I checked YouTube and there were some good ones, but not Xterra specific. Some even installed hose attachments to connect a garden hose and flush the system.
From what I've read, is this correct?
1. Drain radiator
2. Fill with Prestone FLUSH
3. Run car for 15mins with cap off to BURP system. Turn on heat full blast.
In short, no....that is a waste of time and an abundance of waste generation for a low risk issue related to old fluid.
Drain old, there isn't 1% of old fluid remaining pooled in the system.
Fill with water, circulate for a couple minutes DO NOT ALLOW TO HEAT UP with straight water.
Drain...there isn't 1/1000 of original coolant remaining and it is biologically harmless at this stage.
In short, no....that is a waste of time and an abundance of waste generation for a low risk issue related to old fluid.
Drain old, there isn't 1% of old fluid remaining pooled in the system.
Fill with water, circulate for a couple minutes DO NOT ALLOW TO HEAT UP with straight water.
Drain...there isn't 1/1000 of original coolant remaining and it is biologically harmless at this stage.
First, wait for engine to cool down then rinse entire engine bay to get the coolant off all the rubberized items. DO NOT RINSE A HOT ENGINE
Let dry before you try to crank !!! If you have a leaf blower, you can push the water out of the accumulation points. I think the spark plug wells are a shallow area which can be a problem for wash downs.
Your leak could be one of a few things.....
You should have a hose from just below the radiator cap down/over to the expansion tank. If the hose is loose, it will vent steam instead of fluid back to tank.
If the radiator has a crack in the area around the cap, which is common, you will need to replace the radiator. $130 max and about hour of time. very easy.
OR, look carefully, could it be one of the upper radiator hoses connecting near the cap ?
My hose rupture was the bypass hose left and below distributor. steam / fluid was everywhere and it took a while to find the source until after I refilled radiator with coolant mix.
So the latest is it's a cracked radiator. Thankfully that's all it is. I feared the worst, that it was a valve gasket.
My brother did a pressure tesT to determine It was the radiator. So he ordered me a new radiator and cap. I believe there's a NAPA location near me to pick up some ZEREX asian formula coolant.
In short, no....that is a waste of time and an abundance of waste generation for a low risk issue related to old fluid.
Drain old, there isn't 1% of old fluid remaining pooled in the system.
Fill with water, circulate for a couple minutes DO NOT ALLOW TO HEAT UP with straight water.
Drain...there isn't 1/1000 of original coolant remaining and it is biologically harmless at this stage.
I checked mine today. My anti freeze is really clean, but was only good to 10 degrees. I wanted to drain a gallon out, and add straight anti freeae, instead of 50/50. Where is the drain plug on these rads? I looked forever, I could not find it?
2000 Xterra 3.3/Auto
I checked mine today. My anti freeze is really clean, but was only good to 10 degrees. I wanted to drain a gallon out, and add straight anti freeae, instead of 50/50. Where is the drain plug on these rads? I looked forever, I could not find it?
2000 Xterra 3.3/Auto
yep, theres a rubber skirt there, just pull on the front side and the plastic clips will come out. THen it will expose the bottom of the radiator and that drain plug.
In short, no....that is a waste of time and an abundance of waste generation for a low risk issue related to old fluid.
Drain old, there isn't 1% of old fluid remaining pooled in the system.
Fill with water, circulate for a couple minutes DO NOT ALLOW TO HEAT UP with straight water.
Drain...there isn't 1/1000 of original coolant remaining and it is biologically harmless at this stage.
actually I would greatly disagree with what you said. The cooling system on the xterra holds 11 5/8 quarts of coolant. Thats almost 3 gallons of coolant. Unless you pull the plugs on the engine block you are not going to get anywhere near that much out of the system. And most people arent going to go through the trouble of pulling the 2 block plugs to drain it completely. You will be doing good to get half the coolant out of the system by draining the radiator. So after a drain and fill and another drain you are still going to be looking at an absolute best case scenario of 20-25% of the coolant left in your system that is still sitting 50% full of fluid. That is assuming the car ran long enough to mix the water and remaining fluid well.
Does this mean you need to continue to fill and flush to get it all out? I would say no, but if you really want to get the system clean and get a proper level of coolant put back in the car you really need more than a 50/50 mix after a single flush. One flush would leave you with 20% mix in half the system and 50% mix in the other half. So again best case scenario you end up with about 35% concentration of coolant in the system. what I do is drain the radiator twice, fill with 50/50 after the first drain let it run for a bit and drain the system again and fill with 50/50. and then after about 2 weeks I drain again and refill with 50/50. Is it overkill, possibly, but I am also the kind of guy that uses distilled water for flushing the system. never understood buying high dollar coolant that is vehicle specific to stop corrosion and then using a water hose to flush your system.
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