mipinc

I just flushed my cooling system yesterday afer finding my coolent to be brown. I used 10 min flush to clean the system. The coolent was changed last year. How did it get brown? Is this normal or a serious problem. I got the timming belt and water pump changed last year.

DanNY

iTrader: (14)

old coolant?
oil in coolant?

Matt93SE

iTrader: (44)

If it hadn't been changed in a long time before that, the brown could simply be scale and other gunk that's built up in the system over the years- until you changed the coolant the last time.

you're probably going to beed to flush/change the coolant several times over the next few months to get all the gunk out of the system.

usually what I'll do (if it's not TOO hot outside) is just drain the system, then backflush the heater core and other parts where buildup can occur (use a water hose and fairly good pressure- but be careful not to blow anything up. compressed are is NOT good). but anyway, flush the system a time or two, then fill with clean water and drive it for 30-45 min.

let it cool down and do it all again.
do this 3-4 times, then fill with regular antifreeze/coolant and you should be good to go for another couple seasons.

Also, for the price of the coolant, It's not THAT big of a deal to just change it every spring or fall. lot easier to spend $8 on coolant every year than to spend $1500 on replacing an engine full of rust and scale.

mipinc

Thanks for the advice. I noticed that the resevoir had some brown dust like thing at the bottom. Good thing that it is npot a oil leak in the system. Should I get the heavy duty flush that requires multiple flushes over and over again?