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How to Change Coolant

Updated: Oct. xv, 2019

Let our auto repair skillful save you big bucks and show you how to change your own coolant.

FH07JUN_CHACOO_01-2 coolant Family Handyman

Change the coolant yourself and salve coin on automobile maintenance. Our experts show how to change coolant in both newer and older (pre-2000) cars.

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How to Change Coolant Overview

In the sometime days (generally before 2000), changing your vehicle's coolant was elementary. That process is shown in Footstep ii, below. After 2000, cars got more than complex and many DIYers got intimidated past the precise filling and "air-bleeding" procedures required to eliminate engine air pockets. But don't worry, it's easier than it looks. All information technology takes to get back in the game is a one-time $83 investment in an air-powered refilling tool. The details follow in Pace 3.

Either mode, you can change your coolant yourself in about an hour. Simply before you lot practise annihilation, bank check your owner's manual for the recommended procedures and coolant for your auto.

Draining and refilling coolant in older cars

Photograph ane: How to drain a radiator: Open drain cock

Open up the drain erect by unscrewing, twisting a quarter turn, or twisting and pulling. (The various styles are shown in the next photo.)

Drain cocks

Drain cocks come up in several different styles.

Photograph 2: Remove the hose

Push together the clamp spring with a slip-articulation pliers and slip the clamp away from the neck. Pull the hose free and drain the remaining coolant. If access is difficult, a hose clamp pliers saves time and bruised duke.

Hose clamp pliers

Hose clamp pliers are bachelor at auto parts stores or online.

Photo 3: Add together coolant

Stir 1 gallon of full-strength (not premixed) coolant and 1 gallon of distilled water together in a clean bucket before calculation the mix to the radiator.

If yous're way past due for a coolant change and your cooling system is corroded, you should accept your car in for a professional flush. The same is truthful if yous've mixed different types of coolant in your radiator. Just if you're on schedule for a coolant change and your coolant is free of brown, gunky corrosion (extract a piffling coolant with a baster to examine it), you can skip the flush process and perform a simple drain and refill operation yourself and salvage coin. Hither's how:

Start by buying the type of coolant listed in your owner'south manual. If your manual calls for an "extended life" coolant that isn't available at the motorcar parts store, buy information technology from the dealer. Don't buy a "universal" coolant. Using the incorrect coolant can cause premature component failure and void your warranty.

Raise and safely support the front end of your motorcar on jack stands. Identify a large drain pan nether the radiator and remove the radiator cap. If your radiator doesn't have a cap, remove the pressure cap from the coolant tank. And then open the drain cock and bleed the radiator.

Drain cocks come in several unlike styles—spiral threads, quarter-turn twist, and quarter turn and pull. Plastic drain cocks become brittle with historic period and tin break easily, especially if you endeavor to unscrew a quarter-turn twist mode. So, buy a replacement drain cock at the machine parts store before you brainstorm the job (they but cost a few dollars; return it if you lot don't need it).

And then remove the lower radiator hose clamp and hose from the engine to drain the remainder of the coolant. Use a slip-joint pliers to remove leap-style clamps. If you have trouble accessing or releasing the clamps with a pliers, buy a hose clamp pliers (see photo). Reconnect and clamp the radiator hose and reinstall the bleed cock later draining.

How to Put Coolant in a Car

Follow the coolant manufacturer's directions for diluting full-bodied coolant. Mix the coolant and water thoroughly in a clean saucepan. To prevent mineral deposits on internal engine and radiator surfaces, ever use distilled h2o—never tap water. Go out the car raised while you refill the radiator to reduce the possibility of air pockets forming in the engine.

Slowly fill the radiator or coolant tank with fresh coolant until the coolant is ane in. beneath the neck of the radiator or a few inches below the full marker on the coolant tank. Start the engine and permit it run. After the engine warms, yous'll see the coolant level quickly drop in the radiator/coolant tank. That ways the thermostat has opened and it's time to add more coolant to bring the level to the top of the radiator, or to the "HOT" marker on the coolant tank. Check your owner'southward manual or service manual to encounter if your motorcar requires a special air bleeding procedure. Check for leaks, shut off the engine, install the cap, lower the car and become for a spin.

CAUTION!

Used coolant is toxic waste. Pour information technology into a screw-cap plastic container and drop it off at a recycling center. Sweet-tasting coolant is irresistible to pets—and poisonous. Just a small corporeality can be mortiferous. Then soak up whatever spills with newspaper towels or rags immediately if you have pets wandering effectually.

Draining and refilling coolant in newer cars

Photo 1: Remove the lower hose

Sideslip the pointed stop of the removal tool all the way into the end of the hose. Then pull it around the radiator cervix to intermission the hose loose. Pull information technology off chop-chop and immediately directly the coolant into the drain pan.

