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Good day happy peoples!
I am flushing my cooling system with a rust remover, and was wondering since my last flush if there happens to be a plug on the bottom of the engine for removing that last drop of coolant that never seems to want to come out and play. I understand that I can do several drain-fills with intermediate driving, but that sounds like an uncomfortable spot in the prosterior to be frank.
Also, my indie appears to love DexCool. How does this stuff do in an 850T, and are there any caveats I should consider if switching to the orange side of the force? I read up on line and the only differance appears to be chemical. They are both toxic, protect against corrosion, and don't freeze. Is this worth doing?
Thank you in advance for any comments you may have. I'm going to go pop the draincock and put in that rust-away.
--
| -- | Lucyen Gabbard
96 854 Turbo 90k / 86 745 GLE 240k |
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I am thinking about flushing coolant also, but I could not find any radiator filler/pressure releieve cap that all of other cars have one. Can you write down simple procedures what you did on flushing coolant? I also don't border about removing the engine coolant drain plug, and will simply unplug the radiator drain plug only to fill fresh water and drive it little a bit. Drain coolant and fill up water several time until I see clear coolant color. Finally drain coolant and fill up 2 bottles of prestone DEXACOOL. Do you think this makes a sense? Thanks.
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I say go with the factory stuff. No harm, no foul, no worry The bigger question is where do you take the old stuff to dispose of it?
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posted by
someone claiming to be jeffery47
on
Mon Aug 8 05:35 CST 2005 [ RELATED]
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As long as the coolant protects for all metals, then you should be OK. I switched to Dexcool a while back (2 years) and have not had any problems. I plan to change it earlier than usual, just to be safe, but I would with any coolant. Coolant is cheaper than any part it protects, so I flush early.
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That is interesting, the shop next to me works on a lot of GM products and he swears at the Dexcool and not by it. I have seen many, many intake manifolds and the like in his shop that were corroded away and the general consensus was that it was the Dexcool. I have never had a problem with the Volvos rusting away and I have always used Volvo coolant in my shop. For me it is a matter of if it works then why fix it. Have any of you guys seen a real reason to need to go to Dexcool other than the fact that it is red? Has there been a problem with the freeze or corrosion protection provided by the Volvo coolant? I can't believe that it is a cost thing. I could see if the factory stuff was deficient in some way or if the Dexcool provided something above and beyond the other stuff but otherwise why fix what is not broke?
Mark
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posted by
someone claiming to be jonn
on
Wed Aug 10 03:31 CST 2005 [ RELATED]
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Here's my $0.02. 3 years ago on my V70 98 I decided to change the coolant. I went with Dexcool and had it for couple of years and there were no issues with it, except for one. When heater was turning on I could smell a faint coolant odour for a brief period. There were no noticable losses, heater core seemed OK (no wet carpets, etc) except for the smell. So, last year when another flush was scheduled I used Volvo coolant and the smell was gone. My take on that is that the gaskets' (o-rings) material on the heater piping connections was not 100% compatible with Dexcool and let a drop or two before pressure and heat would help them seal completely.
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Thanks, John. Better put a green prestone coolant this time. Thanks.
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That's interesting info. You mean Volvo Coolant mean a green one. I have seen DExcool as DeadCool somewhere internet. However, I also heard newer Volvo cars are using Dexcool. Is this true? Anybody driving a 2005 year model volvo? How did you pay for your coolant flush at a dealership? Thanks.
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posted by
someone claiming to be jonn
on
Thu Aug 11 09:03 CST 2005 [ RELATED]
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Volvo coolant is green (with Volvo label on it), I got it at a dealership and flushed the system myself.
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On the Prestone Dexacool bottle, Prestone advertized their coolant got Volvo certification something like that. If I need to flush coolant with a green colored one in my local town, I just need to pay arount $30 which is cheaper that changing synthetic Mobil oil ($43). But, I need to pay around $90 for Dexacool flush, and the shop guy told me your engine runs 10 degree lower.
By the way, can anyone tell me a simple way to flush coolant. Why I can't find a radiator coolant filler cap ? Do I need to put antifreeze into the plastic coolant resevoir cap? Thanks.
