DIY Coolant Flush

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Rogue Noob
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I didn't see a DIY tutorial on here for the Coolant flush so figured I would take pictures while doing it.

Vehicle info:
'08 Rogue SL AWD
89,000 miles
Did a coolant drain and fill at 40,000 miles

Difficulty:
I would rate this about as difficult as an oil change, just takes longer.

Items used:
#2 Philips screwdriver
10mm socket
pliers
Flathead screwdriver or specialized tool
5 gallon oil container to hold used coolant
oil Collector
1 Gallon of Nissan Coolant (Green concentrate)
Funnel
6 Gallons of Reverse Osmosis water

(Service Manual suggests doing this with a cold engine. I will admit I am not patient enough to do this 4 times and letting the engine cool all the way down each time. Be aware that coolant will get all over you when you remove the drain plug so be careful.)

Step 1: Remove Engine under cover. It is a plastic shroud that is held in place by about 8 plastic tabs. For me this is always a challenge. The plastic gets very brittle here in AZ so many break. This time only one did. At least 2 of them are smaller and a bit different so make sure to keep track of which holes they came from. I think they are the only 2 that snap into metal rather than plastic and are on the holes closest to the wheels and furthest from the bumper.

Step 2: Remove Radiator Cap. Just a half turn counter clock-wise will loosen it up. Pop it off. This will cause the coolant to drain much quicker.
Image

Step 3: Remove drain plug. This is a plastic screw with an o-ring found inside of the opaque rubber tube directly underneath the radiator. Mannual says to replace the o-ring. It was in fine shape so I left it.
Image

Step 4: Remove Reservoir screw with 10mm socket. Pop out the left part of the reservoir that is wedged in the sheet metal. Once you get that out you can wiggle the reservoir up and out.
Image

Step 5: Once the reservoir is freely moving, tilt the side with the hose attached up (to avoid spilling after next part), slide back the clamp with your hand and remove the hose. Drain reservoir and clean it up. Once cleaned put it back in its area, hook the hose back up, but don't pop it back in or reattach the nut since it will be removed and drained each time you do this.
Image

Step 6: The manual says to remove the air intake assembly and move the throttle body acuator to the side. After that you detach a heater hose and raise it 4 inches.

EDIT: I did not do this with the correct hose. This is not a step in the FSM for another car of mine so this may be overkill by Nissan (similar to the cabin filter replacement instructions, I'm hoping some more experiences people chime in on the importance of this step). This will also be a placeholder for pics/instructions on this step if deemed necessary.

Step 7: reinstall Radiator drain plug after fluid has drained.

Step 8: Slowly fill radiator (through radiator cap) with Distilled water. I used Reverse Osmosis water because I have a system in my home. While not "distilled" it is very close (10-20ppm TDS) Each time you flush it takes about 1.5 Gallons. It required 4 times for the water to get nearly clear. I suggest buying at least 6 gallons. That will also give you several good containers for disposal.
Image
Once water starts coming out of the area where you disconnected the hose from, reattach the hose and clamp and continue filling the radiator. You will hear some burping along the way. The slower you go, the less air you will get trapped in it. Once it is full reinstall radiator cap.

Step 9: put some water in the reservoir tank. This won't really factor in much but fill it up to the MIN line and call it good. Put the cap back on.

Step 10: Start Car and turn the heat on (knob all the way to the right) and Bring it up to operating temp. You will notice this by the radiator kicking on. I let that cycle a few times on and off. Service manual then says to rev the engine under no load 2 or 3 times. I did that and then turned it off.

Step 11: For each time you want to flush repeat steps 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. I drained it 4 times total. Here is a pic of what the fluid looked like after each draining.
1st through 3rd (from L to R): Image
4th Flush: Image

Step 12: Once you have decided it is clean enough for you and have done steps 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7 for the last time; you will do steps 8 & 9 with coolant. the '09 manual states the entire coolant system holds 7.75qts (including the .75qt reservoir). To ensure the 50/50 mix you will need to add half of that in concentrate. Comes out to a shade under a gallon. Once you add that to the radiator, fill it up the rest of the way with water. If you want, you can mix half of the gallon with water or rotating some water in as you add coolant. Whatever you choose will probably work fine.

Tip: When I did this, I wound up only filling the reservoir with water since I already added the amount of coolant I wanted to add. I suggest pouring a bit of concentrate in there so that mix is pretty close too.

Step 13: Pop reservoir back into it's area and reattach nut.

Step 14: Reinstall engine under cover.

Observation: When I slowly drove around the block I noticed the temp go up a bit, and then back down. My guess is some air passed by the temp sensor or maybe a mix of more water than coolant passed by it. Once I pulled into the driveway and let it continue to cycle it came back down to a where it normally is.

