A tip on coolant alternative
 

I read a few threads on here where people are confused about which coolant to use. Toyota uses an OAT coolant in pretty much all of their vehicles because of the aluminum block. OAT coolant is more acidic which aluminum are generally more resistant to but can break down when exposed to bases. Those coolants are generally the green variety. Those work better with iron blocks because they react the opposite of aluminum.

Reading some snippets from the FRS manual, they indicate that a OAT coolant is required. Most OAT coolants are either orange or red...in general.

There is a coolant used by Lotus guys that works and is recommended by Lotus for our engines. The coolant is Peak Global Lifetime coolant. It costs $5 to $10 per gallon. It comes premixed already but I personally buy the non-mixed version as I like to dilute it myself. It is available at Walgreens of all places and at Pepboys as well. Many people have used this for years without issue.

https://www.pepboys.com/product/details/9303746/00816

Paying Toyota a premium for their coolant is pretty crazy. I'm willing to bet that it is just rebranded from one of the major coolant suppliers.

IMHO stick with the OEM blue. It's specifically designed for the metallurgy of our engines. May cost less than you think and won't effect any warranty claims.

FYI this is not a Toyota engine, it's a Subaru engine. The FRS is the only "Toyota" engine that uses blue coolant.

Stick to the blue coolant, no need to go with anything different.

If you want to switch coolants I would look at Evan's coolant. It is a waterless coolant, kinda neat stuff, I hear great things about it. That being said I stick with OEM as there is nothing wrong with it so why fix something that is not broken? I also do not look at the price of something when we are talking about my car, it is the last thing I will pinch pennys on.

I've also heard great stuff about Evans.

I do see no reason to switch from OEM since the car cooling system is pretty well designed and the OEM coolant works great including not needing to be changed till 130K miles IIRC.

I researched Evans for my truck and found that if you switch to it and any remnants of old coolant or water in the block or heater etc. will break down the Evans within months. That's a big chance to take on coolant in an engine not designed for it.

Fully agreed, the risk outweighs the positives IMHO.

Well, now @Nessal, thanks for looking into that and reporting your findings. ..... :thumbsup:

However, although these coolants are color coded and all ..... they could very well contain different compounds which are incompatible with each other.

Since several ingredients in these mixes are "proprietary", it’s difficult to determine what they are in order to sort them out.

Therefore, since the coolant lasts a long time and doesn’t require much to replenish it, I think I’ll just stick with the pricey stuff from the dealer.


humfrz

Don't forget to add bit of distilled water!

Good point.

I figure that since I don't live in a "cold climate" that if the coolant level drops down a bit ...... I can just add a little distilled water to bring it back up to the full mark.


humfrz