avs007

Stupid question: How do you fit the socket on the bolt, if the hose is connected to the nipple? Do you loosen the bolt first, then put the hose on? Or can you use a ratcheting wrench?

Adobeman

Not a stupid question at all. The truth is I cracked it free with the ratchet and then quickly snugged it by hand. I was quick so only a few drops spilled. Then I put the tubing on it. Once the tubing was on it I backed it open about a turn.

The tubing I have is 1/4" ID clear plastic. It's the same stuff that came with the vacuum bleeder I use on brakes. It fits on just right and stays put on the nipple while the block drains.

Xpditor

...And, as I mentioned in a previous post, my Acura service department only tackled this block draining when I demanded it. Then, they decided to take a short cut and not put tubing on the nipple. The coolant went all over the undercarriage and they had a real mess to clean up... with the car on the lift/rack.

They told me they have never done that before. They just do a drain and fill at the radiator. (And the naive customer doesn't know the difference).

Another good reason to do it yourself.

DeathMetal

iTrader: (2)

Just finished this after diluting 5x with water from the radiator only...decided to add some pointers. Kudos to Adobeman, that picture was of tremendous assistance in getting this done. SO...

(1) DRAINING FROM THE RADIATOR YIELDS ONLY A 3/5 COOLANT CHANGE
I decided to measure the volume that drained from the radiator and came up with a few mLs shy of a full gallon. The system volume is 1.66gal or so, meaning that you're only exchanging 66-ish percent if draining from the radiator only

(2) USE A PENETRATING SPRAY ON THE ENGINE BLOCK DRAIN NIPPLE
I tried like hell to break the damn thing free using might alone. After 20 minutes of sweat, profanity, and frustration, I broke out the PB Blaster. NOTE: Get your glasses and sharpshooter skills on the ready...you're not going to be able to get point blanc with the nipple, nay...this is a distance shot from the axle. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE EYE PROTECTION ON, aim carefully, grab a beer.

(3) A 1/4" RATCHET W/ 3" EXTENSION IS A MUST
I am guessing Adobeman used the whole step down because those were the only tools he had in his array...sure, it works, but a simple 1/4" ratchet w/ 3" extension will do the trick in fewer steps.

(4) POSITION THE SOCKET WHILE LYING ON YOUR BACK, PULL ON YOUR BUTT
I tried a few different positions seeking the most ergonomically favorable position...I found this to be it. Lie on your back and work the ratchet up on to the nipple while on your back...once it's in position, sit on your butt, and get ready. USE TWO HANDS...left to stabilize the ratchet on to the nipple, right to pull. Heads up: this one's a knuckle buster.

Hope this helps...this was a freaking bitch to do, buuuuut, well worth the peace of mind knowing I did it 100% correct.

GL

Hapa DC5

Hmmm I did the drain x2 (drained coolant, ran the car until warm, drove around fans went on, drained again) from the Radiator at 58k prior to us driving down to Vegas again. When I'm due for my 105k I'll do the coolant from the block as well.

mc_holla

Glad I came across this thread. Thought this would be simpler than an oil change.

paz840

iTrader: (2)

Great info guys! Gonna tackle it next weekend.

amolvb

Thank you very much for the pictures. Are these pictures taken from above or below the car?

DeathMetal

iTrader: (2)

It would be bellow, passenger side, with the wheel off.

Tehvine

Gonna guess it's from the passenger wheel well. We have a tie rod in our face here as well as a precat to the left in one of the pics.

jhumbo

iTrader: (1)

So I want to get this done, but the dealer I use told me that they don't drain the whole system, only the radiator. The mechanic I go to said that they could do a flush where they hook up a machine to the radiator hoses, but the dealer had told me not to have a flush done.

Is there a reason not to do a flush? Should I just push for my mechanic to find the drain bolt as described above? Any advice is appreciated. I'm looking to have this done in a couple weeks. Already bought the fluid.

chenz04TL

Hey all, thanks for all the posts, very informative and helpful. After reading all of the posts and synthesizing the info, I called my mechanic and the Acura Dealership. Both said if you're doing regular changes (every 30k, which Acura supposedly does if you bring the car to them for the major repairs) and you're not changing fluid types, you don't need to do a complete flush. This logic seems to make sense. If anyone has good reason, backed with evidence of course, that a dealer was once again blowing smoke up my ass, please let me know.