Verdict: Judging by the sediment in the fluid (may edit this thread to show picture of a coffee filter that I poured the liquid through to catch the particles) I would say I should have done the flush at 40k rather than just a drain and fill. Even the 4th draining still has sediment. Fluid may last forever but if it has metal and crud suspended in it than it is time to change it IMO. At only $20 in fluid it really is a very inexpensive maintenance task. But it takes time. The last few flush and fills I had moved onto the final phase... beer and cigar. Since it is 90% water it was very easy to clean up and go back inside to watch sit back and relax while the car cooled off.
Last edited by Rogue Noob on Mon Oct 22, 2012 12:32 pm, edited 3 times in total.


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Don't forget to bleed your system. If you have air bubbles in your coolant, the coolant will boil around the air pockets and cause miniature explosions when it gets too hot.

Also, your Thermostat does not have anything to do with your gauge :) It only regulates coolant to flow through the radiator when it reaches operating temperature/closed loop. Perhaps what you saw was a hot spot of coolant (perhaps near some trapped air) that was around your temperature sensor.

Good write up though! Informative for those that don't know how important it is to do this every so often, especially with older cars.

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Rogue Noob
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Thanks Recent. I edited the part above to say "temp sensor". There was no mentioning of bleeding in the maintenance section of the service manual. I'll dig around for how to do that.

From a little reading, it seems that the revving helps remove air. Also found another Nissan forum where someone suggested raising the front of the car (purpose to get radiator above cylinder head) to get air out that way. Any tips/tricks you recommend for this car in particular?
Last edited by Rogue Noob on Thu Oct 11, 2012 1:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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ImStricken06
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i leave the distilled water in the sun prior to doing this so the water is warm -> thus not having to let the engine cool down as long.

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kerrton
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The option to consider is whether to go with the regular "green" fluid, or the new Nissan long-life "blue". The long-life is rated for about double the change interval over the green. I've always been curious how the two differ, on the one hand I take your point that even if the fluid chemistry is in tact, you can still have a lot of sediment in the system and its a good idea to flush that you regularly regardless of the fluid chemistry. But, I have to wonder how much of that sediment is due to degraded coolant chemistry i.e. old coolant. The sediment is a by-product of corrosion, and corrosion occurs when the coolant is old/expired and no longer doing its job. In theory the long-life coolant retains its protective anti-corrosive chemical properties much longer, which in turn should prevent sediment and corrosion for a much longer period of time.

I had Nissan flush and replace my original green coolant with the new long-life and it was a reasonable price, I think around $110, and with the mileage I drive I should be good for 4-5+ years minimum. But of course the green coolant is just as good, it just needs to be changed more often which = more labor.

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ImStricken06
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i specifically used ENGINE ICE in my racebike, and it needs to be changed every year. its extremely expensive, but let me tell you - it actually does the job it claims to do. An average reduction in operating temperatures of 20°F - 50°F.

nissans blue stuffs' cooling properties, is between an "ice" styled coolants out there and the green stuff. personally i am fine with the green stuff in my car, as it works just fine. but i must state that when flushing the system you have to make sure the water runs clear as a river. leaving a tiny trace of the old fluid to mix with the new blue stuff- is asking for a problem. THE BEST WAY TO CLEAN YOUR COOLING SYSTEM IS TO USE WHITE DISTILLED VINEGAR & WATER. THE WHITE DISTILLED VINEGAR CLEANS THE COOLING SYSTEM AND KILLS OF ANY RUST INHIBITING PROPERTIES AND GERMS LEFT BEHIND IN THE OLD FLUID. a simple 50/50 mixture is fine.

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Nissan Green and Blue coolants are compatible with each other. However, mixing the two will shorten the blue coolant's life to that of the green. Next year I will get a coolant flush at Nissan on my Pathfinder and request the blue coolant and bring a printed copy of the TSB kerrton mentions in case the service adviser says it's a stupid idea or whatever.

Thanks for the write up, Rogue Noob!

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darylzero
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question: Why is it that on youtube a lot of videos show people hooking up a hose to flush the system?

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They use some sort of flush kit. Prestone sells one that can be found at WalMarts and most (probably all) auto parts stores. It's a tee that installs in the heater hose of your cooling system and you use a garden hose to flush the cooling system. However, you really should avoid using anything but distilled or demineralized water in a cooling system due to potential deposits in other waters.