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Well I can't buy the 10 degree cooler line, the vehicle has a thermostat in it that will make it run at a predetermined temp regardless of what you are using for coolant, if it gets too far out of that range it will log a 123 ECT code and pull on the check engine light. But if it sells more high dollar coolant changes then I am all for it, yeah right!
I can't remember the last time Volvo ran an actual radiator cap. Maybe on their 140/160 series but it has been sooooo long since I have owned/serviced any of those cars I don't really recall. Your coolant reservoir bottle is where you will do all of the filling and pressure testing on the 850. It has two coolant petcocks, one is in the lower left corner of the radiator and the other is located on the backside of the block on the right lower corner. Servicing the coolant on these cars is more of a drain and refill than it is a proper flush, but that is the way it is done, even on the older red engine cars. Just go ahead and drain the block and then drain any residual that is left in the bottom of the radiator, fill it back up with your coolant of choice, pressure test and get any air pockets out of it and you should be good to go.
Mark
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Rule308,
Thank you very much for your kind post. The price differnces between the Dexacool red prestone ($10.49) and the regular green one ($9.99) are only about 50 cents. That's why I am interested in trying DexaCool. I am sure the green one should do good job. How difficult it is to remove the engine block drain plug (You means the right lower corner means the passenger side). How do you do the pressure test? Can the pressure test remove air pockets ? Thank you very much again.
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Slee1,
Yes, that would be the passenger side of the block. If you roll under the car it is hard to miss. It will be all the way over on the right side of the block kind of above where the right side axle traverses across to the spindle assembly. Mind you it is a petcock and not a drain plug, which means you need only unscrew it and not remove it. Get yourself a piece of rubber hose that will fit snugly over the end of it, crack the fitting loose, install your rubber hose on the fitting and into a bucket on the other end and then loosen it enough that it flows freely. You will have to have the coolant reservoir cap off to get it to flow. A pressure tester is kind of hard to fake, you either have one or you don't. Typically it is a hand pump with a hose and an adapter to screw onto radiators with, from there you need your specific adapters to fit different cars. You screw the Volvo adapter onto the bottle and twist the standard connector from the pressue tester onto that and then pump it up to 12-18 psi. Yes this will help bleed the system, it will cause the air bubbles to congeal into one or two big bubbles and then they work their way out. I usually pressurize it once or twice, let the pressure off, top of the system, re-pressurize and let it set for 15-20 minutes to check for leaks and watch for any signifigant drop in system pressure, take the pressure off for the last time, top off level, fire it up and bring it to operating temp and make sure that the system now has pressure in it. This is as simple as removing the cap and listening for the release of pressure. Understand that the pressure only builds because the system is sealed and it heats the coolant up which expands, as it expands and the system is sealed the air is compressed to about 12-13 pounds or so. So, if you pop the cap a couple of times while it is warming up, you will have no pressure in the system because it releases everytime you open the cap. Every once in a while I get a car that leaves the shop with an air bubble still in it and invariably I will get a call the next morning about the coolant level light being on, just top it off one last time and it will be ok.
Mark
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Thanks, Rule308. Your information is very valuable. By the way, do I really have the pressure test? I checked out the price of a pressure test, and it costs also $100. Can I simply fill up coolant and leave it 10 minutes until some air bubbles come out through the filler cap? Add little more and wait for some time. Repeat this several times. Run engine idle for several minutes as the filler cap is opened. Add little more coolant. Do you think this makes a sense to you? Thanks.
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Slee
Absolutely you can do it that way. In fact that is what I would recommend doing if you have no pressure tester. The tester is nice because you can pressurize everything and then go over all of the hoses and tighten the whole system up while it is under pressure. You can find soft or bulged hoses this way as well. Something else you mind find as well is a radiator side tank that leaks like a pig when pressurized cold. I had one today, put 18 psi on it while cold and it gushed out the side tanks. This is something you will not normally find because by the time it has run long enough to build enough pressure to leak out it has also heated up enough to swell that joint up tight and prevent it from leaking. The only thing is that at a point it will get to where it leaks when cold and not under pressure.
Just go ahead and fill it up and then squeeze the upper hose a bit to get the bubbles out of it, top it up and run it. Do not be suprised if the coolant level light is on in the morning, top it up one last time if it is and then you should be done with it.
Mark
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