New water pump and dirty looking antifreeze?

Question

Just had a new pump put in my '04 Impala is it normal for the antifreeze to be brownish both in the stock
tank and radiator?

Answer 1

There are so many different types and colors of antifreeze nowadays it's hard to say.

I seriously doubt they would put old dirty antifreeze in your car.

Answer 2

If it looks dirty I would hope that they did not put your old antifreeze back in, look at your receipt and see if they charged you for new antifreeze.

How for what is needed, the vehicle needs to be completely flushed out and I mean completely, the radiator the heater core, the hoses, the engine and replace the thermostat and any other parts that look bad or have a lot of miles on them like the hoses.

Flush out the system manually and don't use any type of power flushing, this can lead to other problems now or at a later date.

Replace with the original type of antifreeze Dex-Cool and I know that everyone hate it but it is better for the cooling system only if you change it at 25,000 mile intervals.

GM has stated that Dex-Cool will have problems if it is left in the vehicle for their recommended 5 years or 100,000 miles.

I have seen this many times and if you are successful in flushing the system out you should have no more problems, but I would have a talk with the shop that did the work also.

Answer 3

Water pumps have a seal to hold the water from leaking out the spinning shaft, and the seal always wears out about every 100,000 miles. It is probably this seal that is bad, because it is probably the original pump, and you replace the whole pump. You have to take the front belt cover off and remove the timing belt, so it is not a trivial job. Cost about $300, and takes about 2 hours. But any friend who understands timing belts can do it easily. No special tools or tricks involved, other than making sure the cam timing is correct. Once you take the 3 bolts holding the water pump housing off, you can easily tell if any hoses or clamps should also be replaced. Do the thermostat while you have it off anyway. It is only $5.

Answer 4

It depends. If the gasket compound that they used leached into the antifreeze, it might.

I would change the antifreeze and be done with it, (I wouldnt "think" that the garage would put old antifreeze in there, but who knows). With an '04, it should be an aluminum block, so the old cast iron one would have been a factor in rust, but not in the new blocks. I would ask the garage about this one and see what type of sealant they used, and why it is brown?

Oh yea, if they put that new "orange" antifreeze in there, get it flushed and put the green one in! That orange one eats any type of gasket material! I had one put in my 01 malibu!


I wish you well...

Jesse

Answer 5

Brown? Could it be orange? If it is orange than it is Dex cool. If it is brown than you have some sort of contaminant in it.

Change and flush if it is brown. The best way to tell is put some in a glass from the rad drain valve. I would go ahead and do it anyway since the pump went out. It is always good to change it out when you replace the pump.

Answer 6

generally when they change water pump, they change antifreeze. i am guessing that you should be using the orange antifreeze which i think is called dex cool. it is specific to general motors. if they mixed the green with it, i think you might get brown. i would give em a call and see whats up with it. the new prestone claims to be compatible with any system and with any preexisting AF. good luck, keep your greasy side down.

Answer 7

No. That means some monkey put green antifreeze in with your orange Dexcool. It turns into brown goop. You need a killer flush to clean all that stuff out.

Answer 8

no its not normal,i own a repair shop and they should have flushed the whole system out on it when they put the water pump on it,this probably would have stopped that from happening to it,but if i was you id have it flushed out real good,that's not good for the cooling system at all to look like that,once you have it flushed out it should look a lot better than that ,good luck hope this helps.

Answer 9

no...the only way its brownish is if the radiator is rusted....the radiator fluid needs to flushed with the correct mixture of 50.50 misxture. use distilled water it prevents rusting and calcuim deposits in the radiator

Answer 10

You may need to change the anti-freeze. It sounds like there's a little bit of rust in the system.