Hello,

I have a 2002 2.3l manual and will be replacing some cooling system parts soon.

I've read through several posts about what is the right coolant to use and they have been very helpful (green vs red vs gold/yellow). However, I am a little confused. My manual doesn't specify what type to use, but seeing as it's a 2002 and the gold HOAT stuff came out in the 90s I would think that's what they would spec for, however when I open my hood and look at my overflow tank it has a sticker that indicates quite clearly to use green coolant, not yellow. The truck has had yellow coolant in it since I bought it second hand, so my question is should I bother switching back to green because of this sticker or does it no matter and I can use the gold stuff?
I already have a ton of it that I bought ready for when I do my repairs before I noticed this sticker. it would be a pain to have to go out and buy green instead, but if it really matters then I would.

 

Green is usually silicate based so needs to be changed every 2 years, but color is NOT standardized

Many chose to use HOAT because it can mix with either silicate OR OAT(organic acid base), so its a safe choice, and lasts 5 years

Silicate and OAT(red/pink) will form a sludge if they are mixed in a cooling system

None are better than the other, except for how long they can last
Silicate is 2 years
OAT and HOAT(hybrid OAT) last 5 years

On my older vehicles I use silicate, because I KNOW I will have some break down or problem in the 2 years that will more than likely have me draining the coolant, and then either topping it up or getting new
And I am thrifty(wife say cheap, lol) so I use the less expensive "Green coolant"

If its a newer vehicle then HOAT is better because it last longer and if you do need to top it up you can use ANY other type of coolant to do this

 

Thanks for the reply. I even went and looked at the fluids and capacities chart you posted on previous post about coolant. My questions is more about conflicting information. While this sticker on my overflow tank says green only, the chart says my model year should take yellow and your post seems to say it doesn't matter as long as you don't mix green and red. Can I safely ignore the sticker? Ok to keep using yellow like you say?

 

Yes, you can ignore the sticker and use HOAT

Sticker was put on(2002) when common choice was Green or Red(or GMs Dex-cool/orange), which is why it says Green only, HOAT was not commonly available then

Dex-cool was/is OAT, GM started using it around 1996 it did have a few issues, one of those was people topping it up with green
So you had the reverse happening with Fords, people topping up with OAT, hence GREEN ONLY sticker