Prestone Cooling System Treatment?

[JTK]

Just curious to your thoughts on this additive?

I picked up a bottle of that, along with a jug of Prestone 50/50 "all make" which was on sale for $6.50/gal.

I did a drain and fill of the radiator and overflow bottle on my 2008 Hyundai Santa Fe 2.7L (44500mi). Man was it easy on the Santy. There's a philips headed drain plug on the bottom of the radiator w/ an access hole on the belly pan. Just over a gallon came out if you include the overflow bottle.

Joel

 

[JHZR2]

That drain sounds like how it is done on my MBs, it is great! Fresh antifreeze shouldn't need any additives, in my view those are really for if you need to run a higher percentage of water, and want to keep the adds up in the system. Also, what chemistry is the af in your car? Does it use a dex cool type coolant? I really wouldn't put in an all makes fluid if it were my vehicle...

 

[JTK]

My Hyundai uses regular green stuff. The owner's manual specs "Coolant - Ethylene glycol base for aluminum radiator". 7.39qts. I was expecting the Prestone to be yellow or another fancy color, but it's typical green (good!). The coolant that came out looked really good and clear yet. Probably a waste to drain it, but it makes me feel better.

Joel

 

[mechanicx]

Not sure what the story is on Hyundai coolant formula or change interval. It sounds like you got about half of the coolant out just quessing that the capacity was probably close 2 gals at elast, so it prrobably wasn't a waste to drain it frequently if you are just getting a partial change. The Prestone EL is a dexclone but it should be OK if you keep your radiator and reservoir top up. Are you sure the Prestone was green and not and off yellow green amberish color straight out of the bottle?

Ideally I think you should've used Zerex Asian formula or one of the Japanese extended life coolants, but you would've payed at least twice as much for it.

 

[JTK]

Yep I realize I didn't do a complete drain by just opening the radiator drain and blowing out the overflow bottle. However, I did get out almost 5qts of a 7.39qt system. Yes, the Prestone all-make is green. My 2008 Santa Fe 2.7L doesn't spec anything exotic and this particular Prestone coolant (being on sale) was cheaper than Supertech basic green stuff.

Joel

 

[mechanicx]

That's cool. It's just the color doesn't really matter and all of the Prestone, Peak and Supertech at Walmart are dexclones. Peak supples the supertech 50/50 and Prestone supplies the Supertech concentrate or vice versa can't remember which. It's probably fine and is a good price.

 

[Ursae_Majoris]

I have an 08 Kia Spectra (same as Hyundai Elantra). I did drain and refill last summer. Kia dealer recommended regular green coolant. I ended up using NAPA house brand low silicate phosphated green coolant.
I am doing annual D&R on it.

 

[Ursae_Majoris]

Make sure that you have absolutely no air in your coolant system, and that your overflow bottle never goes empty.
Prestone AM/AM has 2-EHA acid in it. It can turn to brown sludge when it is exposed to air. Does your Santa Fe have a pressurized overflow bottle? If yes, than danger is less.

 

[smshadowman]

Originally Posted By: mechanicx
Not sure what the story is on Hyundai coolant formula or change interval. It sounds like you got about half of the coolant out just quessing that the capacity was probably close 2 gals at elast, so it prrobably wasn't a waste to drain it frequently if you are just getting a partial change. The Prestone EL is a dexclone but it should be OK if you keep your radiator and reservoir top up. Are you sure the Prestone was green and not and off yellow green amberish color straight out of the bottle?

Ideally I think you should've used Zerex Asian formula or one of the Japanese extended life coolants, but you would've payed at least twice as much for it.


Hi all. Reviving a slightly ancient thread here.

I just changed my Wife's '04 Santa Fe's coolant today, first time I've done it myself. I used the Prestone 50/50, no additional additives, etc.

