99bluetlwtt

I know this may seem like a noob question. But how do you flush the coolant in the radiator in our 2G TL, any pics would help. THanks.!!

whatwasthat

#4 is where the drain plug is.. if you stand in front of the car, the plug should be on your left, and just feel under, you'll notice they made a hole in the bottom of the car so the plug can be accessible ..

pmptx

Easiest way is to buy a kit for about $20at any autoparts store.
Understand that the system is not only the radiator but all of the hoses, so any harsh cleaner will bdeteriorate the upper and lower coolant hoses more rapidly.

Easiest way is to drain , run water through, and refill.

whatwasthat

yup, that's what i did. make sure you use distilled water (spring/drinking water in bottles) when washing out the radiator.. you do'nt want any minerals or whatever in the radiator.


btw, what's a kit? what would it have?

you simply need to open the radiator cap, pull the plug, drain... pour fill/refill w/ water a couple of times and then finally put the drain plug back and refill, don't forget to clean/refill some in the resevoir tank.

brakejob

um.... why not follow what the manual says to do?

Drain the radiator, drain the block, refill... it gets more coolant out than just draining the radiator...

hangbok

How would i drain the block?

hangbok

Also, if i drain the radiator and block how much coolant will i need to fill it back up?

JimmyTLS

Kinda undeterminable, what you wanna do is actually, get the special funnel that goes on where the radiator cap is, refill the radiator until no more fluid is leaving the funnel into the radiator, then run the car until the fan turns on so that all the air bubbles will work themselves out, you will see the bubbles rise in the funnel, also, remember to give radiator hoses a good squeeze to work out the air bubbles.

brakejob

do you have a manual for your car? everything is in there....

there is a drain bolt about 12-15" above where the oil drain plug is, its a very small bolt... you open it until the coolant starts to come out, then let it drain....

also you should have the temp in the car set to full hot (90 degrees i believe) to open the heater core...

if you dont have a manual I can try copying the info when i get home... the refill process is detailed in there as well

brakejob

you dont need a special funnel, the process is described in the manual... you fill the radiator, fill the reserve, put the radiator cap on for one click, start the car, hold the idle at 1500 until the fan comes on twice, etc...

hangbok

Yea, could you try copying, or is there an online version? Since i dotn' have my manual with me at school. Thanks.

pimpravi

im a noob - does this help the AC run cooler? i've noticed mine isnt as cold anymore

MikePA

[QUOTE=pimpravi]im a noob - does this help the AC run cooler?/QUOTE]
Nope.

pimpravi

what does then?

JimmyTLS

Freon is the a/c cooling agent.

fla-tls

Not sure about the funnel, but if you have a small piece of hose (around 1/4 dia.) to hook up tothe block drain it will save you from getting wet when you undo it. The center part of the block drain is what you turn, and it comes out of the center "nozzle".

Like others said. Detailed instuctions are in the manual. I picked up 2 gallons of the new Honda type-2 blue coolant and that left me about a quart or so left after a complete change.

chuckz

noob- don't but if u want ur ac to run cooler u have to recharge it. you would have to add freon to it and check for any leaks. there are self recharge kits or u could take it into a shop and have it done professioanlly with a pressure test done to it.

99bluetlwtt

After unpluging the plug to drain the coolant. After the coolant it's all drained do I flush it with water all the way through before putting the 50/50 coolant in?? SEE THE MAIN REASON I'M DOING THIS IS MY RADIATOR HOSE CAME OFF AND SOME COOLANT WAS POURING ALL OVER THE PLACE, THEN MY ENGINE STARTED HEATING UP ALL THE WAY TO H(High), I think it's because the pressure from MUGEN RADIATOR CAP I PUT ON, BUT NOT SURE. SO I JUST FILL THE REST OF RADIATOR UP WITH WATER. I THOUGHT THAT COULD BE BAD FOR THE ENGINE THAT IS WHY I WANT TO FLUSH IT AND REfiLL IT AGAIN.

whatwasthat

yes, drain the coolant..

then fill w/ water, and let that drain... i'd did this step a couple of times.. just to be sure it's clean..


then refill w/ coolant.. then turn on engine and make sure air bubbles are out.. then top it off.... and remember to pour some in the resevoir tank..

whatwasthat

this is one of the easiest fluid change for our car.

scottiew

Oil seems pretty damn easy to me.

