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How often should the engine coolant be changed?
Hi,
I have a car from 1999, a mazda PRO ES.
it has 37,000 miles on it.
The coolant level has never changed since the day i brought it.
So the question is:
Should I change the coolant or not?
Any problems if I dont change the coolant?
apprciate all ur feedback.
I have a car from 1999, a mazda PRO ES.
it has 37,000 miles on it.
The coolant level has never changed since the day i brought it.
So the question is:
Should I change the coolant or not?
Any problems if I dont change the coolant?
apprciate all ur feedback.
0
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
Another thing to think about doing while the system is drained down is the thermostat. It is a cheap enough thing to replace and it will save you down the road from having to drain the system if it goes bad. It's also cheap insurance against any repairs caused by overheating.
GM said the same thing about Dex-Cool, but it turns out if there is any air in the system, or you should develop a slow leak and have less than a full cooling system, it tended to turn into big orange chunks of cement that block coolant flow.
if the coolant is deteriorating, it will fail the appropriate hydrometer test. at that point, when it's not good enough for your coldest winter (or hottest summer,) whatever preservative from German science they are using has given out, and it's time to flush and refill with the same coolant. if they have a service part number for the stuff, it won't last forever.
I only buy dealer antifreeze as I haven't been able to figure which auto parts store product is equivalent. It costs about $12 / gal and may help protect warranty.
I only use distilled water which i get from my furnace A/C unit and run through a coffee filter.
Do we need a new thread, anit freeeze, is there a difference in brands?
In all my years of ownership of various cars that was the only time I kept in antifreeze more than a year. I don't think brand makes any difference.
I'm looking to change the coolant on an old Honda accord(First attempt at a coolant change) From what I have gathered it seems hard to completely flush the whole system.
My question is if I drain just the radiator and the reservoir without doing it to the cylinder block, and doing it more often would the changed coolant eventually replace those in the cylinder block? Does the coolant circulate from the coolant to the cylinder block?
Thanks in advance. And I would appreciate any additional tips on changing coolant.
a flush connector that fits into a heater hose and then hooks to the garden hose, and a deflector for the top of the radiator cap, will do a sorta credible job of flushing the old glop out. the kit is not that expensive. you want to start with a cold engine, however, because none of us at home have hot water running to the garden hose, and cracking blocks and stuff due to temp differential is not a good idea.
when the water is running clean out of the deflector, after the car warms up and you have flow through the heater, time to shut it all down and go for lunch. after lunch, when temps are stable again, drain the radiator and pour in the antifreeze concentrate, then run it until warm and a few more minutes to get the air out... and check the solution for the right hygrometer reading. you will probably have to fiddle and diddle with drains and more antifreeze until it reads right.
flush the overflow bottle and fill it to the line with 50/50 mix.. and keep an eye on that, you will have to adjust the level for a few days.
not elegant, but it works.
of course, you can always overfill the coolant per formula by the same amount when you drain down after flushing and add the coolant to start with.
care to show the step-by-step approach of doing "conventional flushing" as mentioned in message #20? Thanks in advance.
Reason why a conventional flush is not needed is that the expansion tank is only there for two reason one is in the event that the car overheat there is a resivor to thrust the pressurized water some where into the expansion tank the second reason is in case the radiator need some coolant is pulls it from this tank.
These are the only reasons for the tank additionally I do not believe that the new coolant in the radiator is adulterated to merit a full flush. However if that is what you'd feel comfortable doing up to you.
everything else is ethylene glycol (some fraction of 1% is Sierra brand, a less-toxic glycol.) virtually all of it has the same silicone-silicate inhibitor to delay breakdown and seal minor weeps at connectors.
green, yellow-green, or red are just dye colors. get whatever "meets major car makers recommendations" (tm) that fits your price.
Years ago, mechanics told me i was crazy not to use them; 'will make your water pump last longer' they said. this may have been true for big block v8's with big coolant passages but the newer engines have smaller ones that can develop build up and cause problems. Engines run hotter these days too.
case in point; 84 pontiac sunbird, thought i was doing it a favor by using waterpump lube... about a year later head gasget blew. I pulled i apart in the driveway (easy enough) and the head gasget had deposits that had cooked into crusty material in the coolant passages, and at one point of the hotest part of the head, had completely plugged a coolant passage. Guess where the head gasget rupture was? Right where the coolant passage was plugged.
No I'll never use anything other than dealer AF and filtered distilled water (from my home a/c). [I am sure dealers don't use distilled water if they install the coolant!!]
I am really not sure if coolant 'flushing' really cleans out the deposits or just pushes stuff into the radiator. Unless you pull the lower radiator hose off after flushing, how do you know all the debris is pushed out of the system or just settles there to recirculate?
davedave1: I think you are right about the distilled water. I can't imagine the mechanics taking time outto use distill water for the antifreeze. Plus if you change the coolant between 30k-50k miles, i doubt any deposits form regular tap water will do any damage to the cooling system.
as for flushing, the general idea is that you run pressure through the system so the flakes and goop are kicked loose and flow out. certainly there will probably be some creepy crud in the bottom of the radiator bells and behind the freeze plugs in the bottom of the block that doesn't get the message. unless you get in a serious crash, that crud in those areas is not really likely to get loose and settle someplace else.
just like little kids and white carpet, you'll never get all the dirt out.