Coolant Flush

I was reading, a few people have mentioned that they recomend flushing the coolant at 50,000. I am @ 53,000. Does anyone have instructions on how to do this? I know it has no radiator cap and am not sure if it has a drain plug. I also noticed a bleeder valve too.

I believe it's on the LH side and you can put a 1/4" drive extension in it. Mine was so tight that the plastic plug started to deform so I flushed it via the lower rad hose. Make sure you use Dex-cool. The two types don't mix.

How do I refill the system since there is no radiator cap? Do I need to bleed the system?

what i did with my 02..there's this little white screw on the bottom left..if you're looking from the drivers perspective..drained it and just refill:D

Yes,

But how do I refill it? Do I just keep pouring coolant in the recovery tank and let it suck it in? Do i need to bleed it, and if so how?

Same way as if you had a rad cap. Fill the overflow bottle that will dump it into the rad. Bring the car up to operating temp, let cool and add more if needed. If your overflow bottle has fluid in it you know your rad is full

Should I keep the bleeder valve open while I do this? Then close it when fluid starts to come out?

Once the rad is drained close the valve prior to adding any new fluids. Any air trapped in the system will eventually make its way to the overflow and get replaced with coolant. This is why it's crucial to verify the level after you ran the engine.
Personally I flush about 3-4 times with water to try and get all the old antifreeze out. I then fill it up with 100% antifreeze, run the engine to open up the thermostat and allow all the water that was in the engine to mix with the new antifreeze. Once the engine has cooled I verify the coolant freezing point and top off accordingly. Most times, you should get close to a 50/50 mixture. If your freezing point isn’t low enough you’ll have to do one more flush.

I was reading, a few people have mentioned that they recomend flushing the coolant at 50,000. I am @ 53,000. Does anyone have instructions on how to do this? I know it has no radiator cap and am not sure if it has a drain plug. I also noticed a bleeder valve too.
Please read your owners manual for recommended maintainence rather than relying on what a few people say. GM cars have had Dexcool extended life coolant since the mid 90's and it's good for 5 years or 150,000 miles (or is it 100,000 miles, can't remember).

Yeah I am going to really rely on what GM says. AC controls panels that fail in almost every Malibu, brakes the constantly warp, cars that overheat. Sorry but I would rather spend $8.00 on a gallon of Dex-Cool than have my motor overheat. I am concerned about flushing it because I am about to make a 3200 mile trip in 5 days.

Well, I'm the parts manager in a Chevy dealership and can't remember ever selling an A/C control for a Malibu. What failed in the control? Brake rotors usually warp because people put the cheapest brake pads they can buy in the car. Soft pads, make more heat, warp rotors. Use GM's Ceramic pads.

There has to be a hundred posts about the AC control panel going bad. They go between reciculate and open air when it feels like it and the AC light flashes off and on. The rotors warp all the time. Even with the original pads. There has to be hundreds of posts about this too. And your a parts manager for Chevy?! Never heard of these problems? Maybe thats why the have never redesigned the control panel and you have to keep buying and replacing them.

My extended warranty is probably hoping that my car would just disapear!

I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but it might not be as common as everybody thinks. We see alot of problems in this forum, because almost everybody that posts, has some sort of a bitch. I don't see that many problems with the Malibu in the dealership, and I think that would be more typical of the cars that are out there.
By the way, I drive a 2000 Malibu with 60,000 miles on it. I did have to replace the blower resistor once, and the front pads and rotors were replaced at about 50,000 miles. Nothing else yet (knock on wood).
Also, although extended warranties can save your butt, as a rule, you pay more for the warranty than the repairs would ever cost in the same time period. Why do you think the dealers push them so hard? They are a profit center.

Barry:

You may not see many of the problems being that lots of them occur after OEM warranty. This is probably the reason that GM hasn’t fixed lots of these issues. I work for a Tier 1 supplier and trust me no OEM likes to pay warranty and will insist on a fix from the supplier once it becomes a high hitter on the list. Been there done that.
My 99 Malibu has 90K on it and has had most issues that have been discussed. The A/C control and resistor are more inconveniences then anything else. You learn to live with them which most people probably do. Hitting the open air and recirculate button will normally kick the a/c back on. Using fan speed 3 as a low and regulating the temperature can usually make it comfortable in the vehicle.
Get your intake gasket on order your time is coming up with 60K on your vehicle. At least GM eventually realized this issue and recommended that the outer bolts be torqued higher to stop the intake from warping like a banana.

I bought my extended warranty through the finance company that I work for. So far they paid to have the motor pulled and rebuilt at 39,000 miles, replace power window regulator, now the ac control panel. I paid $1100.00 for the warranty and they have paid about $3000.00 in repairs so far. I look at my Honda Accord; 199,984 miles when I traded it in. Not ever a problem. Normal maint. was all that I had to do.

I work in a chrysler dealer ship and was actually just talking with one of the mechanics about coolant flushes. I was told that after 100,000 you want to get the Dex-cool out and put normal antifreeze in because the Dex-cool actually starts to eat the engine. So when ever they do a coolant flush on a car with dexcool they just put the green antifreeze back in.

I hope they tell the owner that the antifreeze has been changed. I pity the guy that tops of his rad with Dex-cool after reading it in the owners manual. Won’t he be surprised to find sludge because a mechanic took it upon himself to not follow the mfg recommendation? Lots of people won’t do their own flush but won’t think twice about filling up a low rad. Unfortunately, most of these individuals wouldn’t know the difference between the two types.

Im assuming that they would tell the person... If not well it sucks to be the dealership that has to buy them a new engine :grinyes: Why would it do damage to engines past 100 000 k? Does anyone know?

Personally, I can’t see what difference the mileage would have on the type of antifreeze used for the flush. It’s my understanding that all problems occurred with the original OEM coolant. Original OEM coolant + an improper sealing rad cap = Dex-cool jello. Coolant purchased at the store has been reformulated to eliminate that problem. Initial Dex-cool issues left a sour taste in many mouths and some people prefer to stick with “Ole Faithful Green”. This issue is a fireball and if you do a search you’ll find lots of discussions on the topic. GM and Texaco had released a big study that was done.