coolant flush/change clarification

[400 dollar yaris]

Hello all,

Planning on doing a coolant change next weekend and I have been researching how to do it correctly. I just wanted to go through and post the steps in the order I am planning on doing them to make sure I dont forget anything or mess anything up.

1) open radiator drain plug, Drain fluid, Close plug.

2) open engine block drain plug, Drain fluid, Close plug.

3) refill coolant reservoir with Distilled water until full. Start car and set heat to high. continue to fill reservoir with distilled water until full when cooling system starts to circulate water through cooling system.

4) go for a short drive to increase temp with heat on full blast.

5) let cool down.

6) repeat steps 1 and 2.

7) repeat step 3 with new coolant.

8) Go for a drive and Check reservoir level after drive, fill if needed.

9) monitor level for next week to ensure reservoir is full.


Are these steps correct?

Thanks,
400

[jra]

Sounds good, but you need to get a funnel that fits tight in the radiator fill hole, where the cap goes, fill the system and fill funnel so there is a couple of pints of coolant in the funnel higher than the engine, then start engine and let it idle, keep adding coolant until you are sure all the air has worked out, could take 10 or 15 minutes.

[B.B._07]

There's really no need to flush the system with distilled water in a properly maintained system. Unless the old coolant is a total mess or you're changing coolant to a totally different type like an IAT then the flush is an unnecessary extra step. I've changed the coolant in my Yaris and I would also say you can skip step 2 since a minimal amount of coolant comes out of the engine drain plug (like about half a cup), and the plug is a pain to get to. In addition the engine drain plug can be quite rusty. The factory service manual procedure for changing the coolant also leaves out steps 2 and 3.

[400 dollar yaris]

Ahh ok, Thank you guys for the feedback. I appriciate it. I might skip the flush and just do a drain and fill. so modifying the steps a little... steps 1 and 2 I am going to go ahead and do just because I bought two gallons of coolant and want to replace as much as possible since I may just skip the flush part.

Moving on to step 7, refilling with new coolant.

plan will be to refill coolant reservoir to the full line, open radiator cap insert funnel, fill system through radiator cap until it is filling the funnel.

Start engine and keep filling funnel when coolant circulates to ensure air is out of system.

replace radiator cap and go for a drive.

Allow to cool and recheck coolant reservoir to make sure it is full.

[400 dollar yaris]

Thank you everyone. My coolant change seems to have went very well. Car is running great at the moment. Also did a spark plug change which was new to me. My yaris seems to be running much more smoothly after changing the spark plugs as well. the only thing i would do differently next time would be to put a tube on the hole where the drain plug goes so that it doesnt spill everywhere, but i was doing this in the parking lot of my apartment complex so i wasnt too concerned with a little spill. thanks to everyone on here for your knowledge and experience. This forum is great. Thank you Yaris world!

400

[400 dollar yaris]

After checking the gaps on the old spark plugs, only one of them was within acceptable limits. make sure to check yours, I'm hoping I gain some MPGs from this.