Photo 2: Vacuum-fill the cooling system

Jam the make full tube into the coolant bottle. Then open the valve and let the vacuum suck fresh coolant into the system. Repeat the process until the arrangement is full.

Changing your coolant yourself, including ownership the air-powered refill tool, will save about $fifty on your very kickoff coolant change, and well-nigh $100 on each one afterwards that. This procedure works for any cooling system that's not contaminated with rust or oil. Nosotros'll show you how to cheque yours and and so how to change the coolant.

Here's what you demand to change coolant:

New coolant (ii gallons)
Air-powered refill tool (nigh $85)
Air compressor
Hose removal tool (most $4 from auto parts store or online)
Shop manual to locate block bleed plugs
Drain pan
Absorbent paper towels
Wrenches and screwdrivers

Start by checking the condition of your coolant when the engine is cool. Remove the radiator or coolant reservoir cap and examine the coolant color. If it looks rusty (don't misfile orange coolant with rust), has crud or oil floating on the top, or looks like chocolate milk, telephone call information technology quits and accept it to a pro. You have bug that this procedure won't solve.

If the coolant looks clean, starting time the chore by jacking up the vehicle and supporting it with jack stands. Next, place a large bleed pan under the radiator. Loosen the lower radiator hose clamp with pliers (springtype clamp) or screwdriver (worm-drive clamp) and remove the hose (Photo 1). If the hose won't budge, use a hose removal tool (ane selection is Tool Assistance No. SGT13860 available through our affiliation with amazon.com) to break it loose (Photo ane). Permit the radiator and water pump drain completely. Then reattach the lower radiator hose and clamp.

Next, locate and remove the block drain plugs (they're in a different spot on every engine, so refer to a repair manual for the location of yours). Reinstall the block drain plugs and move on to the refilling step.

Refilling motorcar with fresh coolant:

Insert the air tool (nosotros used the UVIEW 550500 AirLift II Economy Cooling Organization Refiller; available through our affiliation with amazon.com) into the radiator neck or overflow bottle. Connect the exhaust hose and compressed air line and route the open cease of the tool'southward exhaust hose into an empty gallon jug or pail. And then open the valve and allow the vacuum rise until the needle reaches the edge of the red zone on the gauge. Then fill up with coolant (Photograph two). The vacuum sucks out any air pockets equally it refills the system. When it's full, simply reinstall the radiator or overflow tank caps, remove the jack stands, and go for a spin.

Buying the Correct Coolant

Well-nigh DIYers buy coolant at the automobile parts shop because the label says it'southward "universal," pregnant it works in all cars. The carmakers disagree. Over the past several years, they've issued service bulletins alert that "universal" coolants are oftentimes incompatible with the newer metal alloys and gaskets and seals used in their vehicles. The carmakers aren't saying that just to increment sales of their proprietary coolants. They're seeing real (and expensive) damage acquired by these coolants.

If you use the wrong coolant, you won't see the harm for a few years. But when you do, it'll cost you a bundle. And then heed the manufacturer'southward warnings and buy coolant correct from the dealer. It'll cost about $vi more per gallon (most vehicles simply need 2 gallons), but the peace of listen is worth it.

Supercede the thermostat and radiator cap when you change the coolant

The thermostat is the single most important component in your vehicle'south cooling organisation because it regulates engine temperature. Notwithstanding near owners don't supercede information technology when they change their coolant. That's a mistake: A failed thermostat is the second most mutual cause of engine overheating and engine failure (a failed radiator fan is No. 1). And a worn radiator cap (sometimes it's on the overflow tank) can too contribute to engine overheating. Both parts are cheap (nearly $12 each at any motorcar parts store) and are cheap insurance against overheating.

A radiator cap is a snap to change (encounter photo). It's just a matter of unscrewing information technology and replacing it with a new one. Changing a thermostat yourself takes less than an hour (unless it's buried). To find out how to replace yours, see How to Replace a Thermostat. Merely if yours is inaccessible, pay a shop to supplant it.

Required Tools for this How to Add Coolant Project

Accept the necessary tools for this DIY project lined up before yous start—y'all'll save fourth dimension and frustration.

You'll likewise need a trouble light, jack stands, a drain pan, a saucepan, a funnel, dispensable gloves and hose clench pliers. For newer cars, yous'll demand an air-powered refill tool

Required Materials for this How to Add together Coolant Project

Avoid last-infinitesimal shopping trips by having all your materials ready ahead of time. Here'southward a listing.

Originally Published: Oct xv, 2019

Source: https://www.familyhandyman.com/project/how-to-change-coolant/

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