It's been almost 5 years of ownership for me so I've been thinking about my coolant more and more. Is it good for the life of the Liberty or should I be switching it out for some new stuff?

I've checked on a couple bottles at the local parts store and they all say 5 years / 60,000 miles for the DCX blend of orange stuff. It just so happens that I have 5 years and 60,193 miles on my Liberty so I'd like to hear what everyone has done or thinks I should do

I changed the coolant when i bough my kj. It had that junk orange coolant in it. I completely flushed the system and replaced it with the regular green coolant. Ive had nothing but problems with the orange coolant in other vehicles i've owned. I can think of 2 where it "gelled" up and clogged the radiators.

Fairly sure the libertys cooling system is not made for that type of coolant. The green stuff is highly corrosive.

The coolant in the KJ's is a HOAT coolant not Dexacool like found in GM vehicles.Where your other vehicles '01+ DCX vehicles? Jeepjeepster is right,regular ethlene glycol antifreese is very bad in a vehicle not made to run with it in,and the KJ is not made for it,bye,bye cylinder heads(electrolisis).

The older ford tarus' used to get the water pump impellers eatten. The coolant was usually rust brown when it would happen in those though.

What do you think turned the coolant brown,the water pump impeller(I know I had a '96 Tarus that the WP impeller was eaten).Ethlene Glycol eats metal that are 2 different materials like the aluminum heads and cast iron block,even will interact with head gaskets and cast iron to make the coolant acitic.It does take some time and can be averted if you change the "green" coolant every 12 months.That's why Dexacool and HOAT coolants came out,they don't sucome to electrolisis.

The only orange stuff that was bad was DEXCOOL. It did a lot of damage to vehicles that were operated with owners believing in the 100K mile service interval. I'm at 60,000 on my original coolant and that is why I'm asking the question. My mind is telling me it's time to change it but I wanted to get a second opinion first.

Changing it every 3 years sounds about right. And I know I need a new T-stat before winter because my poor Liberty doesn't heat up like it once did.

For flushing - I'd use a quick oil change machine that hooks up to the upper radiator hose and removes all the old stuff and at the same time replaces the new stuff. It's fast and only around $50.00 (you don't get dirty this way.) I haven't performed a coolant flush manually on a vehicle with this type of setup.

That machine sounds pretty cool...where can I get one? Can you use it on the auto tranny for a flush of atf+4 like the shops do?

Another note on the quick oil change shops: Make sure you get one that uses the proper HOAT coolant and not something like DEX or the regular green stuff. Companies like Prestone have a specific coolant bottle labled "FOR THE FOLLOWING CHRYSLER PRODUCTS."

I think it's very important that the correct fluid goes back in (even though I have yet to change mine)

Edit: Here are a couple of links to the coolant - Valvoline

Great explaination of coolant types