Water in cooling system

Diluted water? Do you mean distilled water? It is difficult to drain the whole system. Use distilled water as a flush and then use the concentrated Toyota coolant.

 

I would flush with distilled water, drain as much as possible, start refill using Toyota Long Life Coolant (the full strength coolant, without “super” in description), put in half the specd capacity, then fill the rest with more distilled water.

 

Flush your system once.
Then, add fresh coolant and water.

Fwiw:
Why You Should Never Use Distilled Water in Your Cooling System
Why You Should Never Use Distilled Water in Your Cooling System | Rislone

Feel free to check other manufacture's recommendations.
Btw, while softened water is the best, it's often not realistic, nor easy to get.
The solution? Natural Spring water - like Poland Springs.

 

Use distilled water. Toyota specifies 7732-18-5 water, which is distilled. Then the manufacturing process adds the chemicals and minerals the chemists believe is effective without the variability of filtering or softening.

Softened water does have minerals, just fewer. That process does nothing for various chemicals that may be in untreated water. Along with adding sodium the ad dismisses. Finally the concentrate you are using has inhibitors for the very purpose of preventing corrosion.

 

Thanks for the info.


Distilled water is a "more pure" version of deionized water (no bacteria, etc).
I saw on a Toyota web site where they say to use deionized water. I think the 50/50 mix even says it uses deionized water.
So, distilled is fine. And, I'd say preferred in this case.

Or, buy the pre-mixed Toyota antifreeze.
For the slight price difference (antfreeze + distilled water), plus the ~80K/8year life of anti-freeze, get the pre-mix stuff, and don't worry about mixing the correct percentages.

As always, check and use what the vehicle says to use.
It clearly depends on the year/model of the vehicle being serviced.


Thanks again for the updated info.

 

mmmmm basically just the same as...... Used toilet water is basically the same as water......

Unless you put that nasty sealer in it, there is no need to "flush" it.
Drain the coolant, and install the CORRECT coolant that Toyota says to use.

You are stressing out way too much about coolant!

 

I think nix the term “super”? It’s 100% coolant, no water dilution? That’s the important thing. The object is to fill a system that has residual water, and still achieve a 50% mix. You can’t do that with (50% pre-mixed) SLLC.

 

That would be absolutely the easy way to go, in most threads other than this one. The stuff is already mixed to the right dilution in the jug, so when your cooling system is already at the right dilution, you can freely top off from the jug any time and in any amount that you want, and never have to worry about the percentages you're mixing.

But this thread is about a cooling system that got filled with straight water at one point. The problem with using the premix coolant now is that you never really get all of what's in the cooling system out when you drain. In fact, the amount you get out isn't very close to the published capacity. So then when you pour this premix coolant (the ratio in the jug is correct) into the cooling system with straight water left behind, the resulting ratio will be too low.

That's why some posters will suggest using non-premix for a situation like this. Drain the system (leaving however much behind), then measure in the coolant concentrate (exactly half the published system capacity), then finish with more straight water (however much goes in). Now you know you're at 50%.

One caveat there is that Toyota's premixed "SLLC" and non-premixed "LLC" aren't really the same stuff (even aside from being premixed or not). The LLC is an older formulation. I don't know a lot about the long-term compatibility between them.

Another idea would be to just take extra pains to really get as much of the water out of the system as you can. Open the radiator petcock, and the weird cock on the back of the block that nobody gets much coolant from, and take the hoses off the exhaust heat exchanger under the car. Really drain stuff thoroughly. Maybe even blow a bunch of air through the hoses and passages. Then put it back together, refill with the specified premix, and call it a day.

 

You could flush three or more times with Toyota Super 50/50 instead of distilled water and then finish with more Toyota 50/50 and achieve the same level of tap water removal at the end. However it would cost five quarts each time so the first three wasted flushes would be fifteen quarts (four gallons) at $25 a gallon rather than $1 a gallon for distilled water. Either way the process will take hours since you should warm up the engine to mix the flush before draining.

 

Use distilled for the price advantage over deionized. Super long life is premixed. Concentrate is not.

 

Again, it’s Toyota Long Life Coolant that is 100%: add the word Super and that’s the 50/50 mix.

 

But [Unsuper] Long Life is supposedly an older formulation, which had to be changed more frequently in the vintage Toyotas for which it was specified. Do you have inside information that they are actually identical, aside from the dilution factor? Who even knows whether Red LLC is even compatible with newer engines for which Pink SLLC is specified?

 

No, AFAIK you should change it sooner. It’s really too bad (Toyota…) that you can’t get SLLC full strength, for situations like this.

 

IMHO it's close enough that chemically it's the same. You can look up the MSDS or SDS and check it out. Toyota started hiding with "proprietary".

And I still hold that the reason it is not the same interval is because Toyota can't control whether you put distilled, deionized, straight tap water, tap tainted by hose particulates. So what does Toyota do, but take worst case and say covered. Those that use the distilled change it sooner than necessary but so what, we get more coolant sales. Why else wouldn't Toyota sell a pink concentrate? Because they know if someone puts tap they can't promise the same longevity. (Oh "I put distilled" says some claimant, lying)....

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