Flushing? how?
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Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 166
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From: East Helena, Montana
You can either have the dealer or a reputable independent shop do it, or do it yourself. You need to check your owner's manual to find out what kind of antifreeze the vehicle came stock from the factory with. I suspect its a G-05 antifreeze. Then check the manual for the recommended coolant change interval and do the change (I'd do a flush and change) at that interval. If you do it yourself, use the same type of antifreeze that the vehicle came stock with.
As far as I know, there's two basic ways to do your own coolant system flush and antifreeze change.
A backflush kit from an auto parts store is one way. You put a T-shaped tube in a heater hose. You cut the hose and insert two ends of the tube. Then you hook a garden hose to the third end in the tube, take off the radiator cap, and turn the hose on. The hose water flushes out the system, out through the top of the radiator. When you're done you put a cap on the end of the tube that you hooked the hose to and leave the tube in place for later flushes.
As I see it, there's a problem with the backflush kit method. You use water from your garden hose. After flushing is completed, water from the hose is left in the engine part of the cooling system. Its best to use distilled water in your cooling system, because unlike water from the hose, it has no minerals in it that can cause problems. Yes, the problems are usually slight, and you CAN use hose water, but distilled water is better. When you fill the radiator so that about half of what's in the whole system (engine and radiator combined) is antifreeze, you can use distilled water if you still need to add water, but you still have the water from the hose in the engine part of the system. For this reason, I don't backflush.
I use the second popular method. I drain the radiator, fill it with distilled water, run the engine until the temp gauge has gone up enough to open the thermostat and mix the distilled water that I added with what's in the system, turn the engine off, and wait 10-20 minutes. Then I do that again. Drain the radiator, top off with distilled water, run the engine till its hot and everything's mixed up, turn it off, and wait 10-20 minutes. Since in a typical vehicle, about half of the liquid in the whole system is in the radiator, each time you do this you drain about half of what's in the system. If you do this 5 times, after the 5th drain only about 3.125% of what was in the system (water plus antifreeze) when you started is left. This is negligible, and the system is flushed. You will see that after five cycles the liquid draining out of the radiator is clear, indicating that the flush is complete and there's little or none of the water or antifreeze that was in the system when you started left in the system. Then you can put in the antifreeze and, if necessary, top off with distilled water. Be sure to turn your heater on hot each time you do a cycle, so that the coolant goes through the heater hoses.
To determine how much antifreeze you need to reach the water/antifreeze mixture that you want, simply consult the Owner's Manual for the engine coolant system capacity and use the mixture chart on the back of the antifreeze container.
As far as I know, there's two basic ways to do your own coolant system flush and antifreeze change.
A backflush kit from an auto parts store is one way. You put a T-shaped tube in a heater hose. You cut the hose and insert two ends of the tube. Then you hook a garden hose to the third end in the tube, take off the radiator cap, and turn the hose on. The hose water flushes out the system, out through the top of the radiator. When you're done you put a cap on the end of the tube that you hooked the hose to and leave the tube in place for later flushes.
As I see it, there's a problem with the backflush kit method. You use water from your garden hose. After flushing is completed, water from the hose is left in the engine part of the cooling system. Its best to use distilled water in your cooling system, because unlike water from the hose, it has no minerals in it that can cause problems. Yes, the problems are usually slight, and you CAN use hose water, but distilled water is better. When you fill the radiator so that about half of what's in the whole system (engine and radiator combined) is antifreeze, you can use distilled water if you still need to add water, but you still have the water from the hose in the engine part of the system. For this reason, I don't backflush.
I use the second popular method. I drain the radiator, fill it with distilled water, run the engine until the temp gauge has gone up enough to open the thermostat and mix the distilled water that I added with what's in the system, turn the engine off, and wait 10-20 minutes. Then I do that again. Drain the radiator, top off with distilled water, run the engine till its hot and everything's mixed up, turn it off, and wait 10-20 minutes. Since in a typical vehicle, about half of the liquid in the whole system is in the radiator, each time you do this you drain about half of what's in the system. If you do this 5 times, after the 5th drain only about 3.125% of what was in the system (water plus antifreeze) when you started is left. This is negligible, and the system is flushed. You will see that after five cycles the liquid draining out of the radiator is clear, indicating that the flush is complete and there's little or none of the water or antifreeze that was in the system when you started left in the system. Then you can put in the antifreeze and, if necessary, top off with distilled water. Be sure to turn your heater on hot each time you do a cycle, so that the coolant goes through the heater hoses.
To determine how much antifreeze you need to reach the water/antifreeze mixture that you want, simply consult the Owner's Manual for the engine coolant system capacity and use the mixture chart on the back of the antifreeze container.
