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Many machines are leaving factories containing extended life coolants (ELCs). This is a plus for equipment owners, who benefit from the longer service life these fluids can provide - typically up to 600,000 miles, 6 years or 12,000 hours if properly maintained.

Yet, the change in coolants has also created some challenges for equipment managers. "There are a lot of vehicles coming into customers' locations nowadays with extended life coolants. Some of the old equipment still has conventional coolant in it," notes Carmen Ulabarro, coolant marketing specialist, ChevronTexaco. "A lot of customers are struggling with the fact that they have to maintain two types of coolants in their equipment."

Fleets transitioning to ELCs may also be faced with a lengthy conversion process. Until now, the only options have been to drain, flush and refill the system, or simply drain and refill with new coolant. Both methods take time to complete, plus require disposal of waste coolant. Draining and refilling without flushing the system also carries the risk of leaving behind old coolant and deposits.

A faster, easier option

While ChevronTexaco continues to recommend drain, flush and refill as the optimum means to convert equipment to ELCs, the company now offers a "quick fix" in the form of its FleetFix Conversion Pack.

A primary component of the FleetFix pack is a concentrated version of the inhibitors found in the company's ELC products. "We brought out FleetFix to help customers do the conversion a lot quicker than you would with a drain, flush and refill, and also a bit more economically because you don't have to get rid of the coolant. It never really leaves the system. It just gets treated with a high dosage of extended life inhibitor and basically gets turned into an extended life coolant," Ulabarro explains.