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New Tucson, pink coolant in both engine and inventer

13K views 23 replies 11 participants last post by  garyahouse 
#1 ·
Hello everyone.
I just bought a new 2023 Hyundai Tucson Hybrid. Upon opening the hood, I noticed that both coolant container contain a pink coolant.
Every picture I had seen online shows that the inverter coolant is blue, but my can has pink coolant.

Is this normal?
 

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#2 ·
Looking online inverter fluid does not have to be blue. You are right it was blue for sure at one time in the Hyundai. I wonder if changing what they used fixed the incorrect low inverter fluid message.

OR - when they came from Korea it was blue, now that they come from Alabama it's pink?
 
#5 · (Edited)
Ha: maybe just a different food dye. Tastes the same, just looks different. :) One thing we do know that if there are two different reservoirs, these are two separate systems. I know my Camry hybrid had two systems, two separate pumps, etc. However, the hybrid pump wasn't subject to the same amount of wear and tear and the pump that cooled the gas engine: It ran nearly all the time.
 
#8 ·
Thank you everyone for your response.

To add slightly more detail... This Tucson Hybrid was manufactured in Korea, on January 2023. As mentioned it came with pink coolant in both reservoirs.
Years from now, when it is time to change the fluids, I wonder if the same coolant can be used in both reservoirs?
 
#9 ·
This is a good question and I don't know the answer. In one of the technical documents at hyundaitechinfo.com it says that the blue inverter coolant is a special high-resistance coolant. It also says the two (pink and blue) are not interchangeable. I don't see any similar warning in the owner's manual. I believe the dealer has two different part numbers for the two coolants.

The problem may come up sooner than you think. If you need to add coolant or drain coolant to work on something, you'll want to use the correct make-up coolant.
 
#11 ·
I would rely on the Hyundai parts guy since there isn't much choice to do otherwise. I already bought a gallon jug of the pink engine coolant from the dealer--part no. 00232-19098. I'm satisfied that this is the correct engine coolant because the parts guy showed me a list of Hyundai coolants that they carry for different model and year coolants and my year and model was listed for that coolant. As I looked at all the different coolants, I remember seeing blue coolant on the list and that it was a lot more expensive than the stuff I bought. In any case, I wouldn't just toss this pink stuff in the inverter without calling the Hyundai parts guy to make sure its recommended for the inverter.
 
#12 ·
Great call on the parts guy. I used to get irked at the Kia dealer parts guy when I wanted a genuine oil filter. He would look it up every time. I finally asked and he said because he wants to make sure they did not change to something different. Makes good sense.
 
#16 ·
I called the dealership and spoke to the service manager and he confirmed that they installed green coolant as that is all they had on site and that the long life green coolant is just as good as the pink fluid as per the TSB they followed. I asked if they flushed the coolant system with the new special pump and he also said yes yet this information is not indicated on the work performed during my visit.
 
#18 ·
Don't think I'd be very happy with the "we used green cause that's all we had" line. These new vehicles seem to be VERY specific regarding fluids and oils. I would try to find out the exact part # for the green coolant they used, and the TSB details. Tell your service dept that you need to know that specific part# so you can have some spare on hand. With that info call another Hyundai service dept and say "I need to add a bit of coolant and I have this green coolant", give them that part # and see what they say.
Hopefully they're correct that it's fine but I'd be wary.
 
#20 ·
Just a thought about coolant. I went through this with my Camry hybrid and suspect that ALL hybrids have this in common. If you're a DIY guy, beware of doing your own coolant flush on the hybrid system coolant. This is NOT the engine coolant system, but rather the second system designed to cool the inverter. I was warned that if ya try to do it yourself, and get air in the system, you could burn up the inverter (very $$$). I am a mechanic and do most of my own work, but I would not do this without KNOWING I was following the correct procedure. They had a special procedure to properly drain, refill, and "burp" out the air on my hybrid. I suspect the Hyundai is the same.

And I would agree that certain types of coolant can be combined, and certain types absolutely CAN NOT. Beware.
 
#21 ·
Forgot to mention that this special procedure that they used involved activating the coolant pump WHILE the engine was off by using their fancy computerized equipment. They did this to get all the air out of the system incurred when they did the drain and refill of the antifreeze.
 
#23 ·
I'm betting they added pink to the old blue and came out green.
I thought so too, but according to google pink plus blue makes purple.

If it was my car I'd be pissed off they just tossed some random green coolant in there. OEM updated Hyundai coolant for this vehicle is pink.

I'd push them to flush it again to the correct Hyundai pink coolant, if they refuse, take it up with Hyundai corporate.

The dealer didn't do the recall correctly and very likely that coolant is not designed to be in the hybrid inverter system. You can't trust that it will last the correct maintenance interval, you don't know what it is.

If it makes you feel any better, I've recently had a major dealer battle over a botched and unnecessary alignment, destroyed steering wheel, and damaged airbag.

Had to go back 5 times to correct it. Probably will make a post about it one day.

Push to have it fixed properly. Don't let them get away with this.
 
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