bluevr6

Ok, quick search revealed nothing.

Thanks to Chris, I now have a replacement upper radiator hose. As my failure was not in a metropolis, I had to dump in some "universal" coolant.

I have the hose, and a couple gallons on the G12, but am wondering about the best way to flush all the old out.

There are supposed to be drain ***** under there, but where are they?

TIA,
kevin

gietl

He said *****.


Sorry, had to exercise my juvenile brain.

dwang

There is a blue drain plug on the radiator (passenger side), but it won't drain out all the coolant. You will still need to drain out the coolant from the block. Try to remove the lower radiator hose by the bomb. It's the lowest point where the coolant travels.

UrSobsessed

1) drain the coolant from the radiator.
2) remove the curved lower radiator hose and twist to drain coolant off of the t-stat.
3) remove the t-stat cover and drain coolant from the block/head.
4) then remove the heater coolant lines and drain the heater core.

This gets most of the coolant out of the system. Make sure you flush extremely well with distilled water only to get out all of that other coolant!!!

These cars use the G11 coolant (blue) I don't know much about the switch to G12, but I don't see why it won't work as long as you make sure to get all of the other stuff out of there. Once again, only dilute the coolant with distilled water.

HTH

edit: If you had some kind of failure to create this problem, You might check the rest of the 'problem areas' of the system while the coolant is drained. (ie. plastic 'T', heater flange, turbo coolant hose under the IM, other weak hoses)

AndrewWK

Here's the best way I've found to flush the system. You will need a very large bucket or several, a working garden hose, long length of large diameter rubber hose (for petcock) and a vacuum tester. First, Attach the rubber hose to the petcock on the radiator. You can do this without removing the bumper, if you are careful. Open the petcock to start draining. Remove the T-stat from it's housing for draining purposes. Attach the vacuum tester to the valve that opens the heater core and give it a few pumps to hold the valve open. Open the coolant reservoir and stick the sprayer for your garden hose in there. Fire up the car. As the reservoir level drops, refill with the garden hose sprayer. Continue until you get nothing but clear water. Generally good to have at least 2 buckets, so you can empty one, while the other fills and you can tell when it runs clear.

Andrew

bluevr6

Thanks Andrew. This plus dwang's info exactly what was needed....

bluevr6

Thanks Dace:

Yep, upper rad hose split at thermostat to cause this need. Plastic T, hose under IM were both replced in last year or so. I also have been running G12 for last 5 years, so I am gonna stick with that for now. This fall / winter, I will be going to 034 silicone coolant hoses when I do the T-belt again....

Best regards,
Kevin