I want to replace the coolant, '04 MC40, and was wondering do I need to lift the vehicle to loosen the lower radiator hose?

 

Its easier to unbolt the modular front end and slide it forward to get at that hose, but you could probably do it if you took the tray off the bottom and used some needle nose pliers.

 

So we have no coolant drain?

 

Nope. There is one on the engine but it's behind the starter and not accessible. When you do a coolant change, your only going to be replacing about 50% of the coolant. The rest will be stuck in the block.

 

You'd think in a $20K car they could have sprung for a radiator stopcock.

 

You can flush the block if you just take off the upper radiator hose, put a hose in the coolant bottle and let the motor warm up. Once the coolant comes out clear (no more antifreeze in the block) drain the radiator, fill it up with 100% antifreeze and you are damn near your 50/50 mix.

 

Great idea for the flushing, thanks. Now how do I drain the radiator?

 

Note: Some of us live in areas with hard water - I wouldn't *think* of putting tap water in my engine. All those minerals will surely adhere to engine internals.

 

Unclip the lower radiator hose.

As for the hose idea, I'm not to keen to letting regular hose water in my cooling system. Distilled water is recommended for a reason. I just drain and refill the coolant once every year or so. That way, there's mostly fresh coolant in the engine at all times.

 

In a perfect world distilled water is important, unfortunately, we don't live in a perfect world.

The procedure I described above is used in dealerships for cooling system flushes.

 

Yeah, if I'm feeling **** I'll run a couple of gallons of distilled through it, then refill with coolant. Tougher to do without a stopcock.


Another reason not to go to the stealership for service!
I thought they had fancy machines these days to keep the ethyl glycol from being released into the environment. Maybe it's just in CA.

 

Used coolant is still treated as oil is as far as bio hazards are handled.

It has to be put into a special container outside right next to the oil, but its still drained like normal, so fancy procedures for draining coolant, except you cant flush it down the floor drain. Spills have to be picked up with oil dry or something similar.



Even though distilled water is the best, you are going to get water with minerals you don't want into the cooling system in one way or another. As long as you flush the coolant according to the proper service intervals, it shouldn't be a problem.

Flat rate for a cooling system flush doesn't pay enough to drain it thoroughly and replace it all with distilled water and coolant.

 

From what I understand you have to take the front of the car off to get to the hose.
I understand of how to flush the system so you get clear what coming out the top of the radiator, but how do you drain the radiator so you can put in your antifreeze? Am I going to haveto take the front of the car(front clip) off to get to the lower radiator?
If so, then it doesn't pay for me to spend all day doing bodywork just to drain the radiator, and whose to say, since I am not a body man, that I won't break some clip or something else, and then it ends up costing three times as much

 

with all the engineering they did with the mini it would have made sense to put a stopcock in the radiator or something...i mean hell honda has done that for years....i just think its rather retarded that the only way to drain the coolant out is to completely dissasemble the front end and remove the lower hose....had to do it once...really hope to not do it again

 

You don't have to take the front end off. Jack up the front end, slide yourself under the drivers side and look up. Lower radiator hose is right there. Use some needle nose pliers to squeeze the spring clip and move it up on the hose so you can pull it off the radiator. when everything has drained out, slip the hose back on and slide the spring clip back near the end of the hose with the pliers. I've done it twice.

 

Ah! Good info, kapp. Thanks - I need to flush mine.

 

Just what I wanted to hear, great. Looks like I will be getting some antifreeze this weekend.
I am wondering if it is possible to create a hole for a stopcock at the bottom of the radiator?

 

Hi there:

My 06 is coming up the 4th year and a flush is due. I do want to change out the plastic hoses with silicone at the same time. Has anyone used silicone hoses with positive result?