Coolant Change Tips

[JamesL]

What do you do with the "old" coolant

The stuff that you managed not to get all over yourself or the floor of your work area, that is

[Iconic]

Tosh, Were you asking J. Huber or "us"?
The County I live in (Lake County, Illinois, USA) has a "Hazardous Waste Facility" available to us for this, as well as motor oil, and I was thrilled to bring them my 15 gallons of old gasoline when I drained it from the tank. Tosh, do you have something like this available to you?

[J. Huber]

We have a similar County facility here. Just drop and go. Paints, oil, coolant, enriched uranium, they take it all for free.

I'll be filling up old 1 gallon plastic milk jugs. Have my recent oil change oil ready to go as well.

[Raymond]

Advance Auto Parts now accepts Anti-freeze for proper disposal.  At least the ones here in Florida do.  They also accept, brake fluid, transmission fluid, etc.  Basically anything they sell, the will take back and recycle or properly dispose of.  I'm glad to see you ask.  We all have a responsibility to stop poisoning our ground water. 

[J. Huber]

Mission accomplished (I think). I went for the coolant change this morning. A couple things to report however. First, the procedure I used was:

1  warmed the car a bit
2. pulled the bottom hose loose from the radiator. Lots came out (mostly in my container I set under)
3. removed the 19mm nut on the engine block
4. ran a garden hose for a bit through the coolant tank -- which came out the bottom hose.
5. replaced hose and drain plug and refilled, warming up and topping off

Here were the notes.

That drain plug on the engine? Good news is it turned and came out easily. Bad news - not a drop of anything came out. Even while flushing. The bolt is a shallow (maybe 1/2 inch deep) bolt with a thin washer. This perplexed me -- did I have the correct drain hole? I did not see anything else similar on either side...

I used Zerex and it was not pink but a golden/yellow. Through the plastic in the bottle it looked pink -- that what threw me off when I bought it. Today what surprised me was at 50/50 it is pretty light. I was used to neon green I guess. It just looks watery to me. I used a total of about 9 liters (mixed).

Question: If I didn't have the right engine drain plug, will I have some kind of problems? (thinking if there was still some old stuff in there?) or could it be that nothing came out because I had already released it all from the hose connection?

Any body want to reassure me?

[Jordan]

James, how much coolant did you put back in the car?  Coolant capacity is 10.8L which I think is around 2.85 US gallons.

[J. Huber]

Well, Marcus I used a total of 320 ounces (us) because my measuring vessel had a 32 ounce line, and it took me ten of those to fill up. So a bit over 9 liters? how could that be? other than a liter or so was hanging out in there somewhere?

You don't think that drain plug hole had a clog? should I have poked something in?

[Jordan]

You added almost 9.5 litres so it is about 1.3 litres shy of what the manual says it should take to replace the coolant.  I am always a bit leary about sticking things in holes when I don't know what is suppose to be inside.  If it was the correct plug it may have been plugged with rust.  I don't know if it is possible to get a mirror up there to have a look in the hole with a flash light.  Maybe just prod it to see if there is any resistance.  Keep back because if it is plugged and lets go you will get covered in coolant.

[J. Huber]

Well, yes it seems like that other liter must have still been in there. I was not paying attention to exact amount that came out -- should have I guess. Once I started flushing, there went any chance to calculate the old amount.

I have attached a picture of what I believe is the drain plug. Nothing came out but it could be blocked by gunk as Jordan surmises. I took a spin and looked in coolant reservoir when I returned. Still at good level but it might have an ever so faint tinge of green? which would suggest some old stuff was still present. Are there any short term dangers in running the car as is? I can fairly easily do it all again. I have enough coolant and distilled water to try again. If I poke that gunk, will it go somewhere it shouldn't inside? or might it pass with a flush. Sounds like I am talking to my doctor! (sort of am...)

Thanks all.

[jacovdw]

James,

That sure does look like the drain plug to me.

Sometimes the drain hole gets blocked with sediment and calcium deposits (if hard water was used). There would be no harm done in poking the hole a bit, but would be better to do the poking without draining the radiator first.

That way, if you dislodge the crud, most of the pieces would be pushed out by the coolant draining from the block.

Have you flushed the heater core as well?

[J. Huber]

James,...

Have you flushed the heater core as well?

The what?    (in other words, no, how do I do that?)

I can poke the muck without draining radiator -- but should expect a gusher, ja? I'll be ready. If it does come out that way, I can then move over to radiator straight away? I have a couple pans.

BTW, this is why I ask you all for help. There is always something that makes my tinkering interesting. I appreciate it!

[thelews]

Since you have fresh coolant in there, you could reuse it by just running it through a paint filter.

[jacovdw]

James,

Perhaps the easiest way to flush the heater core is to disconnect one of the hoses (the one on the left hand side of the engine) that runs through the firewall and flush it with a garden hose once you have drained the cooling system.

The fact that you did not do it before could explain why your fill was less than 10 litres and also why your coolant looked a bit diluted for a 50:50 mix, assuming you turned the heater on at any point of course.

If you poke that drain hole before draining the system, you can surely expect a gusher. Therefore PLEASE ensure that the coolant is NOT at operating temperature to ensure that you don't burn yourself in the process.

[J. Huber]

Thanks Jaco and John. Looks like I will be trying it again!

When you say left hand side of the engine -- facing which way? James here, don't ya know.... and I simply disconnect the small hose at he firewall and then what?

[jacovdw]

Generally speaking, the handedness (left or right) usually refers to the direction of forward travel or the side the steering wheel is on...   

When you disconnect the hose, make sure that the heater valve is open (heater on) and then it is simply a matter of inserting your garden hose into the brass pipe (the one in the grommet on the firewall) of the heater core and flush away.

 

[ja17]

Hello James,

I would not obsess too much with getting every bit of old coolant out of the system. As long as your system is basically clean and most of the coolant has been replaced, you should be just fine. If you are still  concerned you may want to do your next change a bit sooner (eg. in two years instead of three).

You are far ahead of where you were before the change and the PH level in your system is much much better than before.

[graphic66]

Good idea to check for electrolysis also.  http://www.carolinarodshop.com/Store/Griffin/radiator_electrolysis.htm   I also like to ad Prestone Anti rust and water pump lube, maybe just snakeoyl, but I have never replaced a water pump in any of my vehicles since starting using it over 20 years ago. But electrolysis can eat up an engine quick, and is many times a bad ground.

[J. Huber]

Hello James,

I would not obsess too much with getting every bit of old coolant out of the system. As long as your system is basically clean and most of the coolant has been replaced, you should be just fine. If you are still  concerned you may want to do your next change a bit sooner (eg. in two years instead of three).

You are far ahead of where you were before the change and the PH level in your system is much much better than before.

Good advice Joe. Yes, I do tend to obsess on such things. Mainly don't want to screw anything up! But hearing from you that a little old coolant mixed with lots of fresh should be ok, makes me feel a whole lot better. I will move on to the next item on my list...

And Graphic, thanks for the link -- another thing I will have to look into.

Thanks all. I was hoping to have this all neatly condensed into a tech wiki section. Good idea?