Coolant- drain and fill or flush?

I’m at 90k and first time changing the coolant. Should I drain and fill or flush? My general understanding is that flush does more harm than good.

 

Drain, fill with DI water, drain, refill with 50/50 coolant.

Drain out of the block plugs too.

 

I assume you mean distilled not deionized?

 

There no need to flush unless the system is contaminated or you’re switching coolant types. Use pre-mixed 50/50 Toyota spec pink. I don’t recommend using a universal coolant.

 

Haha yeah sorry. Use a lot of DI water at work. Habit I guess.

 

Toyota made this service very easy, get 2 gallons of coolant.
I prefer to use the factory coolant, the dealer sells it ready to use at a reasonable price.

Get some 5/16" ID hose, it fits the radiator drain too. If you leave the radiator cap on when you drain the radiator (before draining the block) it will siphon the fluid out of the recovery bottle too.



Remove the passenger wheel, pop the top plastic clip out and gently fold the splash shield down.



And find this handy block drain.



A long extension and a 10MM socket.



The coolant won't gush out, just get it draining and go do something else for a while.
Fill it up nice and slow, keep squeezing the top radiator hose to work the air out.

 

Sweet they give you a nice extension holder

is there a bleeder when refilling?

 

I just refilled it very slowly.
Pour a little & squeeze the top hose, repeat, repeat.

Once it was as full as possible I started the engine and continued to add/squeeze (mind your fingers & the fan )until the coolant started to expand and then put the cap on.

Fill the recovery bottle about 1/2 way between the marks and let the engine get up to operating temperature.

Shut off and let it fully cool. Check/top up when cold and check it a few times over the next week.

 

No bleeder. Fill a spill-free funnel so the funnel will be the highest point in the circuit. Run the engine with heater on max. Once the thermostat opens the system will self-bleed (air bubbles up through the funnel).

When no more air bubbles come up through the funnel, shut off the engine, close the plunger on the funnel, and drain the remaining coolant in the funnel into the overflow jug.

 

I am due for one of those. Thanks for the good info.

 

On the Tacoma, the coolant gets pumped through the heater core all the time, so turning on the heat in the cab isn’t necessary or even beneficial.

I would simply just drain the radiator and check the color that comes out. Chances are it’ll be pretty clean still. No point dealing with draining the block then. Just refill the radiator. Do this every five years or so, and you’re saving time and money.

 

Sweet. Thanks for this. I should check my adapters for my funnel and make sure I have one, so I can print one if not. Seems easy enough

 

I'm going to have to respectfully disagree.

Coolant appearance has little value in indicating if the coolant is still doing the job.

Freeze protection is what gets the most attention however corrosion protection is what is most important.

The only thing protecting the head gaskets is the inhibitors in the coolant, they become depleted over time.
Also, they have a much tougher job as this engine is all aluminum compared to the more forgiving cast iron engines of days gone by.

The block drain is easy to access and has a nipple for a hose so the job is very clean, the cost of 2 gallons of coolant from the dealer is very modest.

Personally I feel the 5 year service interval is too long if one intends on keeping the vehicle long term.

 

Deionized water is superior to distilled (less mineral content). Either way, chemicals shouldn't be needed to "flush" the system. Deionized or Distilled should suffice.

^ That 5/16 drain hose method works great for draining at the block.

 

This!!

The OEM pink coolant can be had from Aisin (without Toyota branding but same thing) for $13/gallon at rock auto by the way.

 

That’s exactly what I used.

 

Drain and fill.

 

coolant is to be changed every 50k

I don't think there is harm in running DI water above freezing for a short period of time.

or adding another frequent change after to address not changing it when you were supposed to.

I have ran a flush product once. Probably wasn't needed. Some are known to cause leaks.

 

These trucks now (and have for a long time) come with SLLC (super long life coolant) from the factory which isn’t spec’d to be changed until 100k for the first time. After that it’s every 50k over 5 years whichever comes sooner. Y’all are making way too big of a deal out of this. Some folks never change this and never have problems either.

Everybody be cool!

 

You just said “50k”.

“spec” is also 10k OCI (bad)

changing it is what’s not a big deal. It’s very quick and easy to do. Can be drained same time as draining oil.

makes no difference to me if people take care of their vehicles. As a mechanic, what do you think pays me more. A service or an R&R.
R&R’s are also pretty chill. Put your AirPods in and zone out for that time. One car for the day not running in and out to the lot trying to find 10.

if folks never wanna change it that’s fine. Not my engine.