Coolant Flush Auto

[F Russell]

I need to get the coolant on my car flushed. It's been over two years since the last flush.

A lot of auto repair shops offer the coolant flush service. It will take some time to do the job.

However, the "speedy," 10-minute oil change places also offer what they call a coolant flush. It can be done much faster while-u-wait.

Is the coolant flush offered by these "speedy" lube places an actual complete flush and fill, the same as the auto repair shops?

Or is it just a quick shortcut that just replaces some of the coolant?

[Ed Pawlowski]

Why does it have to be flushed? Most car makers just tell you to drain and replace the fluid. My car says first change at 10 years or 120000 miles and then every 2 years. Nothing about a flush.

I'd not trust any of the fast lube places for anything.

[F Russell]

It's an older car: 1997 Ford Taurus.

"Speedy" lube places are fine for an oil change, but I need to know about their coolant change process.

[Home Guy]

Then discuss it over at rec.auto.tech.

[trader_4]

I think it also depends on the specific coolant as to how long you can go, but I would just drain and replace. And imo even a 1997, no need to change it sooner than 5 years, 50k miles. Also, sometimes you wind up changing it because of a leaking hose, water pump failure, etc. anyw ay.

[Clare Snyder]

Reverse flushing removes any sediment and products of corrosion as well as helping to neutralize the PH. If the lube shop is using a reverse flush machine it will be the same as a dealer would use. However, MANY garages are now using a recycler - which does the same thing but filters and reconditions the original coolant, adjusting the pH and replacing the additives as required. Done properly this is every bit as good as replacement and does not involve producing hazardous waste..

[Davej]

Who ever told you that it needs to be flushed so often?

[Anonymous]

My 2008 Ford manual recommends first change at 6 years then every 3 years. (Being retired I only drive about 5000 miles/year)

❑ 6 years or 105,000 miles - change Premium Gold coolant (whichever comes first) ❑ After initial change - change Premium Gold coolant every 3 years or

45,000 miles (see page 48)

[Clare Snyder]

Older vehicles and older antifreeze required change/flush or recycling every 2 years. Current product 4 or 5??

[Terry Coombs]

  Speaking of flushing and sediment removal ... Our Toyota 4Runner has done this before , the heater is not getting warm enough , barely warm at all in fact . Last time this occurred I ended up flushing the system out with CLR/water , letting it sit with that in the system for a couple of hours . It's weird , the flow is good for a while after just flushing , then barely warm again . The only thing I can figure is that there's mineral scale in some of the passages , bits break off occasionally and plug things up - btw , flushing has never produced any visible sediment. Valve and heater core were both checked and were clear last time this happened . I'll be verifying this time too ...

[trader_4]

Does it have a temp gauge and the engine is running normal temp or you've otherwise verified that the coolant is hot? Does it have a bleeding procedure for the coolant system? Trapped air can be a problem, but I think that usually works it's way out given enough time.

[F Russell]

Thanks. This is the answer I suppose that I was looking for.

I had the coolant change done at one of the "speedy" lube places. They wheeled out some machine that contained a large, vertical, clear plexiglass tube in the center. They first filled it with what presumably was fresh coolant (green) from a reservoir. Then they hooked the machine up to the car, attached a compressed air hose, and let it operate. After a few minutes there appeared to be hot steam being vented from the machine. After a few more minutes the coolant that was added to the plexiglass tube began to slowly empty. Then they were done. The whole process took about 10-15 minutes.

I was also in luck. It just happened that they had a special offer that week. The regular coolant change charge of $89.00 was reduced to only $59.00.

But a lot of these "speedy" places are unscrupulous and will usually try and sell you services that you don't need or that are ineffective. I wasn't sure if the coolant "flush" service was the real thing or just a worthless ruse.

This lube place has good on-line reviews and seems to be the real thing -- and it beats going to a auto-repair shop where the wait time would be a lot longer.

[trader_4]

Decades of experience here with many cars. You know how many I flushed? None. How many problems did I have that were attributable to coolant? None.

IMO most of these Flush You places are scammers. I remember back in the 80s, I had a fleet vehicle, Jiffy Lube was one of the places we could take our cars for oil changes. They'd come into the waiting room with a white paper towel and the tranny dipstick, showing me that the fluid was tan, while new fluid is reddish, telling me how it was dirty, needed to be changed. This happened just about every oil change and we got new cars when they hit 60K, so the cars were low mileage. I had access to the GM shop manual for the car at the time. It clearly stated that the red color was only a dye, that it would quickly change to a tan color and it was perfectly normal, not an indication of the fluid deteriorating or needing change. I think the manual at the time also said the fluid was good to 100K, in normal service. I saw plenty of customers fall for that though, having the tranny fluid changed and flushed. I've also seen plenty of stories on the internet where people flushed transmissions that were working fine and soon after had problems. I can only imagine how much money JL raked in with their servicing that which didn't need servicing. Along those lines, what car manufacturer today says that you need to even change coolant at two years, let alone flush anything?

[Ralph Mowery]

I gave up years ago on changing the coolent. Just add some if it needed it. I did get it changed about every 70 thousand miles due to having to have the timing belt changed on my Toyota. At the same time I spent a fe dollars more to replace the water pump as it was behind all the belts and gears and the mechanic only charged his proce for the pump.

Put 200,000 miles on that car and never had a coolent problem.

[trader_4]

Same here, rarely some repair required draining the coolant and if the coolant was maybe 5+ years old, I would replace it. Did the water pump preemptive replacement on the BMW-X5 and regretted it. They used plastic impellers and there were lots of reports of them breaking apart, pieces getting stuck in bad places, etc. So had to do an alternator and put in an aftermarket water pump with metal impeller at the same time. That had a bearing failure at 50k. The original looked fine and might have lasted longer.

[croy]

A dozen years ago, I was on vacation in Arizona (USA), and found myself, for reasons not worth mentioning, having to wait around for several hours with nothing to do. I had wanted to get an oil change for the car before leaving home, but didn't get it done. So I pulled into one of these quick-oil-change places, and asked if I could get *JUST* an oil and filter change,

*WITHOUT* any other monkey business, and was told yes. 20 minutes later, the high-school dropout came into the waiting area to tell me that my air-cleaner housing was broken, but... I was in luck! They could have a new one there within 4 hours, and it would only cost 395 US dollars. Oh, lucky day, indeed. It wasn't a lucky day for the manager.

[gregz]

I was into draining and between years added that white protection stuff. Seems I went to long and my car water was all brown, too late. After some cleaning agent, still overheat problems. Radiator probably need special treatment or replacement. Sold car.

Greg