Is it critical to change coolant at 100K?

[voxtrot]

Originally Posted by tmontague

Do it yourself in the parking lot - here's how:

Buy a large oil drain pan (or equivalent plastic container) and slide it under the front of the car where the drain petcock in on the bottom drivers side of the rad. Look for a yellow plastic knob, you can reach it from the top of the engine bay. It may be stuck but be careful because you can break it.

Drain the coolant out from this pet cock (remove rad cap to speed this up and make sure coolant is not hot!). This will take 20 mins or so to fully drain, but once it stops draining close the pet cock and re fill with fresh Toyota coolant (50/50 mix) from the rad cap.

Fill until it over flows. Then squeeze both the upper and low rad hoses a few times and if the coolant level drops at the rad cap, re fill until it is at the top.

Keep the rad cap off and start engine. The coolant level will drop, refill it again until it is full and put rad cap back on then turn off engine. Make sure your overflow reservoir is full of coolant to at least the F line if not more.

Turn the car on and go for a drive. 20 minutes in current temps should be enough to get coolant up to operating temps, go for a jaunt on the highway and back.

Get back home and park the car. Check the coolant level in your overflow reservoir, it likely dropped some. Fill it back up to the F mark. Once your coolant is cool enough, remove the rad cap and if the coolant is not at the top then fill it to the top and replace the cap.

Drive the car as your normally would over the next week but after every day check the overflow reservoir and refill it so it is at the "F" mark. After a week of this you no longer need to keep checking it.

The yaris burps the air out of its cooling system very well by itself as the fill neck is properly situated as the highest point in the system. As it burps air itself it will pull coolant from the reservoir tank which is why you need to check it after you drain and refill the system.

Your only potential issue may be needing to use pliers on the drain petcock valve to crack it open. It is easier to do from under the car but can be done from above. Just be cautious not to crack it. Warmer temps help keep the plastic more pliable.

You can easily drain the overflow reservoir by removing the small diameter hose from the radiator fill neck. Once it is removed lower it in the engine bay so that is points into your drain pan. Once it is lower than the outlet on the reservoir, coolant will automatically drain from it.

Hi tmontague I am going to be doing a coolant drain and flush and replace the thermostat on my 2007 Yaris Sedan with Automatic Transmission for the first time. I just recently hit 160k miles and I do not think the coolant has been drained and filled before I bought it used. I am going to be USING THIS
with distilled water. I will buy two gallons to flush or more until it comes out clear. Once it is clear how do you know how much of the concentrate to add with the clean distilled water already inside? Manual says 5 Quarts for Auto.
I don't know if everything comes out in the flush so do you have to wing it a little when adding the rest? Since it is hot here now would it be ok to have a little more distilled water inside radiator or reservoir? I don't want to damage the coolant system or engine since this is my first time doing this. Also worried about the left over air pockets damaging system after.

Thanks

[tmontague]

Originally Posted by voxtrot

Hi tmontague I am going to be doing a coolant drain and flush and replace the thermostat on my 2007 Yaris Sedan with Automatic Transmission for the first time. I just recently hit 160k miles and I do not think the coolant has been drained and filled before I bought it used. I am going to be USING THIS
with distilled water. I will buy two gallons to flush or more until it comes out clear. Once it is clear how do you know how much of the concentrate to add with the clean distilled water already inside? Manual says 5 Quarts for Auto.
I don't know if everything comes out in the flush so do you have to wing it a little when adding the rest? Since it is hot here now would it be ok to have a little more distilled water inside radiator or reservoir? I don't want to damage the coolant system or engine since this is my first time doing this. Also worried about the left over air pockets damaging system after.

Thanks

You won't ever know exactly how much concentrate to add - which is why you always mix a concentrated coolant with water before you add it to the car.

And that is also why I said you can just simply drain and re fill as you likely will not have any benefit of a flush.

If you are set on flushing it, then just run water through it until it comes out clear. Then start adding the coolant that you premixed in other jugs until the rad is full. Over fill the overflow reservoir a bit as well.

Squeeze the rad hoses a bit and you will see the coolant level drop a bit in the radiator. I typically jam a funnel in the radiator fill hole and over fill the funnel and then turn the car on, you will see the level drop a bit and then start to rise as it warms up. Once the car is off it cools and starts dropping. Go back after 30 mins and remove the funnel and top up the rad. Drive your car will an over filled overflow reservoir and check it every day as it will drop as air ir burped out of the system. This will stop after a couple days.

In my experience with various Yaris', they bleed air from the cooling system really well, just make sure the front end is jacked up so the rad cap is the highest point of the engine.

Once this is done you need to buy a tester to make sure the freezing point is well below anything that you will see in your climate. You will have more than enough coolant in there for the summer, but potentially not enough for the winter, depending on your climate. Most of the coolant is removed when you drain the rad, but a slight amount will still be left in there.

FWIW many people say you need the fan to turn on to open the thermostat - this is wrong and a waste of time. The T-stat opens at 180F, well before the fan kicks on (typically 204F). Also the Tstat is not an all or nothing mechanism, it will slowly open just prior to 180F and fully open around 180F. I have successfully bled cooling systems in ambient temps way to cold to get the fans to turn on.

I just finished draining and re filling my Subie Outback and when the fans actually kicked on the coolant level didn't even drop - this is because the Tstat was already wide open well before the fans kick on.

[RMcG]

Originally Posted by tmontague

And that is also why I said you can just simply drain and re fill as you likely will not have any benefit of a flush.

If you are set on flushing it,

I value what tmontague is saying here about a flush being of doubtful value.

I am still kind of undecided whether to just simply drain and re fill or to flush. A flush will mean extra time and effort. How much extra time and effort is involved in the flush?

I talked to one mechanic at a Toyota dealership and he said they do not do a flush unless it has been a very long time since the coolant was changed, the change is long overdue and there is evidence the coolant has begun to degrade: e.g., coolant no longer "clear," but has particulate matter present in the coolant, etc.

It seems, however, that there would be some degradation of the old coolant that remains after drainage (because some old coolant remains in the system after drainage), even if you cannot see the degradation (e.g., particulate matter, etc).

QUESTION(S): Does anybody have any objective evidence a flush will be of benefit or no benefit?

Does anybody have a lot of experience with this question?

Thanks,

R.