Read some older posts on this, and was wondering how difficult this was for you DIY's.

The dealer wants $200 to do this, and I figured I would do it, or give it to my "general" mechanic.

Thanks for your advice.

Regards,
Red

 

It's not hard, bit can be messy. Get the car up on jack stands or ramps. You have to remove the lower panel from underneath. You have to break the lower radiator hose away because in all their wisdom, The designers of the engine didn't put a drain port on it. This will drain the radiator fluid. Their is a port on the block as well to get the coolant drained. I use a turkey basted to get the coolant out of the resevoir. Like I said, not hard, just messy and tedious. I do mine on a lift and makes it soooo much easier.

 

Check out the How to section for help

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ms/how-to-340/

 

Thank you both very much! Now I know why Mini wants $200 to do it.

regards,
Red

 

LOL!!! Yeah, it's just tedious and messy. Good luck!!

 

Valvoline has the right spec coolant and they will do it for half price. I was looking into the DIY myself but for $90 I'd rather let Valvoline flush the whole thing out. When you drain it yourself you are still leaving quite an amount of old stuff in the block. If you take the garden hose method ... that's still using tap water and I have seen the kind of stuff that builds up on my aquarium tubing, I woud not want that in my engine. Distilled water is the only thing I would use.
Any shop that can use Zerex G-05 is OK.