allenst

great design feature.
so you should flush your coolant every 2-3 years and audi doesnt put a petcock drain on the cooling ?? wow.
they expect you to yank and pull the lower hose, maybe damage it, and try to bleed the coolant ?
why on other models do you simply go under, twist the plug, and start the draining process. why in 2004 did engineers decide to make it a rubics cube solution ?

MP4.2+6.0

And, what does the shop manual say? Hint...

Make sure not to hack it, and figure out the o-ring construction. Otherwise you will be spending a bunch of money for a molded hose instead of a little for o rings (if you even do them). Same on upper hose BTW. And was the same on my now 16 year old A6 4.2 for that matter.

allenst

when I find the answer to your question I will post it for the benefit of others in my situation. I don't have manuals but I will see what I can find. It can't be easy cus after 3 hours of 'googling' I have nothing.
Just trying to refresh my coolant so the car lasts for us...

allenst

there are no dedicated drains for the coolant.
Audi got all crazy about sealed systems back then and tried to design everything with no service sense in mind

so the lower hose has an o-ring. its tight and i tried to take it off. i would not come off with my hand force. i started to think---if i pull it off how tough would it be to get back on. all th while im asking, "what wer the engineers thinking?"

so I am just trying to change my coolant from g12 to g13. simple ? no.

I hope there are others out here who might want to do this on there own and share ideas...?

s4master1

where did you read about renewing the coolant every 2-3 years?

CWTech

No need for coolant drain. The oil cooler pipe was designed to break and flush your coolant about every 100,000 miles.

allenst

according to manual

not too sure I want to mess with disconnecting the lower hose.

will go via the oil plug and resevoir.

MP4.2+6.0

I bet, still...get a manual.

I Googled and it took about 90 seconds to find answer on hose, in any of text, pictures or parts illustrations. 3 hours (not believable, sorry) would have bought alldata by flipping burgers or a sign on the street corner.

Meanwhile, ever heard of the block drain on a 4.2? That would be...in the manual. It's an "and" BTW, not an "or" as far as procedure. If not, like the tranny fluid, you probably won't get a bunch of it out on one single drain if you bother to measure the drained quantity. Net, multiple drain points are better. BTDT on my prior 4.2 A6. Or refill it once with water, then drain again, then add measured amount of antifreeze to deal with the water left behind if you don't drain at multiple points.

What's the plan/data on the timing belt BTW? Fluid changes alone every "2-3 years" are straight out of the 70's/80's with Prestone green or ancient Audi G11 junk. "Lifetime" or "extended" nomenclature aside, maybe every 100K miles or 4-5 years. But, you seem to have just skipped S4master's question on that posted before your response above--another guy who knows what he's doing... Thus, on a 4.2 pre FSI you can easily align coolant change to a thorough timing belt job, where you change the water pump and thermostat...and the coolant. Then it is on a very logically related schedule without repetitive and extra cost work. So, was that job already done and this is redundant? Or was it not done on a reasonable interval, and then this is essentially polishing an apple with a worm in it?

G13 is current spec, but also arguably a step back technically/formula wise. I've posted on that before, including w/ you. You are helping Audi's carbon scoring though (literally) with the 25% extra glycerine in it. Think of it as akin to ethanol for your radiator...

allenst

[QUOTE=MP4.2+6.0;24689438]I bet, still...get a manual.

I Googled and it took about 90 seconds to find answer on hose, in any of text, pictures or parts illustrations. 3 hours (not believable, sorry) would have bought alldata by flipping burgers or a sign on the street corner.

Meanwhile, ever heard of the block drain on a 4.2? That would be...in the manual. It's an "and" BTW, not an "or" as far as procedure. If not, like the tranny fluid, you probably won't get a bunch of it out on one single drain if you bother to measure the drained quantity. Net, multiple drain points are better. BTDT on my prior 4.2 A6. Or refill it once with water, then drain again, then add measured amount of antifreeze to deal with the water left behind if you don't drain at multiple points.

What's the plan/data on the timing belt BTW? Fluid changes alone every "2-3 years" are straight out of the 70's/80's with Prestone green or ancient Audi G11 junk. "Lifetime" or "extended" nomenclature aside, maybe every 100K miles or 4-5 years. But, you seem to have just skipped S4master's question on that posted before your response above--another guy who knows what he's doing... Thus, on a 4.2 pre FSI you can easily align coolant change to a thorough timing belt job, where you change the water pump and thermostat...and the coolant. Then it is on a very logically related schedule without repetitive and extra cost work. So, was that job already done and this is redundant? Or was it not done on a reasonable interval, and then this is essentially polishing an apple with a worm in it?

G13 is current spec, but also arguably a step back technically/formula wise. I've posted on that before, including w/ you. You are helping Audi's carbon scoring though (literally) with the 25% extra glycerine in it. Think of it as akin to ethanol for your radiator...[/QUOTE

let's get the googling out of the way first.
I googled for at least an hour using various conbinations of search terms for my 04 AL.
all I kept finding were how toos for all other makes.

I found the manual instructions.
I do not have the equipment as per manual.

I went with shop vac, hose, G12....wash, rinse and repeat.
took me about 2 hours.
not 100% but better than the brown coolant I had.

note: the bleeders as a real SOB to open if you do not have right tool. as Mishar said in past, have a wide flat screwdriver and be careful

haggisuk

How do you not have a manual, I took the time to post links to numerous manuals on another one of your threads.

In the the first manual that I linked called BFM (engine code) there is all the info you need. see picture of screen shot from that very manual with a search for "drain"