How to Coolant Change
Author: Big Jim
Applicable to: All Vehicles
Added: 08/21/2004
Updated: 08/21/2004
I just did my annual coolant change today and wanted to remind some of you about a method of getting
a full change without a lot of unusual effort.
First drain the radiator from the petcock on the bottom right rear of the radiator. The petcock is turned
with a fairly large bladed screwdriver. Access is a bit awkward, and for the first time it may help to
remove the belly pan. The screw can be hard to turn. To make it easier to tighten up again, smear the
threads with a little silicon dielectric grease. The petcock does not come out of the radiator and you can
smear the grease on without taking it all of the way out.
This will drain the radiator and the coolant bottle, but very little of the block. Stick a garden hose in the
coolant bottle with the water turned on low until the water coming out of the radiator is fairly clear. Turn
off the water and close the petcock.
Find the Engine temperature sending unit. It is in an aluminum tube roughly below the throttle body. It
has one wire attached to it. You may want to remove the air inlet hose to the throttle body for better
acces. Remove the wire, then remove the sending unit. Mine needed a 17 mm wrench or you may be
able to use a 17 mm deep socket.
This will drain the heads and the upper block. Put the hose back into the coolant bottle with the water on
low and allow it to run until the water coming out of the temp sender hole is nearly clear. This will push
the coolant up out of the block.
Turn off the water, open the radiator petcock again and drain the radiator one more time so you will
have enough room from the proper quantity of coolant. Reinstall the temp sender, reconncet the temp
sender wire, and reconnect the air intake hose.
Now add full strength anti-freeze coolant to the bottle. It should take a full gallon and possibly a little
more. After running the engine and bringing it up to temperature to make sure the thermostat opens
you may need a little more coolant. You may also need to add a little more over the next few days if
there were any air pockets. You will probably end up using about 5 quarts, possibly 6 quarts.
I'll leave others to debate which coolant to use. I use Dexcool, but I switched over when the car was one
year old. Current conventional wisdom is to use the coolant your car came with but change it often.
Current conventional wisdom is also if you are going to switch, do it when the car is relatively new and
do a very thorough flush first. My Escape came with yellow hybrid coolant, and that is what I used on it's
first flush and intend to continue to use, still changing it annually.
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