coolant Flush
f81002
02-16-2005, 08:01 PM
I don't know that much about cars, so this may be a stupid question...I just don't want to get ripped off. I want to get the coolant flushed on my 93 taurus. How much should I expect to pay? Any other comments welcomed...trying to learn. Thanks.
TomV
02-21-2005, 01:29 PM
It should take no more than an hour to perform a complete clean and flush. Then there is the cost of some antifreeze. Around here that should be no more than about $75 or so for labore and about $10 for a gallon of fluid, and maybe a few bucks for shop supplies.
sfontain
02-21-2005, 02:05 PM
It should take no more than an hour to perform a complete clean and flush. Then there is the cost of some antifreeze. Around here that should be no more than about $75 or so for labore and about $10 for a gallon of fluid, and maybe a few bucks for shop supplies.
...But.
Flushing your own coolant is not a particularly difficult job. An hour of labor at a dealer can be priced really absurdly, especially when the work they are doing could be done by any 10 year old with a little practice.
If you change your own oil, you can flush your radiator. Suppose you need two jugs of green Prestone coolant and you want to use some Prestone flush. You might think about picking up 3-5 gallons of distilled water, depending on the capacity of your system and how many times you want to flush/refill.
That will run you about $25 if you shop at Wal Mart and shouldn't take you more than 1.5-2 hours, most of which you are drinking beer and waiting for the engine to warm up or cool off.
The dealer could charge you upwards of $80-$100 depending on their labor prices. The other issue is finding a place to dispose the old fluid.
Flushing a cooling system isn't for everyone, but I just wanted to inform you that it is a reasonable option for anybody with a jack, a drainpan, and an extra hour or two. Good luck!
...But.
Flushing your own coolant is not a particularly difficult job. An hour of labor at a dealer can be priced really absurdly, especially when the work they are doing could be done by any 10 year old with a little practice.
If you change your own oil, you can flush your radiator. Suppose you need two jugs of green Prestone coolant and you want to use some Prestone flush. You might think about picking up 3-5 gallons of distilled water, depending on the capacity of your system and how many times you want to flush/refill.
That will run you about $25 if you shop at Wal Mart and shouldn't take you more than 1.5-2 hours, most of which you are drinking beer and waiting for the engine to warm up or cool off.
The dealer could charge you upwards of $80-$100 depending on their labor prices. The other issue is finding a place to dispose the old fluid.
Flushing a cooling system isn't for everyone, but I just wanted to inform you that it is a reasonable option for anybody with a jack, a drainpan, and an extra hour or two. Good luck!
TomV
02-21-2005, 10:25 PM
To sfontain: Would you want your 10 year old flushing your radiator system? How many gallons of fluid do you think you have to recover and dispose of if you do not properly recycle it the way a properly equipped shop will do? Flushing your cooling system is not like changing the oil.
This is not just a simple matter of opening up the petcock at the bottom of the radiator and draining the fluid into a couple of gallons of jugs. This leaves a lot of fluid in the system. When I did this kind of stuff a couple of decades ago, in our less ecosensitive days, it was a real mess. Gallons and gallons of fluid were dumped onto the ground, opening up various system hoses and connecting a hose in the reverse direction of normal flow, running the car and dumping out fluid as you filled up the radiator at the same time. If you left the thermostat in then you had very hot water since cold water could not get past the thermostat into the radiator.
Even if you collect it in jugs, you have to dump the radiator contents, fill up the radiator and then recirculate the fluid, and then dump the radiator contents into another jug. You then repeat the cycle until you feel that you a have fairly clear, mostly water, fluid draining from the radiator. This is more than a few gallons of hot fluid to do it properly. Bring the fluid to a shop for disposal and they will charge you by the gallon.
This is not just a simple matter of opening up the petcock at the bottom of the radiator and draining the fluid into a couple of gallons of jugs. This leaves a lot of fluid in the system. When I did this kind of stuff a couple of decades ago, in our less ecosensitive days, it was a real mess. Gallons and gallons of fluid were dumped onto the ground, opening up various system hoses and connecting a hose in the reverse direction of normal flow, running the car and dumping out fluid as you filled up the radiator at the same time. If you left the thermostat in then you had very hot water since cold water could not get past the thermostat into the radiator.
Even if you collect it in jugs, you have to dump the radiator contents, fill up the radiator and then recirculate the fluid, and then dump the radiator contents into another jug. You then repeat the cycle until you feel that you a have fairly clear, mostly water, fluid draining from the radiator. This is more than a few gallons of hot fluid to do it properly. Bring the fluid to a shop for disposal and they will charge you by the gallon.
sfontain
02-22-2005, 08:09 AM
Instead of coming in here to flame, TomV, try reading what others post instead of reading what you want to see. I offered some practical, realistic, money-saving advice. I said any 10-year-old with practice "could" flush a radiator, not that I would like my 10-year-old to do it. "How many gallons of fluid do you think you have to recover and dispose of if you do not properly recycle it the way a properly equipped shop will do?" Well, if memory serves, I would say about 4-6 gallons, depending how many times you drain/refill; I never said any different. My dealer just charged me about $3.50 in Ohio to dispose of around 4 gallons of ATF. In fact, I never even said that "Flushing your cooling system is like changing the oil." What I specifically said was that if you change your own oil, you can flush a radiator. And I stand by that statement as true.
But since you bring it up, flushing your radiator actually IS a lot like changing your oil. In fact, over the typical vehicle's lifespan, you are going to spend far more time and money on oil changes than coolant changes. The only difference between what you just described and changing the oil is that you have to drain/refill about 3 times instead of once and run/cool the engine in between, and there is therefore more fluid involved. Most people would probably agree that it's not particularly difficult to let a car run for 20 minutes and then shut it off for another 30, or to open and close a hand screw. So, in other words, it sounds a lot like changing oil.
Read what was written, putz. I would rather have a 10-year-old flush my cooling system than you.
But since you bring it up, flushing your radiator actually IS a lot like changing your oil. In fact, over the typical vehicle's lifespan, you are going to spend far more time and money on oil changes than coolant changes. The only difference between what you just described and changing the oil is that you have to drain/refill about 3 times instead of once and run/cool the engine in between, and there is therefore more fluid involved. Most people would probably agree that it's not particularly difficult to let a car run for 20 minutes and then shut it off for another 30, or to open and close a hand screw. So, in other words, it sounds a lot like changing oil.
Read what was written, putz. I would rather have a 10-year-old flush my cooling system than you.
sfontain
02-22-2005, 08:15 AM
Incidentally, f81002, if you are considering doing the flush yourself, you will find pretty good instructions for the whole flush on a bottle of the Preston flush stuff.
Good luck!
Good luck!
Automotive Network, Inc., Copyright ©2026