[BlueOvalFitter]

This next weekend I will be flushing my sons radiator/coolant system.I checked the condition of it now and its either a caramel color antifreeze or very dirty! I see the owners manual says to use the old green antifreeze.Advance auto is the only place I can find the old green stuff.Does anyone here use chemical flushes to clean their coolant system? I've used them in the past with great results.Anyone using the newer antifreezes in their cars?

 

[bluebr65]

Heres what I do to flush my sys, remove the radiator supports and disconnect the hoses at the top and bottom, disconnect the trans cooler if you have an auto trans, then lift the radiator out of the car including its rubber mounts. The whole process takes seriously like 10 mins. Run a garden hose through the radiator for about 5 mins, do NOT use a chemical flush as it could corrode the metal parts and copper fittings inside the radiator, replace the old rubber hoses with new ones, drop the rad back in (inspecting for bent fins all the while and leaks), install the new hoses and connect any trans lines you (might) have. Fill her up with fresh new pre-mixed coolant at the radiator cap, then fill the reservoir tank. Run the rolla and let it idle while u check for leaks, then drive it for a the next 3 days and constantly check and re check the condition of the coolant in the tank, it should be clean green, if you see oil mixed in it then you could have some problems coming your way (blown head gasket). Let us know what happens...

PS Any green pre-diluted coolant is good, I personally use Prestone brand, always keeps the 95 cool as hell in hot summer traffic!

 

[cipher93]

Transmission cooler? Huh? These cars have no transmission cooler I know of. That only flushes the radiator, not the entire system. There may still be gunk and debris in the rest of the engine hurting flow or that can get into the radiator and clog it up, so my advice is to take it and have the entire block flushed out. I believe you need to remove the thermostat, put a house on it, and disconnect your engine block return hose from the radiator. About all I know from looking through my Haynes book as I don't do coolant flushes; I'll just have a shop do it and avoid fooling around with it.

 

[BlueOvalFitter]

I've been reading up on this Toyota red antifreeze thing all week and all signs point to all I can use is Toyota red in my sons Corolla! What are ya'll using and how did you get away from having to use Toyota red?

 

[Bitter]

you can use whatever you want, pigs blood even. just a matter of how durable it is. the toyota red lasts the longest in toyotas. you can use plain green but you need to change it more often. it all cools the exact same, just some last longer than others, some play better with cooling system parts than others, some will sludge and some will not.

 

[kevmac]

Just use the green or even better the yellow (that's what I use). I haven't tried it on this car but, I don't see why you can't flush by simply removing the thermostat (easy), putting the housing back together, and running the engine while you drain the radiator and add water (use distilled not tap) to the radiator fill. Then you probably should replace the thermostat (Expensive part. Why? Nobody knows), and drain and refill the radiator with 50/50 to 70/30 coolant/water by first using 100% coolant until you have put 50% to 70% of the cooling system capacity in. Then add distilled water to fill. The other ideas seem to be too extreme to me.

 

[REN69]

In a way he is right... if the car has the red coolant, you can ONLY use red coolant and cannot mix it with yellow, green, brown.. etc. You can however drain the red stuff, flush it properly and THEN change to whatever else you want.

 

[dykwfm]

What exactly is the benefit of a complete flush?

 

[BlueOvalFitter]

What exactly is the benefit of a complete flush?

A complete flush cleans out the whole cooling system.

I called several radiator shops today and all of them said basically the same thing;
do a complete flush with a good flush product (Prestone Super Cleaner) and I can use any antifreeze I want.I am going back with the older style green antifreeze. :thumbsup:

 

[94_Rolla_Guy]

I would recommend the long life red it does last alot better it also doesn't have potentially harmful sylicates in it, your other option is the toyota extra long life pink.