what colour is the coolant supposed to be on a 5.2 95 4x4? im looking to buy one and its a dark honey colour which rings alarm bells to me as that seems that oil has got in the coolant??? however reading in some places the coolant may have been gold colour in the first place?!?! any ideas?!?
also this vehicle does 2000miles a year it may be corrosion and rust out the system???

any help would be great!
thanks

 

as far as i know, there are two colors of coolant. old fashioned green (etheylene glycol) and newer reddish/pink. the old green is deadly toxic and the newer red is not. the 2 are incompatible and should never be mixed or else they combine to form a heavy sludge. it is ok to replace one with the other as long as you do a complete flush.

i've never heard of a gold colored coolant. i'd guess its just rust, which would be normal on an older truck thats never been flushed.

 

The "green stuff" is typical coolant. The orange coolant is DexCool. Chrysler tried DexCool at one time and it caused major problems in engines. The same happened to GM. DexCool reacts with certain metals in engines. Sounds to me like someone may have added DexCool to your cooling system. My advice is to get it flushed ASAP. DexCool reacts in a bad way with regular coolant, and very soon you will have sludge and blockages in your engine. My Cavalier came out of the factory with DexCool, which is supposed to be good for 5 years/150,000 miles. Well, I am approaching the 150,000mile mark, and it still looks good. Check your locals FLAPS and they can tell you what coolant goes with yoru vehicle whenever you are in doubt.

 

Thanks for the advice guys, the RAM has been in the UK for the last 8 years and used as a second/hoby car for shows (it used to have a fifth wheel so has been used for towing at some point), i am not sure if we get DexCool over hear, i guess it could well be that it is still on original coolant but i would have expected this to have been changed by now. The truck has done 78K, in your opinion would this put you off buying it or just something to flush out and change ASAP. Speaking to the current owner he says he has never had any trouble with it however he would say that.

Cheers

 

Possibly an additive that was put in to seal up a cracked head or head gasket...just a thought. If possible have it analyzed or walk away.
WC

 

Wayne brings up a great point. I hadn't thought of an additive.

 

VW&D
Did you ever get to the bottom of your overheating problems?
WC

 

WayneC,

You have PM.