I had some time when the forum was down and I changed the upper and lower radiator hoses. I did not do anything else but drain the radiator. The radiator looked brand new when I openned it up. My question is should I perform the steps in truly draining the radiator? Also, when I filled up the radiator, I kept the cap off and waited for some air bubbles to come up but none came. Could I have left air in the radiator or would it pull it from the resevoir?

 

Most times the air bubbles will come out on their own after a while. If you hear weird noises, like gurgling comeing from the engine bay, then you know you've got problems. Or if there is no interior heat.

CM.

 

I think I have a problem then? I have very little interior heat, what does this indicate?

Thanks!

JP

 

Just keep your vents on max heat and run the car for a while. Drive it around a bit. When I first changed my coolant in my old 93 sentra it took a while for the heater core to get all the air bubbles out of it. That's why nowadays I never drain the engine block - just the radiator.

 

Besides, the engine block drain plugs are pretty much out of reach on the VQ30DE.

 

Yeah, I think that if my life depended on it, I could probably unscrew them. But screwing them back up is another matter altogether.

 

If your engine has a bleeder vent, you should remove it and see if any coolant flows from it. It should have been removed before you filled the radiator if you have one.

 

should have flushed it out and let it run for about 5 mins turn on the heater and if it gets hot you are done

 

No great harm done in not flushing your radiator. Take your car out for a 30 min drive with the heat on full blast.

Let the engine cool down for an hour or so (don't want to scald yourself) and then remove the radiator cap. At this point you sould see that you need to add some distilled water (no tap water). Make sure that the car is on level ground when you do this.

Been there done this.

Mr. Peabody

 

Mr. Peabody,

Thanks! This is pretty much what I did but I just wanted some sort of confirmation that I didn't mess anything up! The car now runs fine. The only thing I need to do is replace one of the clamps. It was originally on the bottom, but I moved it to the top since I didn't have a replacement for it so I should not loose too much radiator fluid!