honda recommends draining the radiator every 30k. is this necessary or could i let it go longer. More like 40-50k?

 

most people (non-car people) never change it so ya i think another 10-20 should be fine

 

depending on the weather and how often you drive, but their recommended schedule is already a little bit relaxed. U could, but I wouldn't wait until 40-50K, just do it around 25-30K, and your engine will treat you the same way you treat it.

 

Honda recomends 45,000 or three years for the first change, and every 30,000 or two years thereafter. I go by their recomendations.

 

Use a coolant tester for best results.

I say changing coolant is better and much cheaper than a new rad.

 

a coolant change takes less than an hour and under $20 in parts.

 

I just drained my coolant at 47k mile, dunno if the dealer did it at 30k miles checkup.... but I had to do it cause I took off my watercooled turbo, plus I added a shitload of water (no antifreeze) when a I lost a shitload replacing a hose.... hopefully my HIGH water content was why I was getting coolant bubbles every once in a while (no overheating or overflows).

 

I just did mine today at 51910 miles,it stille looked good, yes do it yourself its only 15.00 dollars for coolant and 1 hour of your time. And it gives you peace of mind while driving hard.

 

It probably won't hurt to not change it, but I would if I were you. It's like running cheap oil, it just depends on if you want the best for your car?

 

Or just have a leaky water pump. I top off the antifreeze every two weeks or so ( i lose probably 2-4 oz's of coolant). So after a couple of monthes, I probably have put in new coolant. By the way, this is not a very good way to do it

 

I change every spring. Only need 1/2 gallon of antifreeze per year for the changeover.

So that $2.50 per YEAR is cheap insurance.


BTW dispose of old coolant down your toilet. Most sewage treatment places will handle the coolant. This is per EPA. Although they have no clue what I sould do with old brake fluid. I've got almost 2 gallons!

 

drink it, or use it as paint thinner

 

Really!? Mista bone, this can't be the preffered method of disposal legally is it? Thats wierd, I would not have thought to flush my old coolant down the toilet.

 

Think about it. Gallons and gallons and gallons of Drano go down toilets and sinks.

 

I know it sounds wierd but that is exactly the advice my county waste disposal person gave me this spring. I had to change the coolant chemistry in my little "fleet" and had about 25 gallons of the 50% mix to dispose of and they said "flush it"

For those who might be learning the basics. Coolant does not significantly loose its ability to protect against freezing or overtemperature with age. What is used up is the corrosion inhibitors in the mix. With the plethora of mixed steel/aluminum blocks and heads (us detroit iron guys) and the aluminum radiators of today it is more important than ever to keep the inhibitors up to snuff. I switched to a commercial chemistry where I test the inhibitor package with test strips and just add concentrated supplemental coolant additive every year.

I never recognized the importance of using distilled water until my studies this spring about coolant mixes, corrosion and how to keep 600 buck aluminum radiators in one piece.

Regards,
BigMoose

 

most sewage treatment plants are setup to handle the antifreeze.

Now about the brake fuild?????? ANY ideas?

 

Drop it off at your local waste depository/landfill. Most will have fluid (oil, coolant, fuel, etc.) collection stations. Or most automotive service stations have oil drums for their waste oil and will let you drop it in there. At least we used to allow people to do this.

 

Well, all my motor oil goes to Autozone, but they wouldn't allow brake fluid into the tank.

 

Hmm, that's odd. The oil collectors at the station I used to work at said they could accept any automotive fluid (oil, brake fluid, gas, etc.) with the exception of antifreeze. Almost the same at the local landfill. They have seperate containers for atomotive oils, fuels and coolant.

 

thanx for all the responses, think i'll do it this weekend since i now have 36,000 on my car

 

I put my old fluid into the new empty containers, and put them in the recycling bin that gets picked up at the end of my driveway by the county every week. I have no idea what happens to it, but it hase never failed to go away.


please expound upon the virtues of using distilled water over tap water. I guess I can see where it might be better, but is it really a HUGE difference?

 

For 35 years of changing antifreeze I always used tap water. But over those years none of the radiators were 600 bucks apiece. Don't even ask what my backhoe radiator costs. I had a lot of coolant problems this past year. (You could search on my user name, etc.) There I posted most of the links to the research.

I changed coolant chemistries and got it right, once and for all. The defining piece of data for me on the distilled water, was an article written about a new aftermarket aluminum radiator that failed in 6 weeks of service in a radiator wholesaler type trade journal. The company sent a research team out to postmortem the incident and it was attributed to 60% problems with tap water, 40% the new coolant was off spec with respect to the corrosion inhibitor package.

At 50 cents a gallon, I put distilled H2O in now and I don't use cheap silicate based antifreeze.

I also changed to a low silicate, no phosphate, nitrite stabilized formulation for coolant. I use it in my diesels, detroit iron Vortec V8's, my TIG welder cooling system, and my CO2 laser cooling system. I test it with test strips every 6 months and add supplemental coolant additive (the concentrated corrosion additive package) when needed.

Hope this helps you.
Regards,
BigMoose

 

Yea when I was loosing coolant for a little while I filled it with tap water.... had a BAD mixture of mostly water to antifreeze..... but just drained and replaced everthing with GH pre-mixed coolant My car is much happier now....

Now only to see if my occasional bubbling coolant problem goes away......

 

I use 70% distilled water, 30% Honda Coolant and 1 bottle of Redline Water Wetter. Never had a problem with cooling watsoever.

 

now for instructions.

do i just remove the lower rad hose and drain it from there or is there a plug at the bottom of the rad? my old prelude also had a drain bolt at the block. do i drain it from here?

thanks guys!