So I just finished flushing my cooling system and was ready to pour the coolant in but noticed it was not green but yellow (I thought it was green when I purchased it, it's Prestone all vehicles). Does the color matter?
I used green before on the oem radiator but just installed an aluminum radiator and I'm wondering if the yellow stuff will work without issue? If not I'll buy the green stuff unless another color works better?
Thanks for the help!

 

Not sure why your thread was closed. I reopened it though. At any rate, the newer Prestone coolant is a yellowish green color. I don't think the color matters. Avoid using DexCool however, which is a reddish orange in color. I prefer to use Mazda FL22 coolant in my rotaries personally. It's a rich green color and works very well!

 

sometimes it does, but most of the time you're looking at the other specs first.
there are some cars, i think the later Ford/Jaguar's that have a spec, and the coolants that meet the spec are a bunch of different colors.

FL-22 is what Mazda put in the Rx8's after 2006, so its rotary friendly. it is pre diluted, so you need 2 gallons
the stuff before FL-22, 0000-77-501E-02 seems to be almost the same stuff, its just not pre-mixed.

 

Thanks guys. I went ahead and put the coolant in but noticed something.

During the flush, the temps needle stayed just a little after "C" and never moved much past that but this might be due to only running the car for about 15 minutes during each flush.

After filling it with coolant (surprisingly only about a gallon and a half), I had the car running for around 30 minutes and it moved to mid point and stayed there. I was thinking I should put the bleeder funnel in to bleed the system but I got distracted and did it without it (cap closed entire time). I feel like I should bleed it with the funnel to get any air out, what do you guys think?

I was measuring the temperatures of the radiator, hoses, and block with my digital temp reader and the upper radiator hose was hotter than the bottom by 20-30ish degrees. Does this sound normal?

On the next flush I'll look into the FL-22 coolant but I'm guessing my local stealer dealer will be double or triple the cost of the prestone.

 

in 2024 its probably the other way around, although you have to check

 

I really wouldn't overthink it too much. Just use whatever name brand green you can get and change it every couple years. I'm preferential to Zerex and Peak for some reason but I couldn't tell you why.

It's also pretty common for "universal" coolant to be yellow - I know this is the case with Prestone.

Edit: Forgot to mention that the coolant needle being just a little past the C is pretty normal. Operating temp on these cars is barely up the gauge for some reason. If you're anywhere near half it's way too hot, even a third is rather toasty.

Block temp (as measured on the top of the housings) should be somewhere around 180-190. I'd start getting concerned with anything much north of 200.

 

I added more coolant after the car cooled down, about 3/4 gallon. I'll run it again in a couple of days to see how it goes, hopefully it stays cool!

I'm hoping my local dealer is cheaper or close to the same price as the prestone, but they're not known to be cheap. I've had to order many oem parts online as they could not (or did not) want to match the online pricing, but I'll check nonetheless.

 

how much was the prestone?

 

$6ish something, just under $7.

 

Just checked my dealer, they don't carry the Mazda FL22 coolant. They said they sell a Motorcraft brand that has the same ingredients and it's $48 a gallon (concentrated so must be diluted).

 

the part number is 0000-77-508F-20 and Mazda's suggested retail price is $29 a gallon, and you need two
the regular stuff 0000-77-501E-02 is $35 a gallon, and you only need the one

street price was lower on both of these, and then since there are only a couple of places that make coolant in the US, there is aftermarket FL22 also.
if you look at the bottle it should say FL-22 on it somewhere, although Mazda's spec was just coolant, so you can use anything you like

 

Thanks for that info, I'll definitely read the bottles to see if any show FL-22 when I flush again.