Prestone Warning !!!!!! Plz Read

[coyote kid]

I just bought prestone 50\50 mix and it froze in my Comanche at only 5 degreeze and cracked the head yes I flushed all original antifreeze out and it was pure 50-50 when I thawed it out and tested it it was far below the freeze point on the bottle so check your antifreeze !!!

[13 Legion]

Are you going to contact manufacturer? Or are you pretty much S.O.L.? I guess it might be a tough road to get any compensation or for them to take any blame. Maybe if it was done at a shop or dealer,,,cough..cough...we do it ourselves!!!...you might have a legal case. Anyway thanks for the insight. I never have checked a 50/50 mix but I will now.

[Jeep Driver]

Never have done the premix........won't either.

[coyote kid]

I contacted prestone and they said they would send me a replacement jug and I said what good would that do if I have a cracked head and they hung up on me !!!!!!!

[onlyinajeep726]

Bastards!

[ride172]

Whenever there is a cold snap coming I always check my coolant. A tester is cheaper than a soda at the gas station and way cheaper than a radiator or head or block. I always buy the full strength and dilute it myself. You get twice as much and it only cost a dollar or two more. Either way you buy it, a tester is cheap insurance.

[91Pioneer]

When you say you "flushed" the old coolant out, does that mean you used tap water on like a garden hose to flush it? If so, you had a lot of water left over in the cooling system and then you added the wrong stuff (too weak). I guess you know now, but when you do a flush, you need to add straight coolant to get a ratio that is more appropriate.

 

50/50 is not strong enough where I live. More like 60/40. IMHO 50/50 is only useful for topping up in an emergency, at least around these parts.

[HOrnbrod]

I had a gallon of Prestone 50/50 I use for occasional top-offs. Saw this thread, tested it, and it was good to -35F. It'll be a cold day in hell if the temp ever gets that low down here. 

[87manche1]

Why didn't the freeze plugs pop? Sure u got a cracked head?

[nitroxsteve]

Why didn't the freeze plugs pop? Sure u got a cracked head?

They are commonly called freeze plugs but they are actually not there for that reason. They are also known as "core hole plugs" and their main purpose is so that sand can be removed after the block is cast. I have never experienced them protecting an engine from freezing and cracking, but I have seen a few engines damaged from freezing and the "freeze plugs" were never pushed out.

[MancheKid86]

i used prestone 50/50 mix to fill my coolant system,

i was replacing my tsat with a new one and installing a line heater (that i never used!)

i guess i lucked out because i lived up in dawsoncreek last winter, and there were times it was -40c and more (which is -40f) and it was not frozen

you must have gotten a baaad batch,

good to keep in mind for when i flush my system tho!

[Oyaji]

It'll be a cold day in hell if the temp ever gets that low down here. 

 

Not a good conditional measurement  - it gets cold enough for Hell To Freeze Over for about half the year!

 

[AMCJeepMJ]

You're going to have a hard time convincing Prestone that their product caused the damage to your vehicle. If you still have the original bottle with remaining liquid coolant in it you may wish to secure it.

 

What you will find is that bottles of premixed coolant sold at the same location you purchased your coolant from would have been from the same batch, and if others in your area that used the coolant had similar problems they would have gone back to the store at which it was purchased to complain. You may want to start there.

 

Should you come up empty-handed at the store and decide to pursue this with Prestone, if you are not flat-out told to go jump in a lake by them, be prepared to provide a sample of your remaining bottled coolant and the coolant from your rig for their chemical analysis. If you're trying to pull one over on them to get a new engine by having added a bunch of water to a 50/50 mix, they may go as far as to sample your local tap water for chemical similarities as engine repair isn't cheap at any shop. Better pay to get a diagnosis from a reputable shop or even a Jeep dealership on why the head cracked, too.

 

Prestone has been in business a long time; they know what they're doing, and know what formula their products are as they have professional chemists working for them- too much of a deviation from their original expected formula of a 50/50 mix could be bad news for you; they are not in business to lose or give away money.

 

While you're at it, better start getting leads on replacement parts to do it yourself while this drags on for months.

 

Best of luck to you but be prepared to be disappointed.

[Tactical Bacon]

What probably happened is when you flushed the system out, there was still water left in the block. Then, when you filled it with the pre-mix, it mixed with the water already in there bringing the ratio of coolant to water down to an unsatisfactory level. That's one possiblity, and I'm not taking sides. I personally hate that universal crap. It's bad juju to use in anything except for when you're trying to make it to the shop or trying to survive until payday so you can flush the system and fill it with the proper OEM required coolant (fun fact, the universal fails to meet the OEM spec requirements of IAT, OAT, and HOAT). Not to mention it says it can mix with any color but when you mix it with some of the new Chrysler and Ford HOATs, it messes crap up and then people b*@$£ me out because they bought it where I work. But I digress. Good luck with any legal battles you might pursue and like others said, start working on fixing it yourself, then fill it up with the OEM green.