Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting WATERPUMP FAILURES / Coolant

I was reading an article on the weekend concerning premature waterpump failures in cars produced with the "long life" coolant. The article mentioned the first generation of this long life coolant tended to break down faster than anticipated causing an acid build up, attacking many components of the cooling system including the waterpump.

The article also stated that vehicle manufactures also "very quietly" stopped using this first generation of long life coolant and switched to an improved version that didn't build up acids as quickly.

This was an issue in the mid to late 90's and only on North American cars. Has anyone else heard of this?

This is regarding the orange colored long life coolant, not the green, I believe. Not all north american vehicules came with this type of coolant.

The Contour never came with this coolant from the factory, although some people made the conversion later on in their vehicule's life.

I just drained orange coolant from my '98, when it's wp failed at the end of May. Bought it used in 2000 at 38,000km and believe this was the first change.
Changed out the green coolant from my '97 mid-May when its wp failed.