Flushing out your coolant and replacing it with brand new antifreeze is essential. Like other fluids in the car, coolants also have a lifespan. As time goes on, it becomes infused with tiny rust deposits and contaminants. These deposits reduce the surface tension of the coolant. In addition, over-accumulation also leads to the contaminants solidifying on the radiator’s surface.

You should therefore, make sure to flush the coolant in a timely manner so that it performs its crucial job of maintaining optimum heat levels throughout the engine. Fortunately, flushing out the coolant is a rather easy endeavor. Below are steps that you must follow to replace your coolant.

Look for the Radiator Petcock

A radiator plug is a drain valve for the radiator, and you can normally find it located beneath the car. Thus, the first step of flushing out the coolant requires you to go beneath the radiator, at the underside of your car. Once inside the car, you will notice that the plug is at the corner of the radiator, and looks like a cap that you can open.

Drain the Coolant

Once you locate the plug, you should slide some sort of a container underneath the car and place it below the coolant drain. After that, you can go ahead and twists open the drain and let all the coolant fluid fallout from the drain. Then you simply have to wait until the coolant entirely flushes out of the drain and into the container. Since coolants can be toxic, it is important that you do not let them fall on the ground.

After your heat exchanger is completely drained out and empty, you have to make sure that get the right type of anti-freeze, paper towels, funnels, distilled water, anti-rust sealer and protector and a chemical flush to clean out the radiator. After you have all the tools, you have to then dispose the collected coolant and close the radiator drain.

Once you close the radiator, you then have to add at least three gallons of water until the radiator is completely full. Then you have to continue onwards to drive the car so that the water circulates around the engine and ensures that everything cleans out.

Drain Water and Add Anti Freeze

After the drive, you can continue forth to drain all the water out and put the 50/50 anti-freeze mix into the radiator. Make sure that you consult a technician, or your car’s owner manual to make sure that you are using the right type of anti-freeze.

Along with the anti-freeze, you also have to add anti-rust that will prevent any leaks due to flushing of the cooling system. When adding the anti-freeze, it is important that you keep the car engine turned on so that the anti freeze flows into the engine as well.

As you can see, flushing out the cooling system and adding high quality coolant is fairly easy. This small maintenance can save you costs and increase your car’s longevity.