DID SEARCH but found nothing conclusive.

On the scheduled coolant change per owners manual, the instructions provided are just to drain and refill the coolant.
On the Chilton's manual however, they instructed to flush the system which is a considerable amount of work.

Is drain and refill enough for the first scheduled coolant change?
If not, where can I find good instructions to do the complete flush? I should have gotten Helms. TIA.

 

A drain and refill is sufficent. If you insist on "flushing" it, then you have 2 options. Once is to buy a coolant flush (around $3) from you local part store. Drain the coolant, refill with the coolant flush and water and run for like 5 mins and then drain again. Then refill with coolant.

The other options for fluushing is taking to a shop that has a machine that can flush out the entire coolant system. *expensive though*, cost like $50-$60. I don't recommend it unless you have like a REALLY dirty cooling system.

OPtion one is much better and cost less then $10

Seeing that you have a 98 Integra, I suggest a drain and refill as sufficent. Make sure when your car is on even level ground when you drain the coolant.

 

so the garden hose is not enough to flush?
I thought this can be a DIY job.

 

Just do coolant drain-and-fill.
If you want to drain more throughly, take out engine block drain bolt also.

 

You really should do a flush too. I found this out with my MR2. They have an extensive amount of piping, and you really want to make sure it all gets cleaned out when you perform the drain and fill. Just open a drain plug and force some water through. I also recommend taking out the thermostat and cleaning it. Also flush out that area.

 

I second that... and its only time consuming not hard labor.

 

 

Try getting the prestone flush addative to help clean everything out.

 

anyone have a link or care to type out detailed info on how to flush the whole system out? thanks in advance..

 

you can just drain the old coolant out and fill up with water, run for 5 minutes, drain out the dirty water and then refill with new collant, or you can keep using water to clean out until you think is clean enough and then refill with new collant. You don't really have to do all these steps, drain and refill is already good enough unless you have over heating problems

 

I am interested in this too but there seems to be more response that flushing is not so necessary after all.

 

i have the same question also, because i'm putting a new radiator in tomorrow.

can i just refill it, since i had my system flushed a month ago?