changing coolant

[dkins419]

Well the other day i decided to take the radiator cap off and i found it was about half filled? is that normal? It smelled like **** and the rubber tube that goes to the plastic reservoir is all gunked up with sand and crap. It was getting dark so i couldnt finish. How do you drain the plastic reservoir? do you drain it from that tube?

 

[TheUser]

What i've done in the past is unhook the hose from the things that hold it to the reservoir and gently bend (not that it will break, but you don't need any sharp bends) it around and it usually will drain that way. I drain it in a cleaned out milk jug or something usually so I can cap it off.

In your case, I think I would actually just pull the reservoir and clean it all out real well. I don't know if/how the reservoir disconnects from the shroud, so you might have to just pull the fan and shroud and clean it tha way. Is the coolant dirty/rusty/nasty? You might just want to drain the coolant out of the radiator, pull the radiator and clean it out w/ a hose, get all the junk out, put it back in.

I've also cleaned all of the coolant out of my motor in my LX by starting it up low on coolant so it gets hot and the thermostat opens. Then I stuck a hose in the radiator and let it run and I left the drain plug out of the radiator so the water/coolant would drain into a large container. Once I noticed it start to go clear on the drain side, I knew I was about done. Just watch and make sure the car doesn't get too hot.

 

[dkins419]

yea thats what i did i just took the whole reservoir off and cleaned it. Really filthy and tons of junk inside it. Now i just need to get the collant out of the motor and refill. thanks for your reply.

 

[dkins419]

alright well i flushed everything out real good and changed the fluid. My car must of been running really hot because it stays 2 lines further down on the stock gauge now!