OK...I am due for a coolant change and my handy dandy service writer sets me up. Everything is cooo.

I call today to ask for him and of course, Murphys Law...he no longer works there. NOW they wont let me bring my own coolant and the guy informs me that they dont even do a flush.

So now I have mixed opinions. I was told LAST time that the coolant was flushed and it was written that way on invoice. But all they are doing is draining and filling it for 53 frickin dollars. I can do that in my driveway for price of coolant only. I just dont want to capture and find a place to recycle antifreeze.

I am SO ****ed. This place is "A+" or what ever certified and they are LYING when they say they are flushing...its a DRAIN AND FILL. What is the FRICKIN point of a drain and fill? You only change out a small percentage of the fluid.

So my questions:
1) I dont want to do this at home due to EPA crap and dont wish to dispose down the storm drain.
2) Does it have to be hooked up to a machine to be flushed?
3) Has anybody done it themselves and used the air bleed screws?
4) worse comes to worse...where do you dispose of coolant?

I am SOOOO angry. I give them some business...and I get the royal FU!!!!

 

hhahaha

I did it this summer, had lots of pans underneath to catch the coolant... still made a little mess, but it washed away

I'm no expert at flushing, so I don't know the "proper" way to do it. I drained the coolant, and continually refilled with water, running the engine for a bit, drained again... until the stuff coming out looked clear. (Yes, this took a LOT of old gallon jugs to store)
The final run I used Zerex Radiator Flushing fluid, and ran it for 10 minutes or so. Drained it out, and did the refill/run/drain/refill/run/drain cycle another 2 times I believe.
At that point I drained, and filled the radiator with 100% antifreeze, since that mixture should work properly with the amount of water in the block I think. Either way, it was close. Opening up the air bleeder screw doesn't really do the trick--I had to physically remove the screw to make it bleed properly. Even then, I still had to burp the radiator... revving the engine up with the radiator cap off seems to do a good job at exposing the bubbles. It also helped that I had a funnel tightly sealed inside the radiator filler neck, so there was plenty of room for the coolant to expand and bubbles to come out. Eventually it got to the point where the coolant only rose and fell whenever I revved it, so I figured it was well burped. I put the drain pan underneath to catch the spillage, filled the reservoir up to the HOT FULL line with 50/50 mixture, raised the reservoir up above the cap, pinching the hose to bleed it, then put the reservoir back in. The reservoir's level went down maybe 1/2 inch maximum over the past 6 months, probably due to air in the heater core (it didn't really happen until it got cold out, and I started using the heater).

There HAS to be a better way to do this. I cannot fit a wrench or anything around the block drain plugs to save my life (well, I did buy a smaller 1/2" drive ratchet recently, maybe it can fit...)

 

BTW, I think Autozone or Advance Auto have tanks in the back for storing this ****, so just take your jugs there... (same with oil & oil filters, they can dispose it properly)

 

Bitter...bitter...bitter. Go buy a new TL already.

J/K...Jon. I too would like to know what's involved with flushing out the old coolant or what shop procedure works best? Also, what coolant were you planning on running? I'm only at 3yrs. ~30K, but I had to add a little drinking water to top off my coolant reservior and I know you're supposed to only use demineralized water or something. Plus, when I popped my radiator cap to check the coolant height, I found some floating white/tanish chunks of crap.

Anyways, I know the FSM has the procedure for replacing the coolant, so I'll have to do some reading. I'd prefer to find a reputable shop that can peform a 100% flush vs. my wasting gallons of water flushing out the old coolant.

 

There are a couple of good threads regarding coolants in the Fluids forum. I think the Red/Green thread has a some good posts about flushing too.

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=278600

 

LOL...had I not just purchased my house...I WOULD have a TL in the garage. But I have to get some miles outta the Max first now. But there will be NO Nissans again in my family. This place was supposed to be A+...A+ for what?

Soon, Ill be out of Nissan service worries and can just do the work on my own. I perused motorvates coolant change, since I can DYI, not a biggie...just dont want to be TOO environmentally unfriendly.

For coolant changes, you are supposed to used distilled water only (mineral removal) in a 50/50 ratio for maximum cooling. The fact you have white chuncks floating around...I would at MINIMUM do a drain and fill in this situation, but you should probably get it taken care of soon. Thats calcification and can block the coolant passages. Just have to make sure the coolant is silicate and phospate free. It will say that on the bottle. If it doesnt say silicate free...dont use it.

Hey spirilis...what did that Zerex Flushing fluid claim to do? I use the premixed 50/50 coolant to fill, but am curious as to this flushing fluid.

 

huh, I used Prestone coolant too... oh well, I'll flush it out with Nissan OEM coolant next summer and hope for the best

 

In a true flush a machine is hooked up to the cooling system and old fluid is pumped out as the new fluid is pumped in. I have first hand experience with these units and it is a very thorough system.

 

What is a NAME brand on a system like that?

I want to know what to look for.

 

Beats me, looks like a detergent (the water had some foam/bubbles in it when I popped open the rad cap to drain it out)

 

Hmmm, off to the parts store to find out... [as he scratches his head]

 

Is that my Ford dealer does the FLUSH and DISTINGUISHES the difference between the two. Granted each has their own different cost, but they tell the differences between the two services.

So why cant Nissan do this...? I bet its a COST issue. Cost to much to have GOOD people work there and have GOOD equipment.

