Honda Car Forum

damn y'all!!
I was just reading on these newsgroups about the antifreeze thing, and
how you have to use silicate-free antifreeze on hondas.. blah blah
blah... and so i go to autozone-- they never heard of such a thing. I
got to my honda dealer, and the dude there tells me that any
antifreeze is fine as long as it's green (which i thought was
especially odd since they were selling the honda antifreeze-- so i
could only take is advice as honest), but he had never heard of the
silicate thing either.
Of course I had orange in my car that i put in there four years ago
when i didn't know how to confuse myself with usenet groups. Since it
really needed to be flushed anyway, and KMart had a sale on Prestone--
I flushed it yesterday and put in Prestone. And now I'm hearing
prestone is bad too!? Ughhhh...
All the auto parts places have Honda power steering fluid! Why can't
they have Honda coolant? maybe it's just not that big a deal. I mean
Honda says not to put orange shit in the coolant, and my '95 civic has
done admirably with it for the last four years. I dunno... Sometime I
wonder if Honda corporate are on these boards just to get us pay the
extra money for the same things.
So should I flush my radiator again with Honda Antifreeze? What
adverse effects can i expect from my 4 year use of orange crap? What
adverse effects can I expect from the green Prestone? any other
advice for the antifreeze challenged?
(mine is a '95 Civic DX)
thanks!
-mr speck

Honda is like a retarded child, you gotta give it special attention.




....................
I do not killfile nor use do-not-call lists.

garbage@nc.rr.com (Mr. Speck) melodiously murmured in
news:dbafbce1.0310211749.5ba6a2bb@posting.google.c om:

> damn y'all!!
> I was just reading on these newsgroups about the antifreeze thing, and
> how you have to use silicate-free antifreeze on hondas.. blah blah
> blah... and so i go to autozone-- they never heard of such a thing.


Prestone makes a Long-Life mix that will do just fine. (I always use Honda
coolant anyway, for the little extra cost.)

Ordinary Prestone (the stuff that isn't clear) has silicates in it. It's
not really made for a car that has its water pump under the timing belt.
Silicates in an aluminum block do not provide the correct anti-corrision
protection.


--
TeGGeR®

"Mr. Speck" <garbage@nc.rr.com> wrote:
news:dbafbce1.0310211749.5ba6a2bb@posting.google.c om...

> So should I flush my radiator again with Honda Antifreeze? What
> adverse effects can i expect from my 4 year use of orange crap? What
> adverse effects can I expect from the green Prestone? any other
> advice for the antifreeze challenged?
> (mine is a '95 Civic DX)
> thanks!
> -mr speck

Don't lose sleep over it. What's done is done, plus no one can really tell
you how "bad" it was to put the orange stuff in there. I've known many
(uninformed) Honda owners use the cheapest coolant they can get their hands
on, and their cars last just as long.

Plus, I have a feeling that most (if not all) of Honda's insistence on using
their vertical monopoly on fluids and car parts is just for profit. C'mon,
do you REALLY want to pay more for Honda oil?!

Well... I've noticed that the Honda 5w20 is usually cheaper than anyone
else's... so if my car required that, then I would rather pay less for the
Honda oil. But as far as this anti-freeze is concerned, I have used the
Honda stuff in most of my cars, but have seen many shops and dealerships use
green Prestone for many years (and many timing belt and water pump
replacements) without a single problem of any sort. Since some people claim
to have seen different, what is an extra 5 bucks for a little extra
protection...


"Paul Kim" <worker4youth@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:bn54g3$esi$1@news01.cit.cornell.edu...

> Don't lose sleep over it. What's done is done, plus no one can really tell
> you how "bad" it was to put the orange stuff in there. I've known many
> (uninformed) Honda owners use the cheapest coolant they can get their
hands
> on, and their cars last just as long.
>
> Plus, I have a feeling that most (if not all) of Honda's insistence on
using
> their vertical monopoly on fluids and car parts is just for profit. C'mon,
> do you REALLY want to pay more for Honda oil?!

garbage@nc.rr.com (Mr. Speck) wrote in message news:<dbafbce1.0310211749.5ba6a2bb@posting.google. com>...

