What color should the coolant/antifreeze be in my '03 Dakota (4.7L)?

Would you be suspect that you'd gotten ripped off if you paid $150 for a cooling system flush/refill and the color of said coolant was the same after as it was before AND the reservoir level didn't even register on the little dipstick AND the work order only reflected 1 gal of coolant (4 quarts) when the capacity is 4.25 gal (17 quarts)!?!

 

well i dont think color is a good thing to follow, unless your old stuff was like black or rust colored. dexacool is like orange and the other brand is green. you didnt go to jiffylube did you?

 

Dexcool is actually pink-red, the Toyota stuff is orange, and the regular coolant is green.

There's another one thats yellow, but I don't remember who uses that...

 

i've always used the green, its all purpose in the yellow jug.

 

my 4.7 is green as well.. if that means much.. :P

 

To answer the question, YES, I would suspect (I might even say I KNEW) that I had been ripped off.

Flush/refill should be a complete drain of old fluid followed by a complete replacement with new fluid.

 

Aight... here's the follow-up.

Went back to the dealer and they were horrified that it still looked all rusty-brown color (think swamp water). Not to mention that the reservoir was empty.

So I left it there for the day and they supposedly did a new flush/refill.

I'm not sure what color it is now (cause the engine is still hot from driving home) but at least the reservoir is now full and it's actually running just a bit cooler than it has been.

Oh, and no, I didn't take it to JiffyLube. ;-) It was the five-star dealer I visit occasionally for bigger issues than I can handle.

That'll teach me to get lazy... I generally like to do this kind of stuff myself but didn't want to deal with disposing of 17 qts of coolant.