On Sunday, October 20, 2019 at 12:37:50 PM UTC-4, F Russell wrote:
On Sat, 19 Oct 2019 11:40:51 -0400, Clare Snyder wrote:

Reverse flushing removes any sediment and products of corrosion as
well as helping to neutralize the PH. If the lube shop is using a
reverse flush machine it will be the same as a dealer would use.
However, MANY garages are now using a recycler - which does the same
thing but filters and reconditions the original coolant, adjusting the
pH and replacing the additives as required. Done properly this is
every bit as good as replacement and does not involve producing
hazardous waste..


Thanks. This is the answer I suppose that I was looking for.

I had the coolant change done at one of the "speedy" lube
places. They wheeled out some machine that contained a
large, vertical, clear plexiglass tube in the center.
They first filled it with what presumably was fresh coolant
(green) from a reservoir. Then they hooked the machine up
to the car, attached a compressed air hose, and let it
operate. After a few minutes there appeared to be hot
steam being vented from the machine. After a few more
minutes the coolant that was added to the plexiglass
tube began to slowly empty. Then they were done. The
whole process took about 10-15 minutes.

I was also in luck. It just happened that they had
a special offer that week. The regular coolant change
charge of $89.00 was reduced to only $59.00.

But a lot of these "speedy" places are unscrupulous
and will usually try and sell you services that you
don't need or that are ineffective. I wasn't sure
if the coolant "flush" service was the real thing
or just a worthless ruse.

This lube place has good on-line reviews and seems
to be the real thing -- and it beats going to a
auto-repair shop where the wait time would be a lot
longer.

Decades of experience here with many cars. You know how many
I flushed? None. How many problems did I have that were attributable
to coolant? None.

IMO most of these Flush You places are scammers. I remember
back in the 80s, I had a fleet vehicle, Jiffy Lube was one of the
places we could take our cars for oil changes. They'd come into
the waiting room with a white paper towel and the tranny dipstick,
showing me that the fluid was tan, while new fluid is reddish,
telling me how it was dirty, needed to be changed. This happened just about
every oil change and we got new cars when they hit 60K, so the
cars were low mileage. I had access
to the GM shop manual for the car at the time. It clearly stated
that the red color was only a dye, that it would quickly change
to a tan color and it was perfectly normal, not an indication of
the fluid deteriorating or needing change. I think the manual at
the time also said the fluid was good to 100K, in normal service.
I saw plenty of customers fall for that though, having the tranny
fluid changed and flushed. I've also seen plenty of stories on
the internet where people flushed transmissions that were working
fine and soon after had problems. I can only imagine how much
money JL raked in with their servicing that which didn't need
servicing. Along those lines, what car manufacturer today says
that you need to even change coolant at two years, let alone
flush anything?