Looks like I'll just be doing a simple flush with the base hose, and filling with Honda type 2....

04 TL, 6 sp Manual, Navi, with 120k.
Two 12" JLs with custom boxes pumping 600 watts RMS.
New clutch at 50k (cause I drive like I stole it)
New front axel due to popping at 50k (at 70k they started popping again).
Tranny work (just take it to the dealer for clutch repair....)
4 new wind shields....rocks hate me....bastards!!
2 beer holders........

Cheers!

jhumbo

iTrader: (1)

I think that logic makes sense since you would constantly be freshening up the fluid. For me I had not touched the coolant ever, so I still had the original coolant in at 120k and really wanted to get it all out of there and get all brand new fluid in there instead.

I had a mechanic drain from the block for me and I filled it back up with the Acura fluid. It worked out just fine for me and didn't take him too long.

Funny thing was that the Acura dealer wouldn't even do it that way for me. (See my post above.) I had to convince the service tech that there even was a drain bolt at the bottom of the block. They said they'd never heard of anyone doing such a thing.

Adobeman

Sorry, but I'd drain the block. It's not that hard to do and effectively replaces a greater percent of the coolant. The service manual for the car clearly calls out to do it. The fact that dealerships don't do it means nothing. They often deviate from what's in the service manual.

I'm not saying your car will explode if you don't drain the block but it seems like a silly place to cut any corners for saving a few minutes.

Roger555

iTrader: (3)

Always use Honda fluid too!!! Other coolants don't work well with the aluminum system!

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

Will have to look into this...will order 2 gallons and prepare to knock this out soon. Since I decided to keep the car and not trade in, I want to do all maintenance to ensure problem free driving for the next few years!

xfw55

can i not use thermostat?

04TLDWH

Thank you gentlemen, very helpful!

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

I ended up doing this, but only the radiator, I feel like that's where it normally gets all cruddy and clogged. I drained the fluid and man...that stuff looked pretty damned good. I checked the inside of the radiator from the top and the fins all looked really clean. Good 15 bucks to spend to keep it running in tip top shape.

tonester

iTrader: (1)

i was trying to bleed the coolant system this morning and let the car run continuously for about 20 mins with the heater setting set to MAX. I kept looking for the cooling fans to turn on but neither one turned on. Are these fans supposed to turn on when the car reaches its normal operating temperature if the vehicle is just sitting in idle?

tonester

iTrader: (1)

update on my previous post. It appears that both fans will turn on, but only driving the car for awhile. after filling the cooling system, I proceeded to drive to work. When I got to work, I turned off the car and started it back up again after about 5 seconds. Both fans turned on at that time.

sk8board{Pete}

iTrader: (1)

couldnt find the block drain bolt..

sk8board{Pete}

iTrader: (1)

is that a mount?

Xpditor

Pete: Don't feel alone. It is hard and almost impossible without a lift. It is WAY up in there on the passenger side. You have to reach up next to the hot exhaust headers. It is hard to see without a flashlight. but it is the only nut with a nipple on it as the above pictures show. The nipple is there for a reason. If you don't put a length of tubing on it, you will have a mess. Ideally, wait for the car to cool down before reaching up in there.

As I and others have said, the dealer's shop doesn't even bother doing this because a) they are too lazy, or b) they can charge from the flat-rate manual but do a quickie by just draining and fill the radiator, or c) they don't even know how to do it right. 99/100 owners won't know the difference and it's almost as good. ???

But, if you're anal about your car as I am, you will do it the right way. Good luck.

sk8board{Pete}

iTrader: (1)

I found it and a easier way to get to it.. if you remove the strut bar & tps sensor bracket.. its right there.. piece of cake

jb879123

I bought my 04 TL in may. I don't know what the previous owners used for coolant. Is it dangerous to do the simple radiator drain and refill with Honda coolant, not knowing what's already in there?

dragonsking91

is there a video DIY for this? LOL sorry I'm a noob at this kind of thing

Sutitan

So I wash going to change my coolant. I was at 115k, so I figured I needed some fresh coolant. I was commited to drain from the radiator as well as the block. The radiator was simple. Just undo the white butterfly valve, and it comes out pretty easily. Make sure to remove the radiator cap on top so it flows out easily. It does sputter around a little, by my pan caught 99% of it. As far as the engine drain bolt goes, I recommend you take off your front passenger wheel. the nipple faces towards the rear of the car. From the pictures, i thought it faced towards the side. I managed to fit a 3/8 ratchet with a 3 inch extension in there. Fit fine, and movement was ok.

but here comes the bad part. I broke the nipple off. We didnt bend it off. We just twisted it off cause the bolt was seized. When we couldent get it loose, I just figured that I didnt have a good angle on it. After alot of sweat and force, it finally just twisted clean off.





