Hello all,
I desperately need to get my radiator/antifreeze fluid flushed and refilled with fresh, although I do not have the time to do it myself. After reading some posts regarding the procedure it seems as though it takes quite some time. Does anyone know how much it would run me at a local oil change shop?? Jiffy Lube, Oil Stations, etc. I know they have those automatic machines that take out the old and put new in. Please send any helpful information. Thanks in advance!!

 

my dealer did a BG flush and refill for $79.99

Crapie Lube should be around $50.00-60.00 just make sure you watch them like a hawk! They have been known to put antifreeze in the oil filler neck!

 

I would do it yourself if possible...it only requires maybe an hour, and no special tools are needed to do the job.

The hardest part is finding out what your city requires you to do with the used antifreeze.

 

Ask your local quick lube if they will take it. Mine was very excepting even though I don't have him check/change my fluids.

 

If I were to drain/refill the coolant system myself, would I have to drain the block as well? Also, do I really need to use distilled water to flush it?? I was reading some posts sayin you need to use distilled water and some saying you could just use a hose to flush the system. Another thing, do you reccommend just draining and refilling with fresh antifreeze rather than flushing the entire system??

 

Its not too hard.
Drain it, then fill it up with water, run it for a while (turn the heater all the way up), then drain it again, and you can do this several times but I would keep going until you get clean water coming out. Then drain it again.

Then just get a medium size cup and alternate filling it with water and antifreeze until the truck is full. You might have to top it off later.

I used a 5 gallon paint bucket and that held all of it (including about 2 or 3 drains after the initial one). Then a few weeks later our city had a hazardous materials dropoff thing.

 

So when I drain it, then fill it up with water do i use distilled or just regular water from the hose?? Also, do i need to plug it back up each time i refill with water and run it, or do i just keep the drains open and let it flow through while i add more water and let it run?? This sounds like an extreme pain in the ****, but id rather save myself some bucks!!

 

Distilled water is just that, water and nothing else. Tap water can containe floride, chlorene and other chemicals. Chlorine is corrossive. The Choice is yours. I use distilled water.

Regards

Jean Marc Chartier

 

I've seen softened water eat through water pumps before. The shop I worked at serviced the local Culligan vans and the salt or something in the water would eat up the water pumps, at least that was our theory because those vans used a lot more water pumps then they should have and always had a white residue on them. I'm sure if you have really hard, rusty water you would not want to put that in your truck.

 

I don't think it is necesarily the chlorine that is the problem in tap water. It is more the metals that leave deposits. Calcium and Iron I would think would be the big ones. If you have really hard water, it has calcium in it (i.e the stuff that leave the white deposits on everthing). I have always just used regular tap water. Our water was a little hard back home in WV but not too bad. Bottom line is I think if you use a bottle of radiator flush when you flush the system and refill the next time it will remove any deposits that might accumulate from the tap water. That is what it is designed to do really.

My 2 cents as a chemist.

Mike

 

When you drain you can just use water from the hose to clean it out. But after the last drain, fill it up with distilled like they said.

What I did was a filled it up then closed the line, let the truck run with the heater on for a while (its best to already have the truck up to operating temperature before you start this whole thing), drain it, repeat as necessary, drain, put in antifreeze/water.

 

How about the antifreeze that comes in jugs that are pre-mixed? Has anyone here tried this at all? Would they put distilled water in those jugs. For the price you pay for them, I would like to think so.

 

The mix is totally overpriced, since it's already thinned down. Since some water is always left in the system, you need to calculate the mix. Here's the easy way without draining the block...Buy 10 gallons of distilled water and 3 gallons of anti-freeze. Warm the engine up and then drain the radiator. Fill it back up with 3 gallons of distilled water. Run it a few minutes after the thermostat opens. Repeat this until you've drained out 9 gallons of distilled water. Fill the radiator the last time with 3 gallons of straight antifreeze. This will mix with the clean, distilled water left in the system/ block. Top it off with the 10th gallon of distilled water and give the rest to your wife for ironing.

 

reading all these posts about anti-freeze, a blind man can see u guys are misinformed. Listen to me, "Use the pre-mix anti-freeze thats approved for Cummings Diesel Engines" thats the best you can buy, it has nutralizing sloutions, with NO crushed glass, and a cleaning, and lube agent thats safe for all seals and gaskets. oh, wait?? you didnt know that anti freeze has crushed glass in it? yes it does Clem, duh !

 

Okay, I'm not sure who told you that antifreeze contains crushed glass but if you would be so kind as to point to a reference I would like to see that for my self. Yes many conventional antifreezes use silicates as a corrosion inhibitor but silcates are not crushed glass. They are salts that contain silicon in the chemical make up. Glass is silicon dioxide not just silicon. When the additive starts to break down it could concieveably hydrolize and make a silica gel type material but the particles would be so small that they would be a smaller problem than the rust that has formed in the cooling system because the other corrosion inhibitors have broken down by that time as well. Again, I am just saying that if you assume that by having silicate additives it contains crushed glass you are mistaken. As I stated above if you have a reference pointing to the presence of crushed glass in new commecial antifreeze I would like to have a look at it and maybe learn something myself.

Your friendly chemist.