can anyone give me step by step on flushing the cooling system. The auto parts store has a kit, but the instructions suck. there is a plastic T included in the kit which I think is supposed to get spliced into the heater hose but:
1. im not sure which hose is the heater hose (pics would)be helpful
2. I feel bad about cutting into a perfectly good hose.
(I have an 02 max gle auto w. 100K)

YES i did check and recheck the stickeys
Thanks

 

its quite simple..

open radiator cap
- under the car (passender side) there is a screw where radiator fluid drains from.. unscrew that and let fluid drain out.
- then put hose in radiator and let drain out all fluid until fluid is clear
- then screw back the screw
- fill with fluid
done

also www.motorvate.ca has a how to

 

I suggest you buy a Haynes manual before you start flushing your radiator and draining and replacing your ATF.

 

Do not, I repeat, DO NOT use the prestone kit to flush your car. That T connector will leak over time. DO NOT use any "coolant flush" it will put a lot of crud into your heater core.

Follow what scopium says above.

 

You can still use the Prestone kit but I would recommend buying a seperate heater hose 3/4" heater hose from the auto store to use a temporary connection for the "T" fitting instead of cutting the heater hose.

Wnen I flush a system I buy 4-5 gallons of distilled water and use it to fill the radiator and drive around for a mile or too, empty and refill with distilled water and repeat until the water comes out clean. Takes a while but it is easy.

 

i use a reverse flush machine.

 

I just emptied the old coolant via the bottom plug, filled it up again with boiling water, ran the engine for a few minutes, emptied it via the plug, repeated, and then filled it with the correct mixture of coolant and water.

 

just do as scopium said.. and everything will be fine......it is really easy. You don't need to buy any crap cleaner or whatever they call them to flush your radiator. We used to use "Lestoil" which is a house cleaner to do this... no residue and will take all the crap out. But I know people here will say "WHAT", but just use regular water to flush it.....good luck

 

just using regular water doesnt get all the scale and rust out.

 

if you have "Coolant" in the radiator the rust will be minimal, so regular water will do the job.....

 

at most youll have a 50/50 mix with water. coolant breaks down over time, becomes acidic and creates rust and scale. im not just talking about the radiator, im talking about the inside of the engine too.

 

that's what I'm saying.. if you do this every year... you won't have all the crap, rust, etc in the engine and the radiator will be very clean.......

 

unfortunately most ppl dont do this on a regular basis. and even so, after time theres still a buildup.

it doesnt matter to me, i run a power flush so i know my cooling system is in check.

 

This will only drain the fuild that is in the radiator. To do more, need to hook up to a machine...

 

good catch, i didnt see that.

and yes, thats only flushing the radiator, which is about 1/3 of the coolant capacity.

 

you can also remove the screw on th eside of the engine to flush it......... but I think I will do the power flush one of these days.....

 

and then pour through the top rad hose, correct?

 

I think that's right.. I have never done it... but I know my brother does it all the time......

 

the old school way of a cooling flush would be to pull the upper from the rad, connect it ot a hose to your drain bucket, water hose goes in the top of the rad, start the engine...