Hello,

My roommate has a 2003 Neon and she told me when she got home this evening that her car was smoking. I checked the radiator and reservoir levels and they were low to empty(couldn't visually see any)so I referenced her owners manual and it mentioned this MOPAR HOAT type. Well this was after the dealer had closed so I took the owners manual down to Autozone and the guy working said the Prestone 'mixes with any color coolant/antifreeze' would be fine.

I bought some of that, added to the appropriate levels and then I took the car for a short 5 minute drive. Nothing hard, just casual city driving and now the car is over heating.

My question is, should I flush the system tomorrow and replace with the coolant that is listed in the owners manual or is there a bigger issue here?

I searched and found this thread,

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...e-coolant.html

But users are saying they have used both and each have worked fine.

Thanks,

 

Prestone will usually work fine in any car but if it is still overheating the issue may be due to a few things but usually its one of, there is air trapped in the coolant lines preventing the thermostat from opening properly, or the thermostat is bad.

Thermostats are cheap. I would replace the thermostat and flush the coolant at the same time.
There are also other possibilities like a bad water pump, cracked head, or mixing some coolants will cause them to harden into a gel like substance that could clog the cooling ports in the engine or head. However flushing the line replacing the thermostat and using new coolant of all the same type usually fixes the overheating issue.
Hope this helps