Acura TL radiator flush

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Rohan

Joined
Nov 5, 2009
Messages
776
Location
orlando,FL
2002 3.2L
270k miles (we bought the car at 129k)

We haven't changed the coolant or clean it either. So I'm doing it now and I flush it like almost 6 times and I'm still getting the rust stuff after thermostat came to operations temperature. I'm also thinking about flushing the heater core also. Should I added Preston super flush and clean addictive in it?

Any help will be great!
 
I personally wouldn't add a flush chemical to such a high mileage cooling system.

You can do a couple of more distilled water flushes but it may never run clear since you neglected the system for so long. Keep the heater turned all the way to hot but fan off so the heater core's also cleaned out. Look up the coolant capacity, fill the system with a full strength Asian-spec coolant (Rechochem from Pep Boys is good), top off with DI water, bleed the system and call it a day.
 
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I have used prestone rad flush before, don't know if it cleaned more than just a distilled water only flush. I don't think it will clean everything out but it'll only cost u like $6. Let us know if u try it.
 
I forgot to mention that radiator is also rusted( inside). I'm going to do other couple drains on Tuesday and if I see that stuff again then I'm going to put in Preston flush in there and go from there. if anyone thinking about where I'm going to add Preston flush is "only" in the radiator not the heater core.
 
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Assuming you were flushing with water and not 50/50 premix, don't let your cooling system sit with only water in it for too long or it will make the rust worse. It's the coolant that has the rust/corrosion inhibitors. If you can't finish doing the flushes until Tuesday and don't have to drive the car in the meantime, I would go ahead and drain as much water as you can out of the system.
 
In my experience, Honda coolant rarely requires any attention if the system ONLY sees Type-2 blue. This car has a timing belt, and the timing belt service should have been done at 105k and again at 220k. At both timing belt services, the water pump should have been replaced.

If you are doing a cooling system service in-between the timing belt services, then a drain/refill is all that you should need. You should never have to "flush" one of these systems unless you had a contamination event of some sort...

With that said, it sounds like the coolant has not been replaced in a very long time (which brings me to ask about the status of the water pump and Timing Belt), so the cooling system has some issues. You can try the Gates Cooling System Flush Kit, but I think you'll end up having to replace the heater core and radiator to resolve the issue...

http://www.gates.com/products/automotive...lean-flush-tool
 
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Originally Posted By: Chewie
Assuming you were flushing with water and not 50/50 premix, don't let your cooling system sit with only water in it for too long or it will make the rust worse. It's the coolant that has the rust/corrosion inhibitors. If you can't finish doing the flushes until Tuesday and don't have to drive the car in the meantime, I would go ahead and drain as much water as you can out of the system.


I'm flushing with distilled water and currently someone driving it with DI water in it. I might need to tell the person do not drive it until Tuesday. I'm going to flush it tomorrow with DI water and do more flush on Tuesday.
 
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Originally Posted By: The Critic
In my experience, Honda coolant rarely requires any attention if the system ONLY sees Type-2 blue. This car has a timing belt, and the timing belt service should have been done at 105k and again at 220k. At both timing belt services, the water pump should have been replaced.

If you are doing a cooling system service in-between the timing belt services, then a drain/refill is all that you should need. You should never have to "flush" one of these systems unless you had a contamination event of some sort...

With that said, it sounds like the coolant has not been replaced in a very long time (which brings me to ask about the status of the water pump and Timing Belt), so the cooling system has some issues. You can try the Gates Cooling System Flush Kit, but I think you'll end up having to replace the heater core and radiator to resolve the issue...

http://www.gates.com/products/automotive...lean-flush-tool


I'm going to go ahead and do the flush.After that add Honda type blue antifreeze in there for now. Im going to do the timing belt soon. There's no issues with the cooling system and heater still work great.
 
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Hello everyone, wanted to ask quick question. Can I drain or flush the water when engine is hot? I do not like to wait for engine to get cold before draining the water from the radiator. Don't worry I'm wearing safely gloves.
 
Yes, you can drain the radiator when it and engine is hot, just be very careful.

If you can park your car on an inclined driveway with front lower than rear you can drain more coolant than on flat surface, also set heater to max to drain the heater core.
 
I didn't do any work on the car yesterday. But I did work on it today and the heater core hoses was so hard to take it off after 3 hours of spending my time on them. At this point I got it off. I did run DI water through the heater core until I saw clear water coming out of the heater core hose after this I used my 10psi air compressor blower for remaining DI water in the heater core. I only drain 1 flush today with taking off upper radiator hose. I'm having hard time understanding about block drain bolts. Which bolts do I need to get it coolant start to flow from the block drain. Do I just need to get the bleeder screw loose or loosing up that large bolt nut?

Video listed below ( not my video) and I want to know about that block drain behind the wheel not the second part of butterfly value screw.

https://youtu.be/K7-aE4vYmM0
 
Don't bother with the block drain bolts. They're a bear to access and break loose and will likely leak after re-installation.
 
Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
Yes, you can drain the radiator when it and engine is hot, just be very careful.

If you can park your car on an inclined driveway with front lower than rear you can drain more coolant than on flat surface, also set heater to max to drain the heater core.


But, when you refill, isn't it best to have the radiator higher than the engine block?
 
I was going to purchased Kool-it radiator flush. None of the local auto parts store Carry them.
 
Originally Posted By: RevelationLion
Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
Yes, you can drain the radiator when it and engine is hot, just be very careful.

If you can park your car on an inclined driveway with front lower than rear you can drain more coolant than on flat surface, also set heater to max to drain the heater core.
But, when you refill, isn't it best to have the radiator higher than the engine block?

Yes.

After I drained the distilled water used to flush the coolant I filled up the radiator (after closed the petcock) with concentrate antifreeze, I then turned the car around so the front is higher, topped off with distilled water.

No, I didn't use any special tool to add coolant to radiator and didn't have any problem with air in my system.
 
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