Can anyone explain how on earth you're supposed to open the drain plug on the engine block for the coolant?

The service manual shows a picture of the bolt right next to the alternator as though its right in front of you once you remove the battery. I've spent hours with various attempts to find a way from the top or underneath to open this damn thing. I can't even reach it with all the wire bundles in the way!!

Anyone? I want to get rid of the coolant in there right now, its not genuine honda and with the 50/50 mix only available now with the dealership I don't know how to do a full drain with only the radiator plug access.

thanks for any help!

 

Unless the coolant in place is really nasty, I would simply leave what's in the block in place. That's all I've usually done, but I change my coolant at least every 2-3 yrs.

You can pull the lower radiator hose at radiator, plug lower radiator connection, and get a bit more out by draining and they pressurizing (cooling system test pump or low pressure air supply) through the radiator cap connection. I've tried this and did not seem to get all the coolant out, but I did get some additional flow. Thermostat is closed so flow rate may be low. You could remove the thermostat to improve flow rate, but I've never tried this.

good luck