Todays coolant flush. Warning, lots of pics.

[Dr_No]

Did an interesting rad flush today, looks like the coolant had never been changed before. It was pitch black. We ran a chemical through his system for about 10 minuites and flushed out his system with 15 litres of green coolant. The hookups were in a tight spot, so I removed the air filter housing. The whole set up resulted in countless burns. Anyways, enjoy.









The supposed to be green coolant.


The coolant res.



The setup

the connections

 

[Audi Junkie]

I'm surprised the flush isn't done with a non-toxic fluid and then refilled with anti-freeze. Probally getting a correct concentration afterwards is a liability.

 

[BimmerMan]

Originally Posted By: Dr_No
Did an interesting rad flush today, looks like the coolant had never been changed before. It was pitch black.


That makes me sad.

 

[Dr_No]

Originally Posted By: Audi Junkie
I'm surprised the flush isn't done with a non-toxic fluid and then refilled with anti-freeze. Probally getting a correct concentration afterwards is a liability.


We use a chemical that is recycled along with the coolant. we flush thoughh a 50-50 mix of glycol and water. The capacity of the van was like 12 lires and i flushed 15.

 

[getnpsi]

Another hat tip to Ford. And a nose turn up to GM. I look in a bottle and don't even like a few specks of fish food myself. That is just sick!

 

[Kestas]

How old was the fluid (how old is the car)?

 

[Trucku]

Is it possible the owner dumped some radiator sealer in it and that is why the fluid so dark?. I know when I tried fixing a leaky radiator and used the pellet radiator sealer the fluid turn exactly like that.
If not, I have never seen fluid like that.

 

[Dr_No]

The car was an 02. The guy said he dosen't think he's ever changed it. It had around 172,000km's on it.
I asked him if he had added any additives into the rad before I flushed it.
The pH was around 4. Borderline acidic is about 7. Good coolant should be 10-11.

 

[Samilcar]

Originally Posted By: Dr_No

The pH was around 4.


That's the same acidity as tomato juice. Considering tomato juice can clean the tarnish off a copper penny overnight, I wonder what it would do inside a cooling system over a few years?

 

[RRich]

I predict water pump and heater core leaks in the near future.

 

[benjamming]

What was used to test the pH? Strips? Meter?

 

[Dr_No]

pH strips.

 

[SLCraig]

Jesus that's gross...

 

[pzev]

There was a tsb from Ford related to discolored coolant. I was due to the anti-leak tablets used from the factory staining the very pale yellow color of the Motorcraft Gold coolant brown.

This only affected a few models, as they changed the formulation of their anti-leak tabs quickly. The coolant pictured seems to have suffored this fate....though its rather dark, so it may be a combination of various factors, one of which is most certainly cooling system neglect.