TOYOTA COOLANT FOR YOUR HIACE

When it comes to coolant for your Toyota there is a lot of conflicting information floating around.  Let’s try to clear a few things up and make it easier to understand.

Over the years Toyota has used two different types of coolant from the factory.  Toyota Red Long Life Coolant and Toyota Pink Super Long Life Coolant.

The Pink is pre diluted at a ratio of 50/50 coolant to water while the red is full strength concentrate and needs to be diluted by the user.

While you might think the pink is just red diluted with water this is not true. These are different blends and have specific uses.

Pink is intended for newer vehicles that are made with a primarily aluminum cooling system.  This means there is less need for the corrosion inhibitors used in the red.  The pink also uses Organic Acid Technology which include corrosion inhibitors such as sebacate and 2-ethylhexanoic acid. These will not protect brass or copper components from corrosion.

This gives inadequate protection for older systems but extends the service life to 60k miles or 5 years.

Red is intended for older vehicles where the cooling systems contain brass and copper components.  These vehicles require corrosion inhibitors to keep your cooling system running properly. Red uses an Inorganic Acid Technology that incorporates a phosphate-silicate additive that provides good protection for cast iron, aluminum, brass, and copper parts, but its life expectancy is lower than the extended life coolant such as Toyota Pink. This gives it a service life of 30k miles / 2 years.

Any Toyota vehicle produced prior to the advent of Toyota Pink Coolant (sometime in the early 2000s) should use Toyota Red coolant or a comparable substitute.  You will have to change your coolant more often but you will be preserving the cooling system of your vehicle.