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DexCool in GM Engines

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Dex-Cool • Dex-Cool Class Action Deadline Nears • California Court to Rule on Dex-Cool Settlement • GM Owners Still Steaming Over Dex-Cool • Consumer Complaints

M L of San Rafael CA (08/26/06)
*WE'VE FIXED THE PROBLEM(S)!! And while it's irritating to look back and see how much I've needlessly thrown at my '92 K1500 Chevy Blazer, several radiators, head gasket, heater core, trans cooler lines, uptake gaskets, pretty much everything that has come into contact with cooling fluids has either corroded or slowly disintigrated. All due to what turns out to be a basic electrical design flaw at GM.

Whether Dexcool was involved it's hard to say, radiator guy hates Dexcool, suspects that perhaps it's the electrolisis that causes the Dexcool to turn to a jelly goop. Says the higher the amp reading in the radiator, the more goopy Dexcool seems to be. My story: The original radiator in my '92 Chevy lasted a good while (hint: older radiators had A LOT more copper in them). The trouble really all started and in a big way, after replacing the original radiator. I did pay the 500.00 for the new GM radiator. (hint: the newer made radiators have little to no copper in them. They are mostly aluminum and steel) Within a couple months, I started having to dump money into my K1500 Blazer, LOTS of it!

When radiator #3 started leaking, I got fed up with my mechanic, who kept saying, it's a high milage vehicle. I should expect this. Not thinking it was even slightly odd that everything seemed to be connected to the cooling system or somehow come into contact with it, even though nearly every repair seemed to require draining the radiator?? So, I looked for the oldest, greasiest, busiest, radiator shop in my area. First thing the guy did, after hearing the list of repairs I'd made, was to drop a probe in the radiator to check for a charge, in other words, electrolysis. An acceptable reading is .03 amps. I was running at .38 amps!! Turning the engine off it would only drop it to .27 amps.

So, he replaced leaking radiator #3, and rechecked it,.. .58 amps!! It went up! He shrugged and said, new one must have even less copper than the last one. I've seen a lot of these GM's with this crap going on. I've been doing this thing that seems to fix this problem. Then an off-duty local cop pulled in with his Blazer, newer than mine. We got to talking, he'd had most of the same problems and this radiator guy fixed it for him 3 years ago, and hadn't had a problem since.

Here's what my guy did...

#1 - Attached three, braided ground cables, randomly to the radiator and the block, and grounded them.

#2 - Then took a piece of copper pipeing aprox 3 long, with the same hollow as the heatercore hose, soddered a copper ground wire to the side of it. Midpoint on the hose running from the radiator to the heatercore, he spliced this small copper pipe into the line using hose clamps. Then using the ground wire he had soddered to it, grounded it to the engine block.

#3 - Drained and refilled the cooling system with DISTILLED water and GREEN coolant. Dexcool in his experance is CRAP, and I quote him. He did all this very quickly, then dropped the probe into the radiator and poof .02 amps! It cost me 100. He has me come in to recheck the amps once a month. And still 6 months later, .02 amps, and no new problems. I was averaging 1 problem per month, a leak here, a suspicious gasket there. Now nothing. So, it seems to me that there are really two problems. One affecting the other. A cooling system grounding problem, electrolysis resulting in corrosion and dissintigration of parts and gaskets. And then Dexcool which is unstable in an electrically charged enviroment and turns to goop. Maybe I'm wrong but my '92 K1500 Blazer now has 212K miles on the original engine

Samuel of Bellville, OH August 21, 2006

Samuel of Bellville OH (08/21/06)
I have sludge in my coolant due to a intake manifold gasket. Caused by dexcool, the coolant that GM demands be used. So far it's just the gasket. I will see if further damaged was caused

Patricia of Barberton, OH August 19, 2006

Patricia of Barberton OH (08/19/06)
I have had 2 intake gaskets replaced on my 1997 POntiac Grand Am and also my fuel pump replaced within only the last 2 years. The gaskets cost me close to 1000 dollars and they told me there is no guarantee it won't happen again. I just recently saw about the Dexcool problems and that is what I have been using im my vehicle since that is the kind that is required from the auto makers.

VEry hard because I am a single parent and cannot afford 500 dollars per year for this problem and there are no guarantees. Also going several days while my car is in the shop is very hard to find transportation so I can go to work. We should be reimbursed for our losses from GM.

Toni.pounds@acs-Inc.com of Mesquite, TX July 26, 2006

Toni of Mesquite TX (07/26/06)
I purchased a 1997 Chev Venture Van when it had 200 miles on it and drove it for 7 years. It was a good car so I gave it to my Mother since she was without a car. She has driven the Van for about a year and it has recently started overheating. She took the car to a shop and they told her that she needed to have a some engine gasket replaced and it was all due to DEXCOOL a coolant that GM used in its factor cars. My Mom is in her 60's and she is trying to work as much as she can because she needs to have Heart Surgery this year. Now, she has been told that the costs to repair is around 1,000 - 2,000 depending on if she wanted to try to fix it oe simply replace the ENGINE.

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