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Old 09-13-2010, 11:46 AM
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jdmccright jdmccright is offline
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Re: Best way to fill - purge cooling system

Model year would help here. Please post back.

First park the car on an incline, nose upor drive it up onto a set of ramps.

In general, most vehicles have a radiator cap you can unscrew and fill there when the engine is cold. Fill it almost to the top, then squeeze the upper radiator hose slowly to expel air that usually gets trapped. Repeat this until no more bubbles come out, the coolant level will just rise and fall with the squeezes. Then cap the radiator, fill the reservoir, and start the engine and run it until the upper hose starts to get hot. If you take it for a drive to warm it up, make sure to park it on an incline. Then turn it off. Let the coolant in the tank be sucked in as the engine cools. This may take a few iterations in some cases if the reservoir runs dry.

If you don't have a radiator cap (rare but some don't) you'll have to fill as best you can from the upper hose (or through the reservoir which could be slow), then replace the hose, and continue as above with filling the reservoir, running the engine, etc. Good luck!
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Last edited by jdmccright; 09-13-2010 at 11:55 AM. Reason: Yet more added info
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