Be sure all of the old coolant is flushed from the system to ensure a clean, well-protected car. When/if you need to replace the coolant, don’t waste money on a drain and replace. Have a trusted mechanic measure the protection of the coolant in your vehicle if you have 50,000 or more miles on your vehicle or if you have had some type of repair done on the cooling system and you have doubts about the coolant that was used or its condition. In the end, flushing the old coolant from your vehicle is cheap insurance, especially when you consider the cost of a new radiator or water pump. This is usually called a coolant flush and is far more effective at removing all of the old, dirty coolant from your vehicle. To remove all of the coolant, a machine needs to be hooked up to the vehicle so it can force out the old coolant. You can’t drain all the coolant from your car as you can with oil. This is less than half of what is inside your engine. When you simply drain and replace, the only coolant you are changing is what is inside the radiator, the overflow reservoir, and possibly a bit that is inside the radiator hoses.
This is yet another reason to have your vehicle serviced by a trustworthy mechanic who understands which antifreeze is appropriate for your vehicle. Mixing these two causes them to create a pudding-like mess that won’t circulate and certainly won’t protect your vehicle from overheating. Mixing coolants can be an expensive mistake.įor example, the orange colored Dex-cool antifreeze should NEVER be mixed with the green glycol-based antifreeze. Hopefully, the person who worked on your vehicle before used the correct coolant and didn’t mix two different types. It is VERY important that you use the correct one for your vehicle, especially if repairs were done and extra coolant was added. Have you noticed that some coolants are green while others are pink? There is an important distinction between the two.Īs coolant changed over the years, the industry used different colors in hopes of making “topping off” or adding coolant easier. This can cause the entire cooling system to not be as efficient as it could be. This could mean that the old coolant is “worn out” and diluting the new coolant. If the engine wasn’t properly flushed of coolant at that time, you have a mix of both old and new coolant. It also means coolant was added to your vehicle. This includes replacing hoses, radiator work, and water pump work. Second, if you have had any type of repair on the cooling system, the cooling system of your engine was exposed to air or other contaminants. If your vehicle has more than 50,000 miles, it’s a good idea to have the condition of your coolant checked. This causes damage to every part your coolant touches, from the heater core to the water pump, and even the radiator. When coolant deteriorates, it becomes more acidic and no longer protects your vehicle from rust. Your mechanic will have a small device that looks like a thermometer (called a hydrometer) that can determine the coolant condition. This is difficult to tell simply by looking at the color. It’s always a good idea to have your trusted mechanic test the coolant to ensure that it is still working properly. Sometimes, it can be more frequently than you think.įirst, coolant can and does deteriorate over time. While most manufacturers recommend thousands of miles before changing your coolant, there are plenty of reasons why it should be done. This can all be confusing and the reason why many people simply don’t flush or change their coolant until a repair makes it necessary. If you read the fine print, “lifetime” generally means between 30,000 and 50,000 miles. Let’s not forget those “lifetime” coolant that you may have seen advertised. Mercedes-Benz recommends every 30,000 miles on some models and 120,000 on others. This leads to fewer coolant changes.įor example, Hyundai only recommends changing the coolant after 60,000 miles.
This is because lawmakers and the public have gradually increased demands that manufacturers make cars more environmentally friendly. However, it is true that modern cars don’t need to replace or flush their coolant as often as older models.
Honda coolant fluid exchange manuals#
Some vehicle owners manuals may not mention changing the coolant, which may lead some to believe that it never needs to be done. Let’s take a few minutes to talk about the coolant in your vehicle and whether you should go for a flush, a drain and replace, or neither one. These are two very common questions, and they both have different answers, which can make this seem all the more confusing. How often should you change your vehicle’s coolant-or antifreeze, as it is sometimes called? Should you simply drain and replace the coolant, or do you really need that flush your mechanic is talking about?
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