JCiesla

I'll start by saying sorry, this isn't specific to a truck at all but it's generic enough and specific to Ford so I'd like your opinions;

My brother's '15 (I think) Explorer was a lease that he bought out at the end of his term. Recently my sister-in-law was driving it and it had an issue where it threw some errors and made some noises. She got home and I was visiting shortly thereafter so I had looked it over to help them decide if it was driveable to the dealer.

Anyway, the important part is that it had also leaked some coolant from somewhere and that coolant was green. The coolant in the reservoir and that which, as far as I know is prescribed by Ford, is orange. I'm a little concerned not that I don't think you can mix coolant but being a lease, he has never had it serviced by anyone but Ford. I almost feel like there's something sketchy there like that at some point they flushed the coolant and did so with cheaper, green coolant, then topped off the reservoir with the standard orange to hide this fact? I'm not sure what to think. Why is a color other than that of the fluid in the reservoir leaking from somewhere further down the line? I'm 99% sure it is in fact coolant based on scent, feel, appearance etc and idk what else in the vehicle it could be. Can anyone make sense of that and if he does have documentation saying the dealer at any point had done a coolant flush and charfged him for orange motorcraft stuff, should he complain that he was potentially given the wrong fluid? Whether it matters or not, if he was charged for motorcraft which is orange, whatever they put in may not be as expensive as motorcraft, no?

RLXXI

If it's a bright green it's probably the dye they use in the a/c system for leak detection. They come with it from the factory. Put a UV light on it and it should light up real bright white. Might need some yellow glasses (think shooters glasses) to filter out blue light to see it better.
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JCiesla

I had come across that info in a Google search but I had never experienced seeing something like that and it was so much I figured there's no way it could be ac leak because I figured it was too much to have accumulated without evaporating. Nonetheless we decided it can be driven to the dealer so I'll report back. You're probably right, thanks

20004.6

Ford used a dye in the orange coolant, that when drained or leaks appears green in color.

JoeinGa

ANY chance it might be windshield washer fluid? I bought a bottle of w/s washer fluid at WalMart a few weeks back. And it is green in color...

JCiesla

No, I asked that question as well trying to narrow down what green fluids we could be seeing. He's got it in to the dealer now so we'll know soon I guess!

JCiesla

Ding ding ding. Dealer says it is indeed an AC leak. It just seemed like so much I can't believe so much accumulated without evaporating but I really know nothing about modern AC systems so that's that. Thanks for the input guys

RLXXI

The dye is suspended in refrigerant oil, that's why it "stuck around"
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JCiesla

Fascinating. Well I guess that's a pretty helpful tidbit to know. Thanks again

RLXXI

Happy to help and hopefully the repairs aren't too high. When an a/c system dumps that much fluid there's a bad reason for it that can get expensive.
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