KMHPaladin

I'll go for the trifecta later. Having (hopefully) replaced my vac hoses, I'm now doing a coolant flush. I opened the drain plug on the radiator, let it drain, stuck a hose in the expansion tank, and let the car run for 5 or 6 minutes. The tank overflowed a couple times and the overflow drain dumped a little water into the engine bay, but it blew off as steam.

Okay, here's the issue. I had the CC on HI and the fan on full blast, but even after that amount of time, no hot air was coming out of the vents. Why wouldn't it be blowing hot air? It doesn't usually take more than a couple minutes for my heater to start blowing hot air.

MikTip

So, you were trying to get heat from the vents, with the hose stuck in the expansion tank?

Did you open the drain on the engine block?

Its more important, than the drain on the rad, as much more sediment will settle in the engine block.

To "fully" flush the old coolant from your engine, the block drain must be opened.

KMHPaladin

I will fill back with water, run it up on ramps, and open the block drain. Would that have anything to do with heat from the vents? I had the hose in the tank and cool air was still coming out.

MikTip

Thats because the water in the rad/block & heater core, was the same temp as the water coming out of the hose! ;O)

Did your engines temp guage ever rise?

KMHPaladin

Okay, lol... I don't think the engine temp ever rose. Laugh it up On my way to open the eng drain

KMHPaladin

I managed to open the drain with an allen wrench and a lockwrench on the bottom end to provide leverage. I delicately unscrewed it after getting it loose, head toward the passenger side, but man, when the coolant started flowing out, it was a deluge! It was still orange, so you're absolutely right, there's a lot left in there after the radiator drain runs clear. Looks like there's a rusty orange color inside the drain hole, not much I can do about that.

And after a lot of looking, I figured out that the stupid bleed hole in those two hoses is underneath the corrugated plastic cover zip-tied shut running through the bulkhead. Nice.

Okay, I just cleaned out a pail to mix the G12 and distilled water in... time to get back to work!

MikTip

The Joys of DIY maintenance! ;O)

moribundman

Indeed, but it gets easier over time

KMHPaladin

My DIY maintenance thus far has been filled with quite a bit of exasperation and annoyance. That being said, I'd much rather make a few skin sacrifices and utter a few imprecations than pay some schmuck to do it for me!

Mr.D-'97 A4q 12v

Amen.