can i just remove drain plug and let it come out ( i think about 5 liters will come out) without pull off any hose nor clean the reservoir. And then flush it with water? After water comes out, then put 50/50 misture in. Will that be ok? this is my first time to do the flush..

 

also..i will have to have 5 liters mixture of collant and water right?.....if i don't change the reservoir

 

If you just keep draining and refilling the radiator to flush the system, you are gonna generate a LOT of liquid waste. I suggest pulling the engine drain plugs if at all possible. If you do stick to your original plan and get to a point such that only water drains out, then on your final refill add pure antifreeze as there will be enough water still in the system to achieve a final mix of 50/50.

When I did my flush I measured everything that came out and did a BOTE (Back Of The Envelope calculation -- little engineering terminology there) to figure out how much water and coolant I had to add on the final fill.

 

I wouldnt even bother pulling the engine drains..there in a weird spot and a pain to get to...

Drain out the coolant, fill with water, run...
Drain again and keep refilling and running...
If your skilled get the hose on a trickle on the top fill neck and the drain OUT...start the car and stand there while it flushes...

After its clear coming out of the drain, pluf it back up and put a gallon of antifreeze in, and top off with water...and your done..

-matt

 

That's fine, but like I said before you'll probably generate lots of waste doing that. At least in Massachusetts it is very difficult to find someone to recycle it all for free. I finally had to pay $20 to have it disposed of at my DPW's annual hazardous waste disposal day.

 

Holy crap. Look, I'm all for the environment, but if I had to PAY for somebody to take the stuff, heck I'd drop that in my garbage can with my empty pizza boxes. I know that oil needs to be disposed of, but as I understand it you can actually dump coolant in a toilet (not a regular sink though). Not 100% sure on that, however.

The drain plugs on our cars are hell on earth.

Running water through until it's all clear wouild work and then fill the radiator with pure anti-freeze, but only if the car is allowing all of this stuff to run through. If the thermostat stays closed, you'll never be able to get the water through the rest of the engine block (which is fine, really). I've tried two methods: 1) Hose the radiator out and then fill 50/50 (since the engine block should be cut off from this process and still has the 50/50 original), 2) Empty radiator, and refill without any flushing.

You'll need to have the engine running with the thermostat open if you want to clear all of the stuff out, but I personally don't bother. I just change my coolant more often, and each time you dump the rad you get half of it. So two dumps and you're at 75% "new", 3 dumps at 87.5, etc.

 

there's a sticky at the top guys...
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=278600

 

where's the drain plug(plastic one, i don't want to flush the whole thing) for the radiastor?.. do i have to remove the plastic guard beneath the front bumper?

 

Do you guys suggest using tap water or distilled?

 

depends on the quality of your tap water, mainly the hardness of the water. In doubt, distilled water will only cost a couple of dollars a gallon anyway.

 

Distilled was $0.69 a gallon at my local Kmart

 

The radiator drain plug is at the bottom of the radiator, a few inches off center, toward the driver side. There is a drawing of where it is in the owner manual. The plastic shield under the bumper has a cut out for access to the drain plug from beneath the car.