> I was just reading on these newsgroups about the antifreeze thing, and
> how you have to use silicate-free antifreeze on hondas.. blah blah
> blah... and so i go to autozone-- they never heard of such a thing. I
> got to my honda dealer, and the dude there tells me that any
> antifreeze is fine as long as it's green (which i thought was
> especially odd since they were selling the honda antifreeze-- so i
> could only take is advice as honest), but he had never heard of the
> silicate thing either.
> Of course I had orange in my car that i put in there four years ago
> when i didn't know how to confuse myself with usenet groups. Since it
> really needed to be flushed anyway, and KMart had a sale on Prestone--
> I flushed it yesterday and put in Prestone. And now I'm hearing
> prestone is bad too!? Ughhhh...

I've found that even many knowledgeable automotive people aren't good
about car chemicals.

You should be fine with Prestone, even though it has silicate in it,
but in two years I'd switch to Honda or Toyota antifreeze. As far as
I know, the only silicate-free aftermarket antifreeze widely available
in North America is Dex-cool, sold as orange/red longlife coolants (5
years or 150,000 miles), such as Havoline Extended Life and Prestone
5/150, but you don't want to use it in your Honda because its
additives are very different. Color isn't a reliably way to
distinguish antifreeze types because Toyota has one that looks like
Dex-cool but is actually very different from it and is almost
identical to conventional green coolant, only it's silicate-free.
Toyota antifreeze is sometimes sold at parts stores, at least those
that specialize in foreign brand cars. Whether you get Honda or
Toyota antifreeze, get the 100% concentrate, not the pre-diluted,
which costs about the same but substitutes half the antifreeze with 50
cents worth of distilled water.

"Tegger®" <teggeratistopdotcom@changetheobvious.invalid> wrote in message
news:Xns941BEAD6A6B19teggeratistop@66.11.168.195.. .
> garbage@nc.rr.com (Mr. Speck) melodiously murmured in
> news:dbafbce1.0310211749.5ba6a2bb@posting.google.c om:
>
> > damn y'all!!
> > I was just reading on these newsgroups about the antifreeze thing, and
> > how you have to use silicate-free antifreeze on hondas.. blah blah
> > blah... and so i go to autozone-- they never heard of such a thing.
>
>
> Prestone makes a Long-Life mix that will do just fine. (I always use Honda
> coolant anyway, for the little extra cost.)
>
> Ordinary Prestone (the stuff that isn't clear) has silicates in it. It's
> not really made for a car that has its water pump under the timing belt.
> Silicates in an aluminum block do not provide the correct anti-corrision
> protection.
>
>
> --
> TeGGeR®

I didn't bother to get Honda antifreeze until my Civic need a SECOND water
pump replacement at 85k miles. Now I spend the extra $5. Hell, it only
takes like half a gallon or something. I even made my dealer remove the
recycled coolant he put in my wife's Accord and replace it with the Honda
coolant. You can't even trust the dealer to use the right stuff.

Spudston

> I
> got to my honda dealer, and the dude there tells me that any
> antifreeze is fine as long as it's green


The supposed "experts" at parts counters are very often wrong ... yet they
manage to make themselves sound knowledgeable!

John

Well, look at this way......the parts guy is just supporting himself and his
employer down the road when you need to replace parts prematurely from using
the wrong fluids.


"John Horner" <jthorner@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:vpntv8g3a11gfe@corp.supernews.com...
>
> > I
> > got to my honda dealer, and the dude there tells me that any
> > antifreeze is fine as long as it's green
>
>
> The supposed "experts" at parts counters are very often wrong ... yet
they
> manage to make themselves sound knowledgeable!
>
> John
>
>

John,& Larry
If you read your any Honda Manuel it will say to use non silicate antifreeze
in your Honda. This is particular to the 5year coolants on the market. GM
Dex-Cool antifreeze is a non Silicate coolant and it is orange. Coolant
color has nothing to do with it. If I were you I would use the longer term
coolant that will say on the label "silicate free". There is more info on
silicate at http://www.prestone.com/
Use non silicate coolant in any all aluminum engine. I hope this helps.
Mike


"Larry" <zieglerl@pacbell.net> wrote in message
news:u7hnb.4206$OE1.2057@newssvr25.news.prodigy.co m...
> Well, look at this way......the parts guy is just supporting himself and
his
> employer down the road when you need to replace parts prematurely from
using
> the wrong fluids.
>
>
> "John Horner" <jthorner@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:vpntv8g3a11gfe@corp.supernews.com...
> >
> > > I
> > > got to my honda dealer, and the dude there tells me that any
> > > antifreeze is fine as long as it's green
> >
> >
> > The supposed "experts" at parts counters are very often wrong ... yet
> they
> > manage to make themselves sound knowledgeable!
> >
> > John
> >
> >
>
>