New coolant type?

[ice445]

So I went to the Ford dealer today to grab a gallon of coolant just to have, and they gave me a "Yellow" variant instead of Orange. Part number is VC-13DL-G and on the Ford parts website it shows fitting 2020 Mustangs only from 1/1/20. My car was built October of '19, is this right? The coolant in my reservoir looks kinda pink to me, but its hard to tell color through the plastic.

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[ORRadtech]

I ran into the same thing last week. My '18 EB has orange coolant in it, yours is likely orange too.
The parts guy handed me a gallon of yellow and said that's what they are using now. I asked if it could be mixed with the orange. At first he said it could, then changed his mind and said no, it won't mix.
I said thanks but no thanks.
On impulse I tried a different dealer and they had the premixed orange but only yellow in straight. I got the orange premixed to top up.
I've tried to research if the two can be mixed but haven't had much luck getting a definitive answer.
Oddly, on the showroom floor they had vehicles with both colors. I don't know the model years of the ones I looked at and which had which.
If you cannot find a dealer with the orange I did see the premixed orange on Amazon.

 

[Chef jpd]

Not to be a dick, but why are you changing the coolant in a less then 1 year old car?

 

[ice445]

Not to be a dick, but why are you changing the coolant in a less then 1 year old car?

I'm not, I just enjoy having a gallon on hand just in case. Never know what may leak.

 

[oneheadlite]

Wonder if anyone has had any trouble with their Mustang radiator
gumming up with the 'orange' coolant?

Seems like Dexcool has this problem..........

 

[ice445]

I ran into the same thing last week. My '18 EB has orange coolant in it, yours is likely orange too.
The parts guy handed me a gallon of yellow and said that's what they are using now. I asked if it could be mixed with the orange. At first he said it could, then changed his mind and said no, it won't mix.
I said thanks but no thanks.
On impulse I tried a different dealer and they had the premixed orange but only yellow in straight. I got the orange premixed to top up.
I've tried to research if the two can be mixed but haven't had much luck getting a definitive answer.
Oddly, on the showroom floor they had vehicles with both colors. I don't know the model years of the ones I looked at and which had which.
If you cannot find a dealer with the orange I did see the premixed orange on Amazon.

Thanks, seems like it was a mid model year change. So I assume I do have orange and I need to go back and swap. This document here seems to suggest you can mix the two, but its not recommended.

 

[ORRadtech]

Wonder if anyone has had any trouble with their Mustang radiator
gumming up with the 'orange' coolant?

Seems like Dexcool has this problem..........

Speaking only for myself, I have 3 ford vehicles that use orange. '18 EcoBoost Premium mustang convertible with 50k miles, '14 Fusion w/around 75k and a '12 Edge w/160+k and none of them have had any cooling system issues at all.

 

[oneheadlite]

I had the Dexcool in my wife's ZR2 Blazer and around 35,000 miles it
cost me $700 for a Radiator and such.
A guy I worked with at the time said a friend that operated a garage
did 5 flushes of Dexcool per week; Ford and Chevy, (among others).

I flushed the Dexcool out of my '98 ZR2 pick-up @15,000 mi) and every vehicle I've
owned since I got robbed over the Blazer. (truck has 65,000 now)

Guess the Mustang is next..............

 

[Cheezzy]

Well i went to my dealer yesterday for the same thing got handed the yellow stuff and even asked them about it and they told me it was mixable and that's what they've been doing. I was like OK bought the jug and topped my coolant up with the yellow stuff. I guess i'll find out in the long run if it messes everything up.

 

[b058038]

I think this answer is more definitive, from another post:


I found another Job2 difference.

There was a change made for all Ford vehicles at the end of December 2019 regarding coolant. The yellow coolant-Motorcraft VC13 (not green), -has a longer service life than orange-Motorcraft VC3 (10 year/200k miles as opposed to 6 year/100k miles initial change-out) and improved corrosion resistance and resistance to deposits created within the cooling system. It is not advised to try to put VC13 in a car that was originally filled with VC3.

Both coolants are still capable, and the only real "benefit" to the change is for those who drive their cars 100k+ miles. In your scenario, I would just leave it alone and use what the car came with. As you know, there are always running changes and improvements.

Hope this helps.

Matt Korczyk
Ford Performance Info Center
Ford Performance Parts Vehicle Coordinator

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