That bolt was seized on there on there real good. Im glad we didnt break the bolt loose, or else coolant would have been leaking slowly. I guess my car is just going to have to get 1 gallon of new coolant every year. I spent about 5 minutes draining the radiator. I spend about 1 hour breaking the bolt. I rather just change 1 gallon every year for 20 bucks.

I drained 4 quarts out of the radiator, and that gallon filled it up perfectly. thats a little over 50%. Im doing another gallon this weekend to get a little over 75%. Next year it would be 88.5%. Granted, some of the coolant would have a bit of mileage on it, the vast majority of it would be fairly new.

So my verdict. Change a gallon every year out of the radiator. Save yourself some time and frustration for virtually new coolant.

surlynkid

iTrader: (1)

just used this method. absolute piece of cake this way. just a 12mm 6 point socket, about a 10" extension, and a 3/8" ratchet. popped loose almost instantly.

thanks for the tip.

sixsixfour

thats what I plan to do.

i still have the OEM coolant in there at 92K, so ill do a drain/refill about 5 times to get most of the old coolant out, and then just do a drain refill in six months and then once a year. since the car doesnt see much action as a weekend driver, that should be enough.

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

I think I did mine at 60K...I plan to do it about every 90K.
To be honest...even the pilot I just did with 100K, the coolant still looked brand new.

ONEOF137

I have a 2007 TL, base model and tried to do a complete coolant drain today. I was able to drain 1 gallon from the radiator through the white butterfly petcock. Was able to locate the block drain valve, loosened valve with ratchet and 12 mm deep socket, attached a 1/4" id clear hose, then loosened valve 1 to 2 more turns. Coolant only dripped out very slowly and I ended up only draining 4 ounces of coolant in about 15 to 20 minutes. Can anyone tell me if this is the type of valve that you open all the way till it stops to drain or does it eventually come out if you keep loosening it? It looked like it would come out so that is why I didn't loosen it anymore for fear that I would make a big mess. Anyway, the coolant that I drained out of the radiator looked very clear and clean, like new coolant. Replaced with Honda type 2.

Xpditor

Did you remove the radiator cap? If not, it will get air locked and not drain properly. Mine flushed out quickly at the dealership on the rack and sprayed the whole undercarriage because they did not use the tubing on the nipple.

ONEOF137

Yes, the radiator cap was off. Do you know if the coolant started rapidly flowing out as soon as they loosened the drain valve 1 to 2 turns? Maybe there was something blocking the passage on mine?

Xpditor

I wasn't looking that closely. He might have taken it all the way out.

ZOMGVTEK

I replaced the coolant today. Drained the block and the radiator, took about 30 minutes since I waited for the coolant to drip a while. It's really quite a simple task. You don't even need to jack the car up to drain the radiator, just get a shallow container that holds at least 1.5 gallons or so. That part was about 30 seconds and then 10 minutes of draining. The engine block drain sounded a bit tricky to locate, but it was really quite easy. I spent 5 minutes or so finding it under the car, then realized it's really easy to get to with the front passenger wheel removed. I pulled the wheel and it's right near the oil filter, on the back of the block, above where the CV exits the transmission. With the wheel off it's quite simple to access, it was 30 seconds from there until I broke the bolt free and stuck a 3/8" tube on it. It drained for a while, quite slowly. The drain bolt easily completely removes if need be, but that might get really messy. After draining, I poured about 1.7 gallons in total. I filled the overflow to the top line, topped off the rad, put the cap on, and squeezed the upper and lower lines a bit, topped off again, and idled it for a while. The level didn't move, I drove it around for 15 minutes, idled for a few minutes until the fan kicked on, and the overflow still didn't move. Both the upper and lower hoses were warm and had good pressure. Apparently this system is really easy to bleed.

