Why is my Orange Dex-Cool now Pink???

[Q451990]

I flushed the coolant in "Q2" a few weeks ago using the following method:

1) Drain radiator by pulling lower hose.2) Refill with tap water3) Run Car until it's fully warmed up.4) Turn off car and repeat.

I did this 6-8 Times - long enough to get any hint of the green stuff out. Then I repeated the above steps with distilled water in step two with 6 Gallons of distilled water. Finally I topped everything off with 1 Gallon of "Havoline Extended Life Anti-Freeze/Coolant" which is a dark orange color. When I took the car to T3 I took a jug mixed with the 60%Distilled/40%Coolant to top off the radiator after the rocker cover reseal. So... to my knowledge the system is all 60/40 Dex-Cool/Water.

I checked the coolant today and it's PINK!

What happened??

I called the 800 number on the jug and they said "It's just a dye in the coolant and doesn't affect the way it works, don't worry about it."

I've never seen this before! I've been using Dex-Cool in Q1 since 2000 and it's never changed colors - same story for my truck since May.

Does anyone know what chemical reactions would cause such a rapid color change???

Thanks,

Heath

[Q45tech]

Just like ATF even AF dye is temperature sensitive. Maybe they changed the dye chemical formula.........was it all from the same batch? RTV used to seal water pump?

[Q451990]

It's the same brand but probably not the same batch. It looked orange when I put it in, and it's orange in the jug. I noticed the label on the stuff I bought recently looks a little different than the jugs I bought last summer, so maybe they did change the dye or additives.

The water pump was resealed with that Nissan burnt orange color RTV prior to my buying the car, so I doubt that's it since it's had a few years to cure.

In any case I drained the radiator and refilled - so we'll see what it looks after a little mixing. I switched over to Mobil 1 and one of the 60U00 filters from my stash and had to bolt that transmission line that runs in front of the transmission pan back on while I was under there. I guess Byron was in a hurry. If that's all he overlooked I'll be happy.

Heath