My Jeep is a 2015 Grand Cherokee Limited. 2-WD with a 5.7 HEMI V-8 and a ZF 8 - Speed Transmission. It has the towing package, if that matters.
What's Harder On Modern Coolant... Time Or Miles?
- Thread starter billt460
- Start date
Sorry having sold cars myself, now it's in the hands of the Service Department, Sales guy was still stupid, you could have referred other people to him !!
Vacuum filling will take care of the air pockets:
2015 Jeep 5.7 should take MS-12106. Drain and refill with dealer coolant will suffice. Not sure what’s the obsession with flushing on this forum.
2015 Jeep 5.7 should take MS-12106. Drain and refill with dealer coolant will suffice. Not sure what’s the obsession with flushing on this forum.
It would have been even worse if the battery was actually under the hood and they still told you the front seat had to come out.
For the OP's question, time is usually worse. The anti-corrosion additives in antifreeze get depleted from constant exposure to the metals in the cooling system. That's one reason why truckers get additive packs to add to the cooling system, which will keep antifreeze in service longer in big rigs.
D
Deleted member 89374
Your owner's manual recommends Mopar OAT coolant:
That's Mopar part #68163848AB
Mopar Replacement 68163848AB Mopar Replacement OAT 10-Year/150,000 Mile Concentrate Antifreeze Coolant | Summit Racing
Free Shipping - Mopar Replacement OAT 10-Year/150,000 Mile Concentrate Antifreeze Coolant with qualifying orders of $109. Shop Antifreeze and Coolant at Summit Racing.
I put the same stuff in the RAM 1500 with the 5.7 HEMI. Don't go aftermarket with it, it's just antifreeze. Use the Mopar OAT, it's what your vehicle calls for. Of course, Mopar in their infinite wisdom confuse customers because they issued two MS numbers. The MS number for the concentrate is MS.90032 or Mopar part #68163848AB. That's what you have to use. It has a specific color that no other antifreeze/coolant has. If you use another OAT coolant like one of the PEAK OAT products, then they will void that warranty for sure. Not because it will do any harm, but just because they can.
I reached out to him thinking that he may know something about the issue since the dealership sold many of these. Service did the usual "we can't duplicate the issue." The technician's paperwork had code P032F on it, but not the one page they gave me. Today I double-checked with my service advisor, and it was indeed coded P032F.
Last edited by a moderator:
Just draining and refilling is not going to get all of the old coolant out. Some will remain in the passageways, and the heater core and lines. And contaminate the new product when you introduce it.
By refilling with distilled water, then running the engine until the thermostat opens. Then draining repeatedly, it helps remove all of the old coolant by dilution.
As in most cases, dilution is the solution to pollution.
Refreshing the additive package is enough as long as the system isn’t contaminated. Honda, Toyota and Nissan all specify a drain and refill only in their FSM.
I put it in the same column as changing your oil and leaving the old filter on. You can do it. It may even be, "recommended". But it still leaves old contaminated coolant in the system.
While refilling with distilled water, running until hot, draining and repeating a few times, is a bit more work, it assures as much of the old coolant is removed from the system.
While refilling with distilled water, running until hot, draining and repeating a few times, is a bit more work, it assures as much of the old coolant is removed from the system.
I KNOW this to be the best, DISTILLED essential, many years ago i had a brand new Ford Taurus, under warranty rotted out freeze plug, steel not brass, long story short, I changed water pump at least 5 times, block was full of sand, silicate, I opened Radiator drain one time and nothing came out had to remove drain completely and poke wire in the amount of sediment defied me
This guy performs a coolant flush on a 2014 HEMI Grand Cherokee. While he's a bit long winded, and is using the wrong coolant, you can see starting at the 16:00 minute mark, how many times he fills and flushes until it comes out clear.
No way a simple drain and fill is going to get the coolant anywhere it needs to be, in order to be considered clean. It took a total of 8 drains and flushes to achieve clean coolant. (Far right cup).
I have to go through a similar procedure on my older F-150 to get the same result. So this isn't something unique to Chrysler products, or newer vehicles. It's the nature of the beast.