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darylzero
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Towncivilian wrote:They use some sort of flush kit. Prestone sells one that can be found at WalMarts and most (probably all) auto parts stores. It's a tee that installs in the heater hose of your cooling system and you use a garden hose to flush the cooling system. However, you really should avoid using anything but distilled or demineralized water in a cooling system due to potential deposits in other waters.
Thanks TC

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ImStricken06
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Towncivilian wrote:They use some sort of flush kit. Prestone sells one that can be found at WalMarts and most (probably all) auto parts stores. It's a tee that installs in the heater hose of your cooling system and you use a garden hose to flush the cooling system. However, you really should avoid using anything but distilled or demineralized water in a cooling system due to potential deposits in other waters.
very well said. thank god you included that warning. in a different forum, i read a post from someone who was a staunch advocate for using garden hose water.

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Rogue Noob
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From most of what I've read, those people aren't always using a flush kit with a T fitting. They often are just disconnecting one of the radiator hoses and letting it empty the water that should be returning to the radiator. I guess that would work fine if you also then chose to run distilled water through the system to get rid of the tap water.

From some of what I've read, the reason manufacturers are now selling pre-diluted coolant is because they know no one is following the instructions and cutting it with distilled, especially mechanics. How many mechanic shops have distilled water storage tanks or have a large RO/DI filtration system? Yeah.... exactly... ZERO. Anyone think Nissan dealerships are using distilled for a flush or when using the concentrate? No. A google search will yield an infinite number of forum posts that are "I have worked at a dealership for 20 years and I've never used distilled."

Maybe it's a non-issue but since I have a RO system it costs me zero to use very pure water. I would still pick up the distilled if I didn't have it because that is also free storage for disposal. Such a small cost every 3-5 years. Same reason I buy synthetic oil, a decent filter, OEM fluids, etc. Really not a huge savings if you go the cheap route.

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ImStricken06
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A lot of mechanics and dealers do things to customer cars, that they would not do to their own. if a mechanic uses garden hose water = he pretty much guarantees a customer to return after a year or so with more work

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There is a very recent thread on Bob Is The Oil Guy here discussing this very topic, it might be worth your time to read through it for some more information. Of course, our factory service manuals state to use distilled or demineralized water only, and that is what I'll always use, even if I'm just running water through the radiator alone to flush things out. At least the gallons of Nissan blue coolant are pre-mixed so I know that the water used will be fine when I get a cooling system flush, even if it's ultimately more expensive.

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darylzero
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Towncivilian wrote:There is a very recent thread on Bob Is The Oil Guy here discussing this very topic, it might be worth your time to read through it for some more information. Of course, our factory service manuals state to use distilled or demineralized water only, and that is what I'll always use, even if I'm just running water through the radiator alone to flush things out. At least the gallons of Nissan blue coolant are pre-mixed so I know that the water used will be fine when I get a cooling system flush, even if it's ultimately more expensive.
Nice timing lol. From one of the last posts someone posted this link which was also informative

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darylzero
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In the FSM it says,
When draining all of engine coolant in the system, open water
drain plugs on cylinder block
Should this be done? I didn't see it in the write up.

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Rogue Noob
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Don't recall that in the Nissan fsm I used. What page us that on in the maintenance section?

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Rogue Noob wrote:Don't recall that in the Nissan fsm I used. What page us that on in the maintenance section?
Bottom of page MA-21 Mine is a 2009.

Also, did/do you turn the heat on hight and fan on low?

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Found it. Good catch. Diagrams in the manual (EM-87/89) don't show it well. If a MOD wants to add that instruction in for the step after it says "remove drain plug" they can. If someone has a pic of its location that would be good too.

From most of what I read online, that was optional. Maybe for Nissan it is not but most people weren't doing that from the plethora of DIY threads I bounced around on the interwebs. Then again most people were using a garden hose too. We had zero problems with air and didn't do it but I would have it that page (MA-21) wasn't missing some of it's ink due to a nearly empty printer cartridge. Oops.

What is the purpose of turning the heat on? I saw that recommended for my other car in a DIY but it wasn't in the manual. It only uses it in the Nissan Manual to get air out of the system. Another DIY used it to confirm the thermostat is open and circulating. The manual says to use the radiator fans as proof of circulation so I went with that. I mean, coolant is circulating through the heater core whether the fan is on or not right?

I only did what I documented so if anything was omitted, it was not done. I don't know if any of those steps are overkill but I do know that Nissan likes to throw a few extra silly steps in once in a while.... a la removing the accelerator and brake pedal to change a cabin filter! hahaha.

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ImStricken06
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darylzero wrote:In the FSM it says,
When draining all of engine coolant in the system, open water
drain plugs on cylinder block
Should this be done? I didn't see it in the write up.
your fine if you didnt do that.

as long as when your done, you leave the radiator cap off, turn your heater on full blast and let it cycle for a bit to let the bubbles you = your fine.

