Coolant Flush Procedure

[RoyDaGeneral]

I plan on doing a coolant flush pretty soon. I was reading the service manual and it said to open the bleeder valve, located by rear firewall, as well as drain plugs on right side of engine block and right of water pump. I located bleeder valve, but not both drain plugs.

Is it sufficient to just open radiator plug? Thx.

[macgiver]

It's VERY sufficient on a car that old , '02 ? Using the drain-cuck only , several flushes with distilled h2O , last drain simply add full strength coolant for say 60% concentration just multiply the system capacity (overflow calc is splitting hairs) by that 60% . Like a 10 quart system gets 6 quarts , or 1 1/2 gals of full strength coolant added to the "drained" radiator ,with shut drain-plug.Now when you add distilled to topoff,you got that perfect mix you want. Then you can pre-mix that 60% - enough to go into overflow , which you should of siphoned the "old" out peviously.
The word of caution comes down to , if you want to knock yourself dead locating , AND trying to loosen/remove WITHOUT BREAKING ??? Those block plugs ! If you knew the utter pandora's box your playing with , the difficulty in close quarters combat to fix that disaster. I would'nt want to be your neighbor seeing you kicking your own Azz up and down your street if you F' up

I mean hell yeah IF you can even find them , AND easy to get to , AND they loossen with "one easy twist" ,
otherwize FUGGETTABOUTTITT .
Last tip : Summer is sort-a worst time to do coolant if air bleeds and air-trapped-trouble-spots in upper motor like heads ,etc. Is another reason "most" do the pre-winter coolant thing , you know. Motor can FRY , Blow head gskets, IF not done properly and IF your in a very very hot climate especially Gotta do what ya gotta do?

[yeldogt]

Agree -- simple drop of radiator fluid. Inspect condition. Use proper coolant and distilled water.

[brickbox]

I wouldn't bother with the drain plugs. Just the bleeder valve (cap) at the back of the firewall and the drain on the radiator should be plenty. It took me a few drain/re-fills to get fully switched over the Asian vehicle/red coolant.

[RoyDaGeneral]

That's guys, makes total sense. I'm not sure how Nissan wants you to drain thru engine blocks without spilling on serpentine belt; that's part of the instructions. But I'm not going to bother with that; I'm leaving them alone. Bleeder valve has a rubber cover so, I'll have to practice at the local junk yard how to remove without tearing it. Will do the same with the brake booster hose yellow clamp, just to practice, right brickbox?

[brickbox]

Yep that makes sense. Honestly, if you're gently with the yellow clamp on the booster hose, you'll be fine.
With the vent plug, it's literally as easy as just pulling the rubber cover off. That's it