I noticed another person in this thread only got out about half the coolant. My manual says the capacity is slightly over 7 quarts, but when I drained it + suctioned the remainder from the reservoir, I only got about a gallon out. I did this on a flat surface. Wasn't doing a flush or anything like that, just straight drain & refill.

Is this normal for nearly half of the coolant to not drain? Any tips for getting more of it out in the future? I drained it with the car on a flat surface.

The drained coolant looked in good condition; about 30K miles since the last change. Doing this as part of the recommended 60K maintenance schedule. I just went ahead and added a single gallon of the new stuff and called it a day. Probably I'll therefore do the next change sooner.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Disada]

Originally Posted By: smshadowman

Is this normal for nearly half of the coolant to not drain? Any tips for getting more of it out in the future?


There is still coolant in the passages around the engine block. There should be a coolant drain bolt somewhere on you block that you can remove to help drain that coolant away.
If you can't find it/don't want to, you can always repeat the flush procedure 2 or 3 times with distilled or dionized water and then add the appropriate concentration of coolant at the end. eg. Flush with distilled water 3 times, add however much concentrated coolant to fill your system. (won't be 50/50, in your case, you'd add 3.5 quarts of concentrated coolant and 0.5 quarts water because you already would have 3 quarts of just water in your cooling system already).

 

[smshadowman]

Originally Posted By: Disada
Originally Posted By: smshadowman

Is this normal for nearly half of the coolant to not drain? Any tips for getting more of it out in the future?


There is still coolant in the passages around the engine block. There should be a coolant drain bolt somewhere on you block that you can remove to help drain that coolant away.
If you can't find it/don't want to, you can always repeat the flush procedure 2 or 3 times with distilled or dionized water and then add the appropriate concentration of coolant at the end. eg. Flush with distilled water 3 times, add however much concentrated coolant to fill your system. (won't be 50/50, in your case, you'd add 3.5 quarts of concentrated coolant and 0.5 quarts water because you already would have 3 quarts of just water in your cooling system already).


Gotcha. Thanks for your response.

The manual and fsm doesn't say anything about where to find the other engine-block drain bolt. I'm not comfortable enough with my skills yet to guess, so I'd probably just attempt that flushing method you mentioned.

I'm assuming you're saying to add 3 quarts of 100% coolant and not the 50/50 stuff at the end of this process.

One more question. Each time I fill the radiator with water during this process, should I start the engine & run it for a time -- or even drive around -- to allow every thing to mix together completely before draining again? Is that safe to do once it becomes diluted to almost entirely water?

 

[The_Eric]

Originally Posted By: smshadowman
Originally Posted By: Disada
Originally Posted By: smshadowman

Is this normal for nearly half of the coolant to not drain? Any tips for getting more of it out in the future?


There is still coolant in the passages around the engine block. There should be a coolant drain bolt somewhere on you block that you can remove to help drain that coolant away.
If you can't find it/don't want to, you can always repeat the flush procedure 2 or 3 times with distilled or dionized water and then add the appropriate concentration of coolant at the end. eg. Flush with distilled water 3 times, add however much concentrated coolant to fill your system. (won't be 50/50, in your case, you'd add 3.5 quarts of concentrated coolant and 0.5 quarts water because you already would have 3 quarts of just water in your cooling system already).


Gotcha. Thanks for your response.

The manual and fsm doesn't say anything about where to find the other engine-block drain bolt. I'm not comfortable enough with my skills yet to guess, so I'd probably just attempt that flushing method you mentioned.

I'm assuming you're saying to add 3 quarts of 100% coolant and not the 50/50 stuff at the end of this process.

One more question. Each time I fill the radiator with water during this process, should I start the engine & run it for a time -- or even drive around -- to allow every thing to mix together completely before draining again? Is that safe to do once it becomes diluted to almost entirely water?

yup and yup. Just don't drive a few weeks or more.

 

[smshadowman]

Originally Posted By: The_Eric

yup and yup. Just don't drive a few weeks or more.


LOL, good idea. Thanks.