Member
Joined: Nov 2017
Posts: 125
Likes: 0
From: Columbia, Mo.
You can either have the dealer or a reputable independent shop do it, or do it yourself. You need to check your owner's manual to find out what kind of antifreeze the vehicle came stock from the factory with. I suspect its a G-05 antifreeze. Then check the manual for the recommended coolant change interval and do the change (I'd do a flush and change) at that interval. If you do it yourself, use the same type of antifreeze that the vehicle came stock with.
As far as I know, there's two basic ways to do your own coolant system flush and antifreeze change.
A backflush kit from an auto parts store is one way. You put a T-shaped tube in a heater hose. You cut the hose and insert two ends of the tube. Then you hook a garden hose to the third end in the tube, take off the radiator cap, and turn the hose on. The hose water flushes out the system, out through the top of the radiator. When you're done you put a cap on the end of the tube that you hooked the hose to and leave the tube in place for later flushes.
As I see it, there's a problem with the backflush kit method. You use water from your garden hose. After flushing is completed, water from the hose is left in the engine part of the cooling system. Its best to use distilled water in your cooling system, because unlike water from the hose, it has no minerals in it that can cause problems. Yes, the problems are usually slight, and you CAN use hose water, but distilled water is better. When you fill the radiator so that about half of what's in the whole system (engine and radiator combined) is antifreeze, you can use distilled water if you still need to add water, but you still have the water from the hose in the engine part of the system. For this reason, I don't backflush.
I use the second popular method. I drain the radiator, fill it with distilled water, run the engine until the temp gauge has gone up enough to open the thermostat and mix the distilled water that I added with what's in the system, turn the engine off, and wait 10-20 minutes. Then I do that again. Drain the radiator, top off with distilled water, run the engine till its hot and everything's mixed up, turn it off, and wait 10-20 minutes. Since in a typical vehicle, about half of the liquid in the whole system is in the radiator, each time you do this you drain about half of what's in the system. If you do this 5 times, after the 5th drain only about 3.125% of what was in the system (water plus antifreeze) when you started is left. This is negligible, and the system is flushed. You will see that after five cycles the liquid draining out of the radiator is clear, indicating that the flush is complete and there's little or none of the water or antifreeze that was in the system when you started left in the system. Then you can put in the antifreeze and, if necessary, top off with distilled water. Be sure to turn your heater on hot each time you do a cycle, so that the coolant goes through the heater hoses.
To determine how much antifreeze you need to reach the water/antifreeze mixture that you want, simply consult the Owner's Manual for the engine coolant system capacity and use the mixture chart on the back of the antifreeze container.
As far as I know, there's two basic ways to do your own coolant system flush and antifreeze change.
A backflush kit from an auto parts store is one way. You put a T-shaped tube in a heater hose. You cut the hose and insert two ends of the tube. Then you hook a garden hose to the third end in the tube, take off the radiator cap, and turn the hose on. The hose water flushes out the system, out through the top of the radiator. When you're done you put a cap on the end of the tube that you hooked the hose to and leave the tube in place for later flushes.
As I see it, there's a problem with the backflush kit method. You use water from your garden hose. After flushing is completed, water from the hose is left in the engine part of the cooling system. Its best to use distilled water in your cooling system, because unlike water from the hose, it has no minerals in it that can cause problems. Yes, the problems are usually slight, and you CAN use hose water, but distilled water is better. When you fill the radiator so that about half of what's in the whole system (engine and radiator combined) is antifreeze, you can use distilled water if you still need to add water, but you still have the water from the hose in the engine part of the system. For this reason, I don't backflush.
I use the second popular method. I drain the radiator, fill it with distilled water, run the engine until the temp gauge has gone up enough to open the thermostat and mix the distilled water that I added with what's in the system, turn the engine off, and wait 10-20 minutes. Then I do that again. Drain the radiator, top off with distilled water, run the engine till its hot and everything's mixed up, turn it off, and wait 10-20 minutes. Since in a typical vehicle, about half of the liquid in the whole system is in the radiator, each time you do this you drain about half of what's in the system. If you do this 5 times, after the 5th drain only about 3.125% of what was in the system (water plus antifreeze) when you started is left. This is negligible, and the system is flushed. You will see that after five cycles the liquid draining out of the radiator is clear, indicating that the flush is complete and there's little or none of the water or antifreeze that was in the system when you started left in the system. Then you can put in the antifreeze and, if necessary, top off with distilled water. Be sure to turn your heater on hot each time you do a cycle, so that the coolant goes through the heater hoses.
To determine how much antifreeze you need to reach the water/antifreeze mixture that you want, simply consult the Owner's Manual for the engine coolant system capacity and use the mixture chart on the back of the antifreeze container.
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