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darylzero
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First thanks Rogue Noob for the write up!!

I did this today and it was my first foray in coolant flushing. This took D*mn forever!!
Image

My 2009 Rogue is now at 33,000 miles and the premium maintenance suggests this so I did it.
Apparently this should be done in the summer time because the fan would not turn on the first and second time for over 45 minutes! After that I let it run for 15 min and then would hit the throttle to get the coolant temp up. Now this is where I thought I wonder what temp I have to get it to for the fan to kick in? Enter the Torque app! So I found out the fan kicks in at 208F.


Now it would only stay on for like 10-15 seconds before it turned off because it cooled down really quick to around 185F or so. Again had to hold down the pedal until it got back to 208. So big PIA!

Correct me if I’m wrong but it’s not good to rev the engine up to 2500-3000 rpm while at a standstill for very long…

This took all day, ugh, and it took 5 flushes until running clear. I used distilled water and ImStricken’s recommendation of white distilled vinegar at a 50/50 mix. The last flush I used about an 85/15 mix of distilled water/vinegar.
Image

HOWEVER

I didn’t really notice this until the second to last flush; when I filled it up it wasn’t taking 7 qt. It was just over a gallon. Same thing happened on the last flush (it could of been doing this the whole time I didn't notice because I was mixing the water in a pitcher that I didn't know the size of). So of course when I go to put the coolant in I only was able to put in 5qt. I’m still 2qt short!?!?!

I jacked the car up in front and turned the heater on full saw some air bubbles come up then put the cap back on when it started to over flow, let it cool down and checked again and was able to fill up a little more, but that still gave me my total of 5qt. What the hell is going on? I filled up the reservoir to max and still have just over 2qt left of the Nissan Blue long life coolant (P/N 999MP-L25500P). Cost for 2 Gallons was $42 other dealers wanted up to $55
Image

I drove back home about 22 miles on the highway at about 70mpg up to 80mph, outside temp at 50F and the coolant never went above 195F. There was no smoke or anything.

Help!

Also, here are my flushes from left to right with the leftmost being the initial drain then the 2nd from left being the first flush and so on.
Image
Last edited by darylzero on Sun Oct 21, 2012 9:13 am, edited 1 time in total.

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ImStricken06
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wow this is turning into a awesome write-up thread! i love it! this will be an amazing asset to new rogue owners for years to come.

just a tip to reduce time:
rev the car slightly to get the thermostat to open up and cycle the fluid.


"So of course when I go to put the coolant in I only was able to put in 5qt. I’m still 2qt short!?!?!"
- you might have bubbles somewhere in the heater-core area. let your car sit with the radiator cap off, and the heater on full blast. see what happens. then let it cool down over-night, and in the morning with the car off & cold, check in the radiator to see the level. add if needed.

or, worst case scenario: after a day or so, pop your radiator cap off while cold, and check to see if its low.

it has to be a bubble or your miscalculated the amounts somewhere.

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ImStricken wrote:
just a tip to reduce time:
rev the car slightly to get the thermostat to open up and cycle the fluid.
Oh I revved the hell out of it yesterday. :chuckle:

ImStricken wrote:"So of course when I go to put the coolant in I only was able to put in 5qt. I’m still 2qt short!?!?!"
- you might have bubbles somewhere in the heater-core area. let your car sit with the radiator cap off, and the heater on full blast. see what happens. then let it cool down over-night, and in the morning with the car off & cold, check in the radiator to see the level. add if needed.
Just checked it this morning after letting it sit all night and it would not take any more coolant.
ImStricken wrote:or, worst case scenario: after a day or so, pop your radiator cap off while cold, and check to see if its low.

it has to be a bubble or your miscalculated the amounts somewhere.
No miscalculation with the Nissan coolant it has it marked on the side of the jug and on the second gallon the coolant is just above the 2qt line.
FSM says with reservoir 7.75 qt, which = 1.9375 gallons so I am still half a gallon short. Could there really be THAT much air trapped in the system? A bubble the size of half a gallon of milk? and if so why isn't it overheating?

Also, I didn't remove that bolt on the engine because I couldn't find it and didn't want to remove the wrong one. Could that be the bleeder valve?

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darylzero
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crap, I just looked the the FSM again and I think Rogue Noob and I disconnected the wrong hose. I disconnected the one from his picture but on the FSM it is showing the hose next to the firewall, with the arrow showing the front of the car.
Could this of caused a problem?
Image

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For me, I only got about 1.5 gallons on each flush (The resevoir you keep filling up and emptying count) so I knew about 2 quarts or so was still in the system. I also factored that in when I added the concentrate. About 1 gallon of that, and fill the rest with water and you will wind up around 50/50.