No way a simple drain and fill is going to get the coolant anywhere it needs to be, in order to be considered clean. It took a total of 8 drains and flushes to achieve clean coolant. (Far right cup).
I have to go through a similar procedure on my older F-150 to get the same result. So this isn't something unique to Chrysler products, or newer vehicles. It's the nature of the beast.
D
Deleted member 89374
@billt460 if you want something high performance: https://www.amazon.com/Red-Line-Concentrate-Antifreeze-WaterWetter/dp/B08L9SS1Z4/
I've been using the Red Line Water Wetter Concentrate for years in my cars. Out here in the desert in the Summer it really makes a difference. Cooling systems need all the help they can get when it's 120 F.
Most all of the parts stores out here carry it... Even Wal-Mart.
D
Deleted member 89374
If that's the case, I would use their concentrate with Waterweather to play it safe. Waterweather is a surfactant, and it interacts with certain coolants. I'm sure they made their mix work perfectly with Waterweather. IIRC Waterweather was intended for use only with distilled water initially.
No matter how I do this, it's going to be a royal PITA. There is no way a dealer, (or anyone else for that matter), is going to flush a system 8 times to get a clean and proper cooling system flush.
So as the old saying goes, if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. This is going to be an all day affair with lots of cussing, scraped knuckles, and a few burns thrown in for good measure, here and there.
I'm still trying to figure out how to get to the drain petcock. You can't see it from above or below.
So as the old saying goes, if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. This is going to be an all day affair with lots of cussing, scraped knuckles, and a few burns thrown in for good measure, here and there.
I'm still trying to figure out how to get to the drain petcock. You can't see it from above or below.
I have never seen a cooling system dirty enough to warrant a "flush" unless it was contaminated. But then again, I mainly worked on Asian cars and the systems remain spotless even after 10 years on the original coolant. I have probably worked on 3 domestic cars in the last 5 years, so maybe this is a domestic issue?
At least you're lucky that FCA sells the coolant in concentrate. For many imports, flushing with distilled water isn't even an option because the coolant is only sold in pre-mix.
Whatever you decide to do, just buy a vacuum filler. It will make your life a lot easier.
Edit:
FCA service procedure on bleeding the system:
There's absolutely no reason to do a coolant flush, provided you've been servicing it regularly and there's no debris/buildup. Not only is it wasteful, but a PITA to get the concentration back to 50/50 because there will always be leftover distilled water in there.
I can think of 8 good reasons why, as exhibited by the above video. The guy showed how he was only able to remove barely 3 liters of coolant from the system on his first drain, which holds a total of 14.5 quarts. And that was including what he sucked out of the overflow reservoir.
You're really going to leave almost 80% of the old coolant in the vehicle, and call that good to go? Would you only drain 20% of your oil when you do an oil change, and be satisfied? It's the reason it took him a total of 8 flushes until he got a clean, clear drain.
And how are you supposed to, "service it regularly"? It's a sealed, pressurized system. There is nothing you can do to it. I think I've had to add coolant once in the last 5 years. Unless you have a leak of some type, there is nothing to do.
Last edited:
I'm not contesting the fact that a drain and fill does not get all the coolant out. Usually you can easily get 70%+ out by using the drain port or pulling a hose. If you're dealing with a system that only let's 30% of the volume to drain, then that sounds an application specific design flaw.
But it doesn't matter. Coolant is different than motor oil. There's no real contamination from wear metals, combustion byproducts, or viscosity shearing. All that matters is the depletion of anti corrosion packages, of which a simple drain and fill is more than adequate to top that up in the entire system. As long as you follow manufacturer's guidelines for service intervals, it's more than adequate.
I would go one further and say it's more important to keep the time that the insides aren't covered in coolant as low as possible. That's the time corrosion can take hold. If a flush is needed due to neglect or wrong fluid filled before, do repeated drain and fills with the proper product, maybe a weekend apart until you're happy with the colour of the liquid.
I agree with everything nobb has said. I think this is why some automakers, like Subaru spec an 11 year / 137,500mi replacement interval for the factory fill, and a 6 year, 75,000mi after the coolant has been replaced. They're acknowledging that you don't get everything out, hence the shorter intervals after the first replacement.