I purchased a gallon of Nissan's Long Life Antifreeze/Coolant in the event that I needed to top off my coolant resevoir.

The manual suggests replacing (flush/fill I assume) the coolant at 24K miles/2 years (I presently have just over 2 years and only 7,200 miles).

My Vette has Dex-Cool, which is also a long life coolant and they recommend changing the coolant at 5 years/150,000 miles. My son's VW GTI has G12 coolant which is also long life and they recommend changing it out every 5 years.

What gives? Is Nissan just saying that their coolant has long-life or is the replacement interval longer than 24Kmiles/2 years?

 

If it's green, chances are the Nissan coolant isn't like the Dex-Cool. I drain and refill my coolant every Spring no matter how long it's supposed to last.

 

Same here....every spring

 

how do you drain it

 

Check out this thread: Coolant Change Questions/Links Look around post 17 for mechanical how to...previous 16 discussing which ones and such.

It has 99% of the answers you'd be looking for. Otherwise hit me up in either PM or here as I did this whole procedure about a month ago.

Good luck!

 

Well, I usually have the coolant flushed/filled every two years. But I guess that the "Long-life" written on the Nissan gallon of anti-freeze is a real misnomer!
I'll give it one more year...for a total of three years (by then I will probably have about 11K miles on the car). The coolant looks brand new.

 

The coolant change for the OEM factory fluid is 4 years/ 60,000 mi, THEN after that it is 2 years/ 30,000mi. This is from the nissan FSM.

 

VQ35DE, FSM...please explain...also I know that my dealer uses the Nissan Long-Life Antifreeze Coolant for flushes/fills(which I presume is similar to the OEM factory fill) wouldn't that mean that I could let it go for another 4 years after that, too?

 

FSM ( Factory Service Manual). I assume the factory fill and the OEM coolant we can buy are the same but I don't know for sure. The time and mileage for the FIRST and OTHERS after that are 4yr/60k, and 2yr/30k. This is also in your maintenance guide and in the maint. section of nissan website. I am like you, I DON'T know why the 1st change can be twice as long as the others after it.

 

VQ35DE, I went to the Nissan site and it states that it should be changed at 30K miles or 24 months...

http://www.nissanusa.com/form/0,,act...-51041,00.html

(same as my owner's manual)

 

Mark, please look at ALL these infos very closely, they ALL say the INITAL CHANGE INTERVAL is 48 months/ 4 years or 60,000 miles AND THEN 24mo/30,000mi thereafter. My 2002 and my 2004 maintenance manual state this for schedule #1 & #2. But the premium schedule does say to start at 24mo/30,000mi if you want to go by that. I think #1 & #2 would be fine though.

 

VQ35DE, thanks! I was wondering about the S1 and S2 schedule and especially since I don't drive the vehicle that much...I'll go ahead and wait until I at least get 15K on the car (another year and half or so). Again, thanks for the good info!

 

there is a plastic screw under the radiator. the plastic engine cover on the bottom has a cutout for it. its on the passanger side... unscrew it and it all falls out...better get a bucket...

 

It depends how thoroughly you want to flush the system. To do a radiator drain and refill it is pretty simple. There is a drain plug on the passenger side of the bottom of the radiator. You just need a phillips screw driver to open it. If you want to do a complete drain and refill you have to remove the freeze plugs on the block. You need a 12 point socket to get them out (a 12 point socket looks like a giant torx). One is on the left side of the engine right where the exhaust manifold is, and the other is on the right side of the engine behind the other exhaust mani.

If you are not familiar with how to bleed the system then I suggest you take it to a mechanic.