I hate to ask a stupid question, but where do you take the waste coolant? Take it to a parts store like I do with my waste oil?

optomos

Just make sure that no animal can get to it to drink because it will kill them.

scottiew

Yeah I know it poisonous to animals but is it safe to pour down the drain? Doesn't seem like it would be... EPA violations and stuff...

mlionel

It's either your cooling agent (R-134?) leaked, or if you changed the coolant before and did not do it "per book", you might created air lock in the cooling system (in the A/C heat exchanger called heater core), so it became not quite effective. I believe it's tricky to get rid of air from system.

99bluetlwtt

So should I take the radiator fluid to Pepboy's or something like that?? By the way my car still runs even though I put water in when the radiator heated up, is that mean the car is not safe to drive till I do the radiator change?

chilifrost

when do you know when to change the coolant?

brakejob

just throw the coolant away in the trash...

for when to change... it's all by mileage check your manual...

mlionel

Even so it is safe to drive with water as long as it's above freezing point, I would change water to normal coolant because coonat also has some lubrication for seal in your water pump and additives to prevent corrosion.

99bluetlwtt

Thanks I guess that's one fact I did not know

yunginTL

how often do people flush their coolant

99bluetlwtt

I don't know when or how often one change it's coolant, but I believe we never have to until the engine over heats or something. CAN ANYONE CONFIRM THAT??

fla-tls

Running pure water in the cooling system will cause corrosion - even if it's distilled water. There are special corrosion inhibitors in the honda coolant which inhibit corrosion based on the types of metals used in the engine that the coolant will come in contact with.

Do not run straight water in your cooling system (unless you want some expensive repair bills later).

optomos

In my ownerlink, Acura says to replace when you reach 75,000.

99bluetlwtt

Do I have to get honda coolant??? Shoot cause I put in the Prestone 50/50!!! I didn't know other coolants cause crosion.

fla-tls

Other major brand coolants will not cause a problem. The important thing is to make sure the fluid is silicate free. Check your prestone bottle to see if it had silicates (the last time I looked - Prestone 50/50 had silicates). If it does, re-do it with Honda fluid. If it had NO silicates - don't worry.

The Honda fluid is not much more expensive than regular prestone. I paid less than $20 for my two gallons.

You also can't beat the nice blue color!

(actually - I miss the old emerald green stuff....)

bar2v

ah, crap, looks like I am going to have to flush it, in fact I will probably just have the dealer do it so I dont make any more stupid mistakes.

axleback

I just did a radiator flush tonight using Prestone 50/50. All this talk about the Silicates worries me. I'm going to call my dealer tomorrow and confirm whether the Prestone stuff is ok. Will let you all know what they say.
By the way, I read in the manual that our cooling system has 1.48 Gal capacity. However, after I completely drained the radiator and refill, I can't even use up one container of the Prestone (which is 1GAL). Does that mean I still have old coolant in the system that hasn't been completely drained? I suspect 1/2 a GAL is in the block (which I didn't drain). Comments?

axleback

axleback

You're fine. I just called the dealer and confirmed that Prestone 50/50 works fine for our radiator.

axleback

bar2v

Thanks, I already did a flush at the dealer with the honda stuff for about 80 bucks. From my understanding there are two types of prestone 50/50: Old One with silicates, New one without. Also, I read in the thread ""RR Journals: Coolant" that mixing coolants isn't the best idea since it can cause gelling in your engine. Personally, the peace of mind was worth the 80 bucks. Thanks for getting back to me though.

georgy_d28

I changed my coolant, i didnt drain the block as i could not locate the drain plug for it but i followed all other instructions and ran engine 1500 2 fan cycles, but now after filling and checking level (two days later) coolant fan is cycling every 20-30 seconds...any ideas quick before anything bad happens...its been about 77-80 past few days so not too hot...temp shows right in the a line or two below half like always. i just dont want to run into a cracked head or block