performed coolant flush/change and Trans Fluid Change. The coolent is definitely Green, not the Gold I expected Dealership to use (I don't have the bill just the CARFAX Report).

Is it worth doing a full distilled water flush and change to switch over to Gold ? I could probably do it myself or maybe provide the fluid and distilled water and have a mechanic with vacuum system do it.
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There are periodically reports of incompatibilities between different "color" coolants and various engines and gaskets. If you drive the car a lot they usually recommend a green coolant change at 2 to 4 years. The gold/orange/blue color stuff tends to be good for 5 to 10 years. If the green is not what the factory called for in the car and if you plan to keep it for more than three years, I would go ahead and get it switched over to whatever the factory wants it to have and you'll likely be good for another 5 to 10 years.
 
Racer27 said:
As per the CARFAX, the car has been serviced/maintained/inspected every 2500 miles at a Ford Dealership. I see at 7200 miles, June 2019, the dealer performed coolant flush/change and Trans Fluid Change. The coolent is definitely Green, not the Gold I expected Dealership to use (I don't have the bill just the CARFAX Report).

Is it worth doing a full distilled water flush and change to switch over to Gold ? I could probably do it myself or maybe provide the fluid and distilled water and have a mechanic with vacuum system do it.
Click to expand...
I recently had my 2003 coolant flushed and switched it to the pink coolant
 
You can look for a shop or car dealer that has a fluid exchange machine. It replaces all of the coolant. During a simple drain and refill, not all of it comes out.

The extended life coolant has a beefed up additive package and should last longer than the traditional "two year" stuff which is dyed green. There are "universal" coolants that are advertised to mix with all of them.

But the gold coolant that comes in many Fords is not a five year product in all applications. For example it is known to precipitate a powdery deposit in a few years. It is an additive that is coming out of solution. It might not affect a Bird, I don't know. This problem was and is famous for screwing up Ford 6.0L diesels. The oil cooler has very small coolant passages, and the deposits would clog it. Downstream is the EGR cooler. When the coolant flow decreases coming out of the oil cooler, it starves the EGR cooler and the hot exhaust stream in the tubes gets too hot and they crack. This is inside the cooler housing. No visible leaks. This puts coolant into the intake of the engine, and it sort of burns, but the wet exhaust mixed with diesel soot fouls the turbine vanes in the turbo, which are supposed to move. No move = truck runs bad. Also, the loss of coolant is not always caught by the driver. Too much engine heat causes blown head gaskets.

Again, not a Bird, but as a former automotive chemical rep I suggest only going 3,500-4000 miles on the gold coolant. An option is do drain and refills more often. Not all coolant comes out but this is better than letting the stuff stay in there for many years.
 
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