ONEOF137

I was able to drain approximately 1 gallon from the radiator, so with everything being equal it looks like you were able to drain about 0.7 gallons from the block. About how many turns did you open the drain nipple? Did you open it until it stopped or just until there was flow?

Urianza_TLS

Just wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone that posted in this thread. I'm sure I would've figured it all out eventually but all of this helped immensely!!
I had to change my thermostat and radiator in my 07 TL-S 5 spd A/T (3.5L V6 as opposed to the base 3.2L V6 if it makes a difference.. Which I think they're pretty much set up the same). A few things I wanted to add..
THERMOSTAT: (In ADDITION to the above instructions)
1. It's a lot easier to get to if you take out the intake assembly including box if you still have the stock unit. In the instructions, it only mentioned the battery.
2. Take off the ground lead & 2 bolts to pull out thermostat cover, leaving lower radiator hose attached to thermostat as it is kind of difficult to get pliers wedged in to get to the hose clamp.
3. It didn't mention anything about it here but I thought it was a good idea to put high temp gasket liquid seal since the cover and the housing are metal to metal.
A. Worth mentioning: if you go to Pep Boys, they might give you a dinkier version of your thermostat. The guy at the store said it would be fine, however, with my inexperience I went with the one that was twice the price of the dinkier one ($29 v.s. $14) because it looked exactly like the one that I pulled out of my car. I'm sure it might have been fine, but I figured better safe than sorry.
B. Tools I used: 10mm socket, 6" extension, 3/8" socket wrench.

RADIATOR: (again, in ADDITION to the above instructions)
1. There are (2) fan connections:
a. (1) on the passenger side of the radiator, easiest to unhook with a 12 inch flat head screw driver. This is clipped into the fan shroud both along the wires about 6-8 inches from the top of the radiator AND where the connection is made. kind of a pain to get out. I had to detach the top of the fan shroud from the radiator to pull it back and push the clip in with a pair of pliers.
b. (1) on the driver side at the bottom of the shroud. Again, I had to have the shroud seperated from the radiator to take out one of the clips. the other is connected to the outside of the fan shroud.
After taking all that out, I was able to pull the fans out. In the instructions, it says you can pull it out connected to the radiator, I found it impossible!
3. if you have the same car as mine, the previous instructions also don't mention the radiator cooling lines on the bottom of the radiator. Able to get to from the bottom of the radiator if you have the car up on jack stands or if you already have the fan shroud out, it should be a snap. Also, pull out the bolts holding the lines up on the bottom of the frame (I think, they're hard to miss). taking those out also made it easier to get to the bolts that hold the shroud to the bottom of the radiator (using slim 10mm wrench).
Tools I used: Pliers, channel locks, 10mm socket w/ 3/8" drive & wrench, slim 10mm wrench, long flat head screw driver

Draining the engine coolant:
The above instructions are really all you need. I just wanted to add tools I used:
3/8" socket wrench, 12" extension, 6" bending extension, 12mm socket. I was actually able to get to it using only the socket wrench with a short 12mm socket, but the extensions made it a lot easier to make sure it was tight after I drained it.

Probably a bunch of info that you would've figured out along the way doing all this yourself, I just wanted to throw in my 2 cents if it helps anyone else!

BTW, The guy at the shop I took it to initially told me it would cost around $930 to replace both the radiator and the thermostat. I have a decent amount of mechanical experience and was able to take care of it myself for around $200!! It took me several hours, but that was mostly because I had to go back and forth to the parts store to get tools I didn't have and of course get the thermostat that looked like the one I pulled out of my car.
The radiator was from radiatorexpress.com for $160 after tax, plus the thermostat from pep boys for around $29.
GOOD LUCK!

coykiam

Sorry to bump a very old post but couldn't find a straight answer.

With regards to topping off, for some reason my coolant reservoir shows empty but my radiator shows full. Can I top the car off with a coolant from Prestone 50/50 or do I need the OEM Honda 50/50 coolant?

Just asking since Autozone is much closer than Honda/Acura dealer.

erdoc48

Personally, I'd go with the Honda coolant- it's sold by the quart at Honda MC dealers as well, so you don't need a full gallon of the stuff. It's blue as is the car's coolant (is silicate free as well).