anyone know how to change coolant?

[asinn]

hi guys,

does anyone know is there a PDF or a website that teach you how to drain out all the coolant on a MCS?

i bought a bottle of Redline WaterWetter, just want to know how do i drain out the old coolant so i can add the waterwetter with 100% pure water?


regards
Alfred

[Claire_S]

hey you should be able to drain out enough for one bottles worth by just syphoning (spl) with a hose. if you want to drain the system, (ive had the front bumper of to chage the hoses) im guessing at removing the front bumper and disconecting the bottom radiator hose. hope this kinda helps.

[pocketrocketowner]

Running water wetter and H20 in your system will essentially begin a rusting process inside your engine block. You should never use water in your system but the coolant mix that comes in your car.
If you insist, jack up your car, remove the bottom stone guard, find the lower radiator hose and disconnect it with a pair of pliers. Hopefully you will have put a drain pan underneath to catch the coolant.

Claire's idea of draining some off the reservoir makes eminent sense as well.

[twouptons]

If you replace all of your coolant with plain water (and the Water Wetter) you also need to be very careful with cold weather. IIRC, the freezing point of the Water Wetter/ water combo is much higher than that of a traditional coolant mix.
A frozen cooling system can crack your engine block.

-Eric

[obehave]

Quote: Originally Posted by Claire_S (original)

hey you should be able to drain out enough for one bottles worth by just syphoning (spl) with a hose. if you want to drain the system, (ive had the front bumper of to chage the hoses) im guessing at removing the front bumper and disconecting the bottom radiator hose. hope this kinda helps.

That's exactly what I did.

I have run 100% water and Water Wetter for summer months in V8s and not had rust issues but I did flush and fills frequently. They were hi perf motors that were worked on or inspected frequently.

I would not recommend doing that in your MINI. I do think WW is a good product though. I have probably 100s of thousands of miles on vehicles running it. SOme of them very hard 1/4 miles

[Wrench Bender]

Like many of you, I have started maintaining my MCS 2003 and have gone through the postings. I was looking for the best way to drain the coolant. It turns out that what I did was what you all say to do: after putting the car up with my garage jack, I undid two screws and four bolts that held a large black plastic cover over the bottom of the front of the car. Then I used a pair of slip pliers on the lower hose clamp, a spring clamp, and worked it back 2". Then I CAREFULLY worked the hose free, after putting a large basin there. Not getting covered was the toughest part. Actually, less than 1 gallon of coolant emerged, even when I loosened the bleeder screw that's top-center of the hose arrangement. So I looked for a place to drain the block, but didn't find anything. The radiator looks to be PLASTIC and aluminum, so care is needed not to destroy all of it. Used the strange blue antifreeze from MINI. Next time I'll just use Prestone.

[k-huevo]

This set allows you to purge the old coolant while filling with new, plus check for leaks and remove air pockets UView 550000 - Airlift Cooling System Leak Checker and Airlock Purge Tool Kit but an air compressor is needed. This model his hand operated UView 590000 AirLift™ Combo Kit so more effort is required.

One of these days I’m going to get one of those but in the mean time I remove the radiator and water pump often enough to do a thorough drain. Drain from the lower hose as described in the other posts, remove the upper coolant hose from the radiator, unplug the fan connector and unbolt the A/C line, swing the heat exchanger down and out of the way, pull the radiator support and drain the remaining coolant from the core, pull the SC and water pump from the block to drain more, then I siphon most of the block coolant from the hole (green circle/bag in hole) with a large syringe. Be sure to plug the oil dip stick hole (red circle/blue plug) before pulling the SC & water pump. BTW, there is a block drain plug under the exhaust manifold area.