1.9cdti drain anti freeze and renew questions

[Vectra-c-SRI]

Hope you guys can help.....


The full car takes 7litres, 3.5 anti freeze 3.5water

The drain cap is on the drivers side of the rad.

To bleed the air from the rad start the engine
with bottle cap off for a few mins.

To flush the rad, after draining, fill it up with water only and start engine and leave for 10min wait till cool and drain then refill with half half of anti freeze n water ??

[Vectra-c-SRI]

Anyone ?

[Big Dave]

If you know the quantity of the cooling system, then it's best to flush the system with water and drain.

Then put in neat antifreeze (half the amount of the total quantity of the cooling system) and top up with water.

Remember, even draining ths system will leave a certain amount in the system. Heater matrix and lower half of the engine block for example. By flushing through with water will leave just water in the system that cannot be fully drained. By putting half the amount of antifreeze in first, then topping up with water will ensure a 50/50 mix.

btw, it was mentioned in another thread that the 1.9 CDTi has 7½ litres in the system. My 2007 handbook doesn't mention it though.

[Vectra-c-SRI]

So I drain it from the rad cap and and fill with water start the engine and drain again then put my 3.25litre of anti freeze in then 3.25litre of water then leave the cap off and run the engine for 10min with heater on but no fan to get air out ?

[Big Dave]

There should be a drain tap on the lower offside of the radiator.

Drain coolant out. Pour water in header tank and allow to drain out through tap. Do tap up and fill system with water. Run engine to circulate for a short while.
Drain again, and do tap up for the last time.
Then put in your 50% of neat antifreeze into the header tank, followed by water.
Run engine with the cap off and keep topping up until level settles. Squeezing the top and bottom hose can help. Level will considerably drop once thermostat opens.
Fit cap once sure has correct amount in system.
Go for a drive and check levels once more.
Allow engine to cool and check level once cold. Top up with 50/50 mix if necessary.

[Vectra-c-SRI]

Thanks for your time mate will do that just didn't want to mess it up lol

[Big Dave]

btw, it was mentioned in another thread that the 1.9 CDTi has 7½ litres in the system. My 2007 handbook doesn't mention it though.

Just checked on autodata. The 1.9 CDTi (both the 120 and 150) have 7½ of coolant in the system.

[AntSSSS]

Guys , for a proper flush and fill you don't need to do anything like drain plugs or jacking the car up etc.... You have a water pump, put it to use;

Disconnect the rad return hose at the coolant tank end (small hose from rad top to coolant tank)
Push the hose down so it's lower than the rad end
Remove coolant tank cap
start car
wait for water to flow out of the rad return hose and out onto floor
with a hose, keep the water level up on the coolant tank
keep doing until water flows out return hose clear- meaning nice ad flushed...
Once runs clear, stop topping up with water, let it run down a bit and then top up with correct amount of coolant

Connect return hose and job done!! All you needed as pliers

[wickedwillie]

Brilliant idea Antssssssss. How long approx would this take?

[AntSSSS]

20 mins I guess to ensure runs completely clear..

Make sure you have the heater on hot too..

Ive done this literally 100s of times and it's the way we did it in the dealers