Sludgy Coolant, 2001 Ford Windstar

[Peteco]

Getting my in-laws van current on its maintenance. Coolant hadn't been change in a LONG time, as evidence by the state of the coolant. Wondering how far I should go with a flush.

I plan to flush with water until water is clear. Then should I run some coolant flush like Prestone Radiator Flush and Cleaner? I'm worried that might dislodge some sludge or corrosion that is keeping it from leaking.

So is it best to just do the water flush and refill with coolant?

 

[slacktide_bitog]

Do the radiator cleaner flush first, then do a few clear water flushes until it's clear, then fill with G05 coolant

 

[melk]

Recently did my 99 Ford. Drained it, fill with the Prestone stuff + water and drove it about half-hour, then from there just water + idle until its running clean.

 

[Tempest1]

I've used RMI-25 to help clean up a neglected cooling system before. It's not miracle worker but it did seam to help.

 

[ripcord]

The Prestone flush product is just a weak citric acid cleaner. It won't do anything bad. If you get leaks afterwards, then it was in really bad shape already.

If it's really dirty, you can expect the new coolant to get ugly pretty quick, even if you flush it well. Plan on changing it again in a year or so.

 

[4strokes]

Fingers crossed but those 3.8 V6s were headgasket monsters.

 

[road_rascal]

Fingers crossed but those 3.8 V6s were headgasket monsters.

We had a 2001 Windstar with the 3.8, sold it at around 160,000 miles and it never needed a head gasket. I did swap the coolant about every 50,000 miles though. In fact, other than the dumb subframe and rear axle recalls we really never had any serious problems with it.

 

[ripcord]

We had a 2001 Windstar with the 3.8, sold it at around 160,000 miles and it never needed a head gasket. I did swap the coolant about every 50,000 miles though. In fact, other than the dumb subframe and rear axle recalls we really never had any serious problems with it.

Did you pay someone to do the rear sparkplugs or did you donate skin instead?

 

[road_rascal]

Did you pay someone to do the rear sparkplugs or did you donate skin instead?

The rear plugs were easy from underneath if you lift the front of the van.

 

[JTK]

We had a 2001 Windstar with the 3.8, sold it at around 160,000 miles and it never needed a head gasket. I did swap the coolant about every 50,000 miles though. In fact, other than the dumb subframe and rear axle recalls we really never had any serious problems with it.

Same! We had a 2001 Windstar LX. I bought it as a lease return in 2003, with ~36K miles on it for ~$12K. We owned it about 4yrs and it had 100K on it when I traded it. I had an issue with a bad miss at one point due to a bad spark plug wire. Had wires and plugs swapped at that time. That was the only somewhat out of the ordinary problem we ever had with the van.

 

[road_rascal]

Same! We had a 2001 Windstar LX. I bought it as a lease return in 2003, with ~36K miles on it for ~$12K. We owned it about 4yrs and it had 100K on it when I traded it. I had an issue with a bad miss at one point due to a bad spark plug wire. Had wires and plugs swapped at that time. That was the only somewhat out of the ordinary problem we ever had with the van.

I had to replace the coil pack once due to the epoxy cracking creating a misfire code (this was after 100k miles) and the 2 piece intake manifold came apart (air baffle) causing a huge rattle when the engine was started. Both issues were easily solved.

 

[zzyzzx]

I'm worried that might dislodge some sludge or corrosion that is keeping it from leaking.

That's what stop leak products are for, assuming you don't want to do an actual repair.

So is it best to just do the water flush and refill with coolant?

Yes.

 

[RMaybeth]

Getting my in-laws van current on its maintenance. Coolant hadn't been change in a LONG time, as evidence by the state of the coolant. Wondering how far I should go with a flush.

I plan to flush with water until water is clear. Then should I run some coolant flush like Prestone Radiator Flush and Cleaner? I'm worried that might dislodge some sludge or corrosion that is keeping it from leaking.

So is it best to just do the water flush and refill with coolant?

Yes, by all means flush out that cooling system! I change my coolant every 2 or 3 years in my cars. And my 2002 Camry V6 (with 211K miles) is on its original radiator. When you change it that frequently, you don't need flushing chemicals; distilled water is all I use. Distilled water won't damage the cooling system, and there's nothing left behind to flush out. And using distilled water, there's a whole lot less toxic chemicals to dispose of afterwards.

 

[burbguy82]

I'll bet coolant is the most overlooked item that can cause the most damage if left unchecked. Sounds like a head gasket leak to me.....but assuming it is not, if the car is running fine, I would do a water flush, fill with coolant and cross your fingers. Agitating the system with cleaners will likely clog the heater core, and create problems.

 

[ripcord]

If it's extremely filthy, I would pull the thermostat, disconnect the lower radiator hose and flush and back flush with the garden hose until it runs clear. Use a rag to spray through the hoses. Everyone goes nuts at the thought of tap water, but that's realistically the best way to clean a really dirty system. You can do a distilled water rinse afterwards, but I'm not messing around with endless distilled water flushes that will only get a fraction of the crud out.

If it's not that bad, drain it, refill with distilled water once or twice to rinse, add half the capacity of the cooling system of concentrated coolant and top off with water. Going forward, do a drain and fill, replacing about 2/3rds of the coolant every few years to keep it clean.