My truck is an '03 with the 4.6L, never had the coolant changed, 75,000km on it. No overheating issues. Should I get the coolant system flushed? When is it recommended?

 

id flush it. should be done every 30k miles. thats 48,280 kilometers.

you may not be experience overheating but changing the coolant at the recommended intervals will help out a lot. i think the last time i changed my coolant (60k miles) i gained 1 mpg.

make sure the engine is warm and well flushed.

 

The factory coolant is supposedly good for 100k miles, but I'd change it now on general principles - it's been 5 years.

 

Might sound nutz, but, I drain my rad once a year and refill with clean 50/50 mix coolant. I don't bother with flushing the block etc.

 

That's fine, but do not mix types of coolant.

 

I belive only the red coolant is the high mileage stuff, not the green colored coolant.

 

Over time the green coolant will build up voltage due to electrolysis and can cause heater core failure. It's easier to change coolant than a heater core so to me it's good preventative maintenance.

 

The factory fill on mine was high mileage coolant, and it was more yellow than red - it was pretty orange.

To the OP - if your coolant is green, it's overdue for a flush. If it's orange, I think I'd still change it. If it is orange and you don't want to use OEM coolant, I'd do a complete flush before putting green stuff in.

 

I just had my 03 done last night. I had it flushed at the dealer. I feel like I have been violated but their price was right in line with everybody else.

My immpression is, and correct me if I am wrong, Ford has the regular green antifreeze in some vehicles and their yellow high millage stuff in some. Orange antifreeze is GM Dexcool and should not be in a Ford. If yours is orange I would guess it was the yellow stuff with rust in it. So you would want to chage that out for sure. I would not run high milage antifreeze for any more than two years like the regular green antifreeze as it becomes acidic over time and eats holes in your head gaskets, water pump and what ever else it come into contact with. I know people do run it longer, my truck was still running the original coolent (I know not taking my own advise) but I just bought the truck 7 months ago and have been busy doing other stuff to it. For what it costs it is cheaper than doing big repairs down the road.

 

humm so its prob time to change mine my 4.6L has 126,000 miles and the coolant has never been changed...still runs cool and never over heats. ill prob change that soon seeing as its summer time.

 

yeah i'll get mine flushed when i take it into the dealer next week to get the steering shaft replaced. and maybe an alignment. frick, one thing after the next!