Organic Acid Technology
Certain cars are built with organic acid technology (OAT) antifreeze (e.g., DEX-COOL), or with a hybrid organic acid technology (HOAT) formulation (e.g., Zerex G-05), both of which are claimed to have an extended service life of five years or 240,000 km (150,000 mi).
DEX-COOL specifically has caused controversy. Litigation has linked it with intake manifold gasket failures in General Motors' (GM's) 3.1L and 3.4L engines, and with other failures in 3.8L and 4.3L engines. One of the anti-corrosion components presented as Sodium or Potassium_2-ethylhexanoate and Ethylhexanoic_acid is incompatible with Nylon_6,6 and Silicone_rubber, and is known as Plasticizer. Class action lawsuits were registered in several states, and in Canada, to address some of these claims. The first of these to reach a decision was in Missouri where a settlement was announced early in December 2007. Late in March 2008, GM agreed to compensate complainants in the remaining 49 states. GM (Motors Liquidation Company) filed for bankruptcy in 2009, which tied up the outstanding claims until a court determines who gets paid.
According to the DEX-COOL manufacturer, "mixing a 'green' coolant with DEX-COOL reduces the batch's change interval to 2 years or 30,000 miles, but will otherwise cause no damage to the engine." DEX-COOL antifreeze uses two inhibitors: sebacate and 2-EHA (2-ethylhexanoic acid), the latter which works well with the hard water found in the US, but is a plasticizer which can cause gaskets to leak.
According to internal GM documents, the ultimate culprit appears to be operating vehicles for long periods of time with low coolant levels. The low coolant is caused by pressure caps that fail in the open position. (The new caps and recovery bottles were introduced at the same time as DEX-COOL). This exposes hot engine components to air and vapors, causing corrosion and contamination of the coolant with iron oxide particles, which in turn can aggravate the pressure cap problem as contamination holds the caps open permanently.
Honda and Toyota's new extended life coolant use OAT with sebacate but without the 2-EHA. Some added phosphates provide protection while the OAT builds up. Honda specifically excludes 2-EHA from their formulas.
Typically OAT antifreeze contains an orange dye to differentiate it from the conventional glycol-based coolants (green or yellow). Some of the newer OAT coolants claim to be compatible with all types of OAT and glycol-based coolants; these are typically green or yellow in color (for a table of colors, see )
Read more about this topic: Antifreeze, Corrosion Inhibitors
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