Rust colored coolant?

When very rusty or bad I used a DC voltmeter, with the negative in the middle of the radiator coolant and the positive on the vehicle frame. If I saw a small voltage like a volt or two the antifreeze was bad. No voltage I would check its ability for cold protection, add a can of water pump lube and let it go. bad anti freeze acts like a battery and that will cause electrolysis and start eating up fittings, copper radiators, hoses .

If I felt real strongly about changing it then I would, I also changed all the hoses and belts.
I do that now days every other year as I just hate trouble on the road and hoses and belts are cheap. My 2009 Tacoma will get new hoses and belts next summer.

 

Thanks everyone. I'll be checking the coolant color outside of the radiator later tonight and I'll report back.

 

Better safe than sorry.

Ran my OEM belts for 10 yrs, still on the same hoses. it has never got above the 1/2 mark on the temp gauge, so they havent been hard heat soaked or puffed at all. I pulled the upper hose off when I did the coolant change recently, just to peek inside and see the condition. saved the old belts for backups. The bad thing about replacing the belts, is if you get your tensioners to tight, you can burn up the mileaged accessory's faster. A fresh belt grabbing that used accessory puts just a bit more strain on it, until the belt breaks-in and stretches just a tad.

 

Yeah so uhhhh, I was just testing you guys. The coolant was pink when I pulled some out. So no rust, no problems.

Don't worry, you passed the test.

THANKS!

 

Groovy

 

Yeah, wearing those 3-D glasses with the different colored lenses around really isn't so cool anymore. And it does throw the coolant color off a bit.