For future coolant flushers.... If you do the vinegar I suggest that only being used for the 1st or 2nd fill, I assume you want 100% of that vinegar out before you refill.

Next point about the hose. Your are correct! Hahaha. I just went to look at the engine compared to the exploded views and have no clue what hose they are talking about. Removing exploded view only points to the throttle body when describing the acuator, how are you going to move that out of the way? I still couldn't find anything that looked like the heater hose. Since that direction is never mentioned in other DIY threads, or the one for the Element I just did, I would just omit that part (I can remove the direction or someone else can photograph the area and we can edit it in but I would just skip that part TBH). My hunch is that step is similar to most of the steps involved in the cabin filter replacement.... useless.

Maybe they are referencing a few of the heather hoses that go straight into the firewall, to the heater core? Anyone else think Nissan does a poor job with their sketches? They seem to leave a lot of important details out. Either way it seems like a minor PITA to locate the hose. If you really want to make sure air isn't in the system leave the funnel on top and have some coolant in it while you start the car. It may burp a bit.

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idk why you guys are removing any hoses? i never had to do that. (maybe im missing something on the rogue? i have not done this flush yet on the rogue.)

this is my procedure on every bike/car that i ever worked on.
1. open radiator cap
2. i simply drain the radiator via the screw under the radiator.
3. refill with water/vinegar via the radiator cap opening.
4. turn the car on to cycle(making sure the heater is on full blast).
5. drain the radiator via the screw under it.
-=repeat till the water is clear.=-

--------------------------------------------
(edit:)

OP/Rogue Noob - i swapped steps 2 & 3. they were backwards. you always remove the top caps when doing drains. that goes for oil too. its to insure that you can refill the system, and to allow gravity to help drain more. if leaving a pressurized & sealed cap on, your gonna create the drinking straw effect(where you lift fluids up by capping off the top with your finger)

and i re-read the FSM, you really dont need to remove any hoses. my 5-step procedure will work just fine. just make sure to give it enough time to get the bubbles out.

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Step 2 & 3 followed the FSM (remove drain plug, then remove radiator cap), I would switch it back since that is what direction set I was following. Maybe that is to prevent hot coolant shooting out? Keep in mind the reservoir isn't sealed so air is still being drawn into the system with the radiator cap still on. The hose removal is from the FSM as well (I think it is unnecessary too).

I'll add the heater step on to it as well. Just leaving the heat on for each flush should do the trick regardless of how high you have the fan blowing right?

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Rogue Noob wrote:Step 2 & 3 followed the FSM (remove drain plug, then remove radiator cap), I would switch it back since that is what direction set I was following.
i have caught FSM's to be wrong in this topic plenty times. the same how the Rogue FSM states to remove the drain plug first in the differential. thats the worst advice ever. bolts are known to get seized and when someone tries to remove them, they strip. that means either a tow to the dealer/mechanic = or a drilling out the bolt and then trying to re-threading the hole(we are talking about a day or two of work- for what could have been prevented had the fill bolt been removed first.)

dont forget, these FSM's are written for the dealer to use. if they strip the bolt/destroy the part, they will simply swap in a whole new one. but since this is a DIY for folks to use on thier driveways, its absolutely imperative to make sure fill bolts/caps/etc are removed first- otherwise someone could face a serious headache. (the same as i always remove the engine oil filler cap, before draining any oil.)

i really insist to leave your great DIY with telling people to remove the fill cap first. if they go wiggle the radiator cap loose, and realize their cap is stuck, then they wont proceed. (Plus tampering with the neck area on the radiator is a great first step since thats the #1 most common area for rads to cracks to develop. it always seems to happen by the top area where the radiator tank & radiator are hemmed together. see picture before)
Image

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I really like the pictures you guys are posting of what the coolant(water mixture, etc..) looks like at various stages throughout your flush. I think it really shows the gunk inside your system and how just a simple drain doesn't do the trick. It's one thing to say it but it's another to actually show it. Good job!

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2016 Sorento
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TrevorK wrote:I really like the pictures you guys are posting of what the coolant(water mixture, etc..) looks like at various stages throughout your flush. I think it really shows the gunk inside your system and how just a simple drain doesn't do the trick. It's one thing to say it but it's another to actually show it. Good job!
i agree. none of the other forums im a member of, does the cups/colors pictures. really cool.

Rogue Noob's looks like it swallowed a bug somewhere along its life lol one of his cups has a fly or something floating around hahahah


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