shroomster

can someone link me to the diy on flushing the radiator?

I can't remember the order of the steps.......that &if I do it the way I'm thinking I'll probably end up screwing up the thermostat.

^^^won't that effect the headgasket?

mods: please close when the link is posted (if its the right one)

Boilermaker1

iTrader: (16)

All I ever do is drain the radiator, fill it with water, then turn the car on, with a hose keeping the radiator full and the drain still open, run for a few minutes, re-drain radiator, refill with 50/50, intentionally leaving more water in there than what there should be.

shroomster

alright. sounds like a plan. this is going to be my days project. even though it will take like 30 minutes.

Grey

iTrader: (61)

I looked through my DIY's (in my sig), but I didn't make one for that. I should. I've done it once now. The drain plug is on the bottom and it's a little white plastic thing. I think it has an arrow on it telling you which way to unscrew it. Just make sure that you catch that old radiator fluid. I take out the old, put in the new, and then pour the old back into the container which held the new. Hah, say that three times fast.

What else. You can either buy pure anti-freeze, or 50/50 pre-mized. The 50/50 stuff is good since they use clean water. If you use water from your house, then there might be minerals in it and they might leave deposits behind. Then again, there's so little and this operation is so infrequent that it doesn't matter much.

Hmm... What else? You should re-fill it from up top, but not from the reserve tank. The reserve tank will fill up on its own. Also, go out driving for a bit and come back and check the level. There might have been air bubbles that naturally escaped and settled everything. Then re-fill until you're full and betwean MIN and MAX on the reserve tank.

The garden hose thing is OK I guess, but that fluid isn't exactly environmentally friendly. Adding new fluid in after letting the old stuff drain out is sufficient. The new will mix with the old and everything will be hunky-dory.

You can also add some Water Wetter to increase the efficiency of the fluid. Google it to find out more.

shroomster

yeah grey, i actually searched you up first (all your DIY) in the DIY section that got stickied and found nothing hehe....

I actually am waiting for my car to cool down right now to start the flush on it and was wondering about something that happened when I jsut did my Mom's '05 Rav-4. I flushed with garden hose and left the drain **** open and i continued to add water once the engine was turned off (only water was coming out) and then once the engine turned off more fluid came out. I was wondering if that was the heater core etc. coming out. looked to be about a pint or so.


also do i need to turn the blower fan on with the heater turned to max or not?


next problem since dj02 made me see how stupid i was being hehe, why is the radiator (I'm adding to the radiator) only taking about a quart of fluid and then overflowing out of the neck?
sorry again for the earlier thread


I've emptied the radiator itself and flushed it and made sure its empty, but about the heater core and other parts still holding fluid: that wouldn't restrict how much goes in the radiator would it?