How does one get a wrench on this guy ?

 

Ya know, I've spent the last 5 days trying to figure that out! The shop manual talks like it's a piece of cake. But, between the tight quarters and the heat of the exhaust, I could not get at it in my driveway from underneath.

So, I took it to the dealer. I had already purchased the outrageously priced Honda coolant which the manual warns you is the only one you can use.

They were nice about it and gave it to the mechanic. He had my car on the lift and was looking for the block drain bolt. I had to show him where it was???

A few minutes later, and he had lowered my TL on the lift. He told me it was too hot to work under the car; he would have to remove all the engine covers and shock brace to get at it from on top.

No way! This same mechanic scratched all my engine covers when he did the recall on the heater hose. I made the dealer replace them all with new ones.

Another mechanic told me that all they do is put one gallon in the radiator (that's all it holds), run the car to mix the new with the old, then drain the radiator again and add another gallon. He said that about 80% of the coolant gets replaced and that's good enough for them.

Well, it's not good enough for me. If anyone has a clue how to get at that thing, I'm all ears.

Dave

 

I don't remember the engine block drain plug being particularly difficult to access on my friend's 2G CL.

I don't own a 3G TL, so could one of you post a picture of this plug?

 

It's on page 10-6 or p. 238 in the TL Shop Manual.

 

Is that the swaybar I see in the service manual? Just remove it and you should get a bit more space.

Have you tried a swivel socket?

 

No. It's a steering arm, exhaust header pipe and a half-shaft front axle. I haven't tried anything yet in my driveway. I don't have a lift and the TL will not drive on my ramps as it has insufficient ground clearance.

IOW, it's such a PIA that the dealer doesn't even want to mess with it.

 

lol.. damn.. well going to be trying this soon. I'll let you know if I encounter any difficulties. What is the main problem? Access or getting torque on it? I'll be flushing out the system and putting in a new heater control valve.

 

The problem is getting to it. It is above all the steering and suspension components and the hot header pipe.

Even at the dealer, he said he wouldn't even try it until the car cooled down.