AutoZone How-To: Flushing and Filling Your Cooling System

you hey guys Kevin Said's here you know most automotive manufacturers recommend that you flush your coolant system on regular intervals just to keep your engine running like it should so we're going to show you how to flush and fill your antifreeze using these press-on products that you can pick up at your local autozone store this is a relatively simple job and something you can do in about an hour now your owners manual will tell you the coolant capacity for your vehicle don't have an owner's manual no worries your local autozone has all the information for coolant capacities on most vehicles and always use the manufacturers recommendation for both coolant capacity and the type of coolant as well as the service intervals and in freeze is poisonous so always handle with care' don't pour it down the drain or out into the street and when done you can use your old jugs to bring your old coolant to the local recycling center tap water can contain minerals and additives that can cause your internal cooling components to rust or corrode over time distilled water has no minerals so it's the best way to ensure that you've got the cleanest possible fluids running through the internal cooling systems of your vehicle distilled water is easy to get at your local grocery store and it's inexpensive so it's definitely something that we recommend now when you're flushing your system tap water is perfectly fine as long as you follow it with the final rinse with distilled water prior to adding a new coolant now you've got a choice when you're buying antifreeze you can either go with a 50/50 premix or 100% antifreeze and the choice is yours either one is fine but we recommend buying the 100% antifreeze and mixing it with distilled water that way if you live in a part of the country with an extreme range of temperature either hot or cold you can custom blend your antifreeze mix based on the demands of your environment first you want to make sure the car has been sitting for a while and it's not too hot to touch we're good and now is a great time to inspect radiator hoses and clamps and make sure nothing's dry rotted or cracked if you find things that need to be replaced you can go and pick them up at your local autozone now you need to locate the pressure cap on the systems typically right here on the radiator tank what you want to do is open that cap which lets air into the system and helps push the antifreeze out the bottom when you open up the drain port now obviously we've got a car jacked up but it's just to give you a better look at what we're doing make sure that you have safety glasses and some gloves on hand to do this job safety glasses keeps the dirt from falling in your eyes when you're under the car and gloves well they just keep your hands clean because antifreeze is nasty most vehicles will have a drain plug or a plug located at the bottom corner of the radiator you'll need to look under and behind the front bumper to find yours you might need a socket or a large flat-head screwdriver to remove the plug or in some cases you don't now you've got to have something to catch the old fluid from the bottom of the radiator and I recommend a bucket like this because it's open in the top and it's got a spout on it so you can easily pour the old antifreeze back into the buckets we got ours at autozone with everything in place open the drain plug slowly to drain the old fluid remember there could be at least two gallons of antifreeze behind you're waiting to get out so just be careful and check your local laws and regulations when you're disposing of your old fluid okay with the drain plug snugged back into the radiator now we can start the flushing process with our Prestone flush plus cleaner mixed with the silver water some cars require special fill procedures so you might want to check your service manual for any special fill procedures on your vehicle we started our car we're letting it run for a few minutes with the heater turned wide open that way the flush plus cleaner has a chance to go through all the coolant passages and scrub out all the gunk and deposits from the cooling system keep in mind do this in a well-ventilated area with the garage door open or if you're doing it with the door closed like we are route the exhaust outside the building we let the car run until it got good and warm and had a chance to run everything through the cooling system then we shut it off and let it cool down for about 15 minutes now we're going to repeat the flushing process you may notice that the water is still dirty if so you can repeat the flushing process with tap water until what comes out runs clear we've got the distilled water drained out and our drain plug back in now it's time to install the new coolant we're going to use the 100% concentrate and distilled water and make our own blend of 50/50 there's an easy way to do this you don't have to play mr. wizard just take on your old distilled water jugs pour it halfway up with the Prestone 100% antifreeze and by the way pour from the side so you get the right water displacement you don't get any spillage or galoshes out of the top and pour up to the halfway point on your empty jug all right now just go to the rest of the way up with distilled water and that gives you a consistent 50/50 mix all right now we can start the car and it'll pull the rest of that down in there [Music] so our cars shut off we let it sit for about 15 minutes and now we're going to check levels radiators good so now I'm going to fill the coolant overflow jug up to the recommended fill level we hope this video has shown you how easy it is to do a flush and fill in your system and it'll make your car live longer i'm kevin tetz see in the zone

Channel: AutoZone

Views: 883,668

Keywords: engine, cooling system, flush cooling system, radiator, engine care, Prestone, AutoZone, antifreeze, how to flush car's cooling system, how to flush antifreeze, fluid change, Car cooling system, coolant flush, how to flush coolant system, radiator flush, how to flush a radiator, flushing coolant system, Flush Radiator Coolant, coolant flush and fill, cooling system flush, how to, step-by-step, instructions, tutorial, guide, auto care, Ford, Honda, Chevy, Dodge, auto DIY

Id: XdyZDw7jOP0

Length: 6min 47sec (407 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 10 2017