Nissan

Service and after the sale treatment has killed my opinion of this company. I have tried serveral times to give them the benefit of the doubt...but each and every time I get the shaft.

 

Here you go:
http://www.protechbuffalo.com/prodaff.html

http://www.acsource.com/product.asp?3=337

http://www.lujanusa.com/x-change/x-change.htm

http://www.asedeals.com/ARU2.html
etc...

 

I've heard from one source that it's actually ok to pour coolant into your toilet (not the sink, but toilet is ok). I am not sure if this is true, so I've still got about 4 gallons in my garage waiting to go somewhere. I've also got 6-7 gallons of oil built up from a long period of time in protein containers. I need to dump this stuff at some store

I'm personally doing what motorvate.ca said, which is just do the radiator every 15k miles. I looked at the engine block drain plugs. GOOD FREAKING LUCK. If my life depended on it I could undo them, but otherwise why bother...All I personally did was empty the radiator, run my hose through it for a little bit, and then fill it back up with prestone/distilled water 50/50. You can buy kits, or do what spirilis did if you really want to get all that old crap out of there, but I'm just going to do what I said here every 15k miles. If you don't want to guess at ratios with water in block + pure antifreeze in radiator, you could just run through a bunch of anti-freeze if money wasn't a big concern, although I really do think that switching out just the radiator (about half the total amount I believe) every 15k is will be adequate.

 

See that's what I was planning, however with your "hose" flush method, you're going to have lots of non-distilled water left in the system when you refill.

 

The more I think about it...I believe I am going spirilis method. I have a water distiller and purchasing distilled water is cheap.

I think I am going to:

1) Drain radiator
2) Fill with distilled water.
3) Run car.
4) Drain raditor

And continue with those steps until it flushes fairly clean. Then add appropriate amount of coolant to balance the system at 50/50. Ill buy a testor for that too.

I call ALL the service centers of Nissan and ALL do not flush/fill. Most said its a 100K fluid and dont change until then. OK...what about acidic breakdown? 100K for coolant is crazy.

So looks like I am on my own on this one.

Better off probably. At least it will get done correctly.....

 

I'll do the same...just need to figure out approximately how much water I'll need.

How many qts. or gallons does the Owners' Manual say the cooling capacity is?

Also, I'm going to shoot for 20% Toyota Red, 80% distilled, and 2-bottles of Water Wetter.

 

That's because you're a lucky bastard who lives down south where it's warm

AlldataDIY reports cooling system capacity of 8.5L, including reservoir.

 

This was my method of flushing the engine coolant:

1) warm up engine and turn the heat inside all the way up with the fan blowing at full speed.

2) turn off engine and take off the radiator cap when it cools a bit.

3) Unscrew the radiator drain plug and catch the coolant... it will be messy and I guarantee you will drop the drain plug in the hot coolant that you are draining .

4) When the coolant stops draining, refill it with pure distilled water up to the top of the radiator neck.

5) Start engine and rev it a bit. Leave engine running so that the water you just added circulates well with the coolant left in the block.

6) Turn off engine and repeat the process of draining the radiator and refilling with distilled water. You want to repeat this process 3-4 times.

7) When the mixture coming out of the radiator looks clear, top off the radiator with pure coolant (no distilled water).

8) Unscrew the coolant overflow bottle and wash it out. Refill with coolant.

This will give you roughly a 50-50 mix of water and coolant because the radiator holds roughly 4 quarts and the block holds another 4 quarts or so... total coolant capacity is like 8 and 1/4 quarts of so, if I remember correctly.

 

BTW, I used Nissan OEM long life coolant.... $16 for a gallon jug...

 

oh... and DO NOT unscrew the coolant drain plugs on the block... there is a TSB that says not to do that since it will make getting the air out of the cooling system really tough...

 

Thanks! That's what I did NOT want to do due to fear of air lock, so I'm glad I don't need too with this method.

Thanks again.

 

Well, seems lots of people are doing it the same way...looks like we have our process eh Alex?

Someone want to give me a clue to where the radiator drain plug is?

Sigh...mess...Guess I am going to have to put 2 tarps down in my garage...but at least its heated...ROFL.

 

Dilution is the solution to pollution.....

To keep it simple just drain and fill your radiator once a year or every 30k tops. Use Nissan coolant mixed 50/50 with water (if you believe in distilled or other thats fine) and you will not have a problem.

Just my .02

 

Hosing out my radiator will have left some tap water, but considering that I let it drip pretty clean, it would be so diluted as to be inconsequential, I think. I may next time think about getting a ton of distilled water and doing the method proposed here though. It sounds like the best idea to be thorough.

 

No, I'm talking about "diluting", meaing the total volume of coolant in the system. For example: if the total volume is 2 gallons and you replace 1 gallon that is in the radiator with new pH balanced coolant/water mix. You have just diluted the old coolant with new.

 

look under the front of the car in the splash guard closer to the passenger side. There will be a hole in the splash guard and the drain plug will be visible... you will need only a philips head screw driver to undo it... don't overtighten it either, it is plastic and you can mess the threads up easily.

Get ready for a mess of warm/hot coolant when you undo it...

 

Splendid

Would it be better to remove the whole guard...or big mess with or w/o guard?

 

It's a big mess either way, but the guard does splash it around a little. There is a hole in the guard specifically for the draincock however.
I always remove the lower radiator hose (at the radiator) for a more complete drain, so it does get all over the place.