Amarilu84
Junior Member
I have a 2008 Dodge RAM 1500 TRX4 Quad Cab V8 5.7L. I received this truck back in 2018 to which it was owned by a single owner as a farm vehicle. I regularly maintain the vehicle. This year, it occurred to me the radiator fluid is quite old (~140,000 mi). It is unknown to me if that was the original coolant or not, and I couldn't verify that with the previous owner.
I decided to drain and flush the coolant, and then replace it. If I remember correctly, the previous coolant was an orange color. It is entirely possible that this coolant had been changed before, and the previous owner might have forgotten or been unaware. I drained the radiator, and flushed out the system with distilled water. I kept flushing it out until the water coming out of the radiator petcock was mostly clear. I then replaced the coolant with Prestone "All Vehicles" Antifreeze. I properly cut it with distilled water and topped everything off. I also burped the system to get all the air out.
About a month later, I developed a pin-sized radiator leak on the radiator itself near the top-center in one of the small pipes behind the fins. Is this something I did wrong? I thought I looked thoroughly into what types of antifreeze to not mix together, and how to completely flush a system out when replacing it with a different kind, etc. Is this perhaps a coincidence?
It's been 3 months, I have had to use 3 bottles of Barr's Stop-Leak which temporarily stopped it but it obviously began leaking again. I know it needs to be replaced. Now P0128 is going off with the thermostat and the engine is running too cool. The coolant level is fine, it's not low. I'll probably have to replace the thermostat, too, now. The nasty brown color from the stop-leak looked harmful, after 3 applications, so I drained and flushed out the system again and put clean coolant in it. The pin-hole leak hasn't gotten much bigger, but it's definitely not getting any better. I can't afford to replace the radiator just yet.
Did I mess something up from the beginning? And what can I do to stretch this thing out for 2 more months? Thanks for your help.
I decided to drain and flush the coolant, and then replace it. If I remember correctly, the previous coolant was an orange color. It is entirely possible that this coolant had been changed before, and the previous owner might have forgotten or been unaware. I drained the radiator, and flushed out the system with distilled water. I kept flushing it out until the water coming out of the radiator petcock was mostly clear. I then replaced the coolant with Prestone "All Vehicles" Antifreeze. I properly cut it with distilled water and topped everything off. I also burped the system to get all the air out.
About a month later, I developed a pin-sized radiator leak on the radiator itself near the top-center in one of the small pipes behind the fins. Is this something I did wrong? I thought I looked thoroughly into what types of antifreeze to not mix together, and how to completely flush a system out when replacing it with a different kind, etc. Is this perhaps a coincidence?
It's been 3 months, I have had to use 3 bottles of Barr's Stop-Leak which temporarily stopped it but it obviously began leaking again. I know it needs to be replaced. Now P0128 is going off with the thermostat and the engine is running too cool. The coolant level is fine, it's not low. I'll probably have to replace the thermostat, too, now. The nasty brown color from the stop-leak looked harmful, after 3 applications, so I drained and flushed out the system again and put clean coolant in it. The pin-hole leak hasn't gotten much bigger, but it's definitely not getting any better. I can't afford to replace the radiator just yet.
Did I mess something up from the beginning? And what can I do to stretch this thing out for 2 more months? Thanks for your help.
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