the anti freeze in my car is brown, i just took over the car from my grand mother and im sure the anti freeze hasnt been changed in forever. i know how to drain it, but how can i clean the inside? is there a product i can buy to pour in to clean it? or do i just use a hose?
How do i flush the radiator in my car?
After you have drained the coolant from your radiator go ahead and fill it up with water. You should also put in some radiator cleaning fluid you can purchase at your local parts store. Put the cap back on and run the engine until it gets up to operating Temperature. At this point it has allowed the water and cleaner to circulate through your engine block. Allow the engine to cool down and then drain the water from your radiator. You can repeat this again if you think it needs to have it due to a lot of crud in the water. Some people will tell you the system needs to be reverse flushed but I have found doing it with straight water and radiator cleaner to be very effective. The cleaner is called Nalcool, but there are others on the market and you can get them at your local Napa, O' Riellys, or Auto Zone.
Once you have flushed the radiator out make sure you fill it up with a 50-50% mixture of water and antifreeze. This will protect your engine to the lowest Temperature possible and also keep your system maintained.
As a good measure I always replace the radiator cap when I do a flush like this. Look at the pressure rating on your cap and get a new one when you go to the parts store to get your cleaner.
While your under the hood you can do some minor preventive maintenance too. Check your battery and terminal clamps. If the battery has crud over the top of it then clean it off with a little baking soda mixed with water. Also check your battery terminal clamps. Make sure there isn't any corrosion. If so replace the clamps and clean the battery posts with a terminal cleaner or wire brush.
Go ahead and do an oil change on the engine too. Replace the air and fuel filter/s. Pop the distributor cap and pull one or two of the spark plugs and take a look at them. If they look fouled you might want to go ahead and do a tune up on it at this time too.
Good luck and I hope that helps you!
How do i flush the radiator in my car?
you pull the drain on the radiator and it should drain out.
there is a product actually called radiator flush. i think it goes in after old antifreeze comes out and before you rinse with hose.
Bottom of the radiator has a plug you turn to open up and drain the radiator.
Have a bucket ready to catch the old. It is against the law (an environmental protection law) to let the old antifreeze leech into the ground.
Open the top fill cap in the radiator.
Once all has drained get a garden hose and put on full blast into the radiator fill.
This will flush out any remaining antifreeze in the engine.
Once the drain fluid looks clear you are done.
Close the drain plug on the radiator and then fill with antifreeze and distilled water to the amount recommended in the owners manual.
Put the old antifreeze into the empty antifreeze bottles and bring to a hazardous liquids disposal place.
Usually a mechanic shop can take this or your town should have a place to dispose of it.
If you try just to let it go into the ground or you throw away in regular garbage and a cop sees this he can fine you.
When refilling make sure you put the correct amount of water to antifreeze.
If you only put water in and you live in a cold climate then when it freezes outside the water would freeze and possibly crack the engine cooling system.
This is why antifreeze is also added. it has a much lower freezing point.
And too much antifreeze and not enough water can cause overheating of the engine block.
There is a product called a Flush Kit from Prestone that you cut the heater hose and install the connections to attach a garden hose to and let it flush out your engine, heater core and radiator all in one complete process.
I've used it before and it works great and you leave it on the car for the next time.
drain the radiator,as bad as your fluid is I would remove the lower radiator hose to do this.Just opening the drain won't let any large chunks of rust and other contaminants out of the system.Refill with water and use a product called Zerex super radiator flush,napa carries it.Most flushes are 10 minutes with Zerex you ad it and drive the car for 3-6 hours pretty much cooking your cooling system clean.Now after you've run the flush(be sure too run your heat on high while running the flush this cleans the heater core behind your dash) I highly recommend replacing your thermostat.Drain the system again and remove the thermostat while it's empty.Put the thermo housing back on with out the thermostat and run clean water to rinse out the chemicals.You can also use the garden hose to fill and drain a couple times just to make sure the water runs totally clean.Replace the thermostat and the hose and refill with the proper antifreeze/water mixture.A cooling system conditioner can be a nice touch and be sure to check all your hose and replace any that need it while you're doing all this work
Have fun
go ahead and drain it and back flush it by taking the bottom hose off and leave the cap off, take a garden hose and flush it from the bottom to let all the dirt come out the top. but if the radiator is that dirty then the rest of the engine is too including the heater core. your better off to flush the whole cooling system.
