At the moment i only have water in my cooling system so i want to put anti freeze in. How do i do this and whats the best stuff to use? I have a 1.6 bravo sx.

Thanks

Drain the cooling circuit completely, and flush it out.

Take of the bottom hose from the radiator, open the bleed plugs (Top of the radiator and on the hose(s) going to the heater), there is also a drain plug on the engine block somewhere next to the startermotor. Also disconnect at least one of the coolant hoses to the throttle housing (Preferably the one on the rear/bulkhead side). Make sure the heater is turned to hot completely. Then take of the top hose from the radiator. Direct a garden hose into the radiator top opening and let the water flush through until it comes out clean from the bottom. Flushing out the engine with the thermostat on is not possible, so unless you want to take that off you'll have to skip that.

Now connect the upper and lower hoses back to the radiator and put the lower drain plug back into the engine block. Leave the bleed plugs open for now. Start filling the system with coolant (Not water, not anti-freeze, not cow-urine, just the stuff made for the purpose: Coolant. The original Paraflu Blue is best, make sure the coolant is suitable for mixed metal systems if you use something else) Keep an eye on the bleed holes, ones coolant start seeping out screw them back in place.

At this point we get to the hoses to the throttle body, use your hand between the coolant reservoir and your mouth to make a seal and blow on the reservoir. This should force coolant to come out the hose to the throttle body. WHILE blowing connect it back to the throttle body so the hose is properly filled. Now fill the reservoir to the max level. Start the engine and keep an eye on the coolant level. Top it up as needed. Now with the engine running open the radiator bleed plug until just coolant comes out and close it back up. Then do the same with the heater bleed plug. Now you need to warm the engine up to operating temp. Either rev it a bit or take it for a short spin. Once the engine is warm and coolant has been circulating through the engine repeat the bleeding on the radiator and heaterhose. You should now be done.

At all times keep an eye on the temp gauge. If it climbs to the red, shut off the engine and allow it to cool, something is wrong if it does.

Thanks for the reply. Sounds a bit more complicated than i hoped! Think il leave it to the pros!

Its not really all that complicated. Just take a look under the bonnet if you can identify all the bits I am talking about. Once you find those it's not that hard.

personally I would just drop some of the water around half out of the rad via the rad drain plug, top up through expansion tank with neat anti freeze once you have worked out how much you need usually tells you on the can for example if your car holds 8 ltrs of water a 50/50 mix means you need to drop 4 ltrs of water, use a mesureing jug to get your 4 lts out, top up with water if needed and run engine till it is all mixed, or go out for a run in it arond 20 mls or so usually does the trick.
Obviously the above post is the correct way to do this, but there are short cuts as well and providing you make sure it has had a good run to mix the solution you should be fine, they use to do it this way in garage for years.
As for Coolant, well again I have ran my Bravo 1.2 on anti freeze and water for Ooo 7 years now, not a problem, it didn't have coolant in it when I bought and still hasn't, I think my mix is around 50/50 as it is rather chilly at the mo, she has not frozen up though!
Again Gregovic's way is technically the correct way to do the job, but not the only way, if you are not comfortable going to that extent do it my way, but your number 1 priority should be to get anti freeze in that car ASAP, before you find a frozen engine, thats core plugs gone, cracked heads alsorts of damage as you well know water expands when it freezes and is very powerful, so which ever way you choose get some anti freeze in that car before this weather kills it.
Also be aware anti freeze in an excelent leak finder for some reason, so just keep an eye on it for a good couple of days to see if it drops water.

Coolant= anti-freeze+ (distilled) water.......

Coolant= anti-freeze+ (distilled) water

Click to expand...

Coolant is a pre mix which you add NO water to, it includes lubricant for water pumps, corrosion inhibitors and other chemicals for long life and to provide for corrosion protection to ferrous metals inside your engine, if your vehicle takes "coolant" then to add water or anti freeze to it is a no go and can in some cases destroy the water pump bearings and could even turn acidic and burn alloy and will dramatically reduce its life span as a frost protectant.
Anti freeze is a concentrate, which needs water to be added to make up to a coolant but do get them confused you can not mix them due to the chemicals added to the pre mixed coolant, if you have plain water in it just add anti freeze would not worry about the premix stuff.
You are also told never to mix differant colour antifreeze or Coolant, the problem is knowing what you have in your car, My wifes Renault Coupe has coolant (premix) Green in Colour but so is the Saab Anti Freeze I use in mine which is a concentrate, very confusing, you also have to be careful with Red anitifreeze as not all of it is dexcool, some manufactures provide PG (propylene glycol )based red concentrate, DO NOT mix this with dexcool, if your vehicle has Dexcool in it there should be a sticker telling you so in the engine bay, dexcool is a vile coolant and can cause long term chemical poisining if ingested as it is a ethylene glycol (EG) where as PG causes only short term problems if you so wish to swallow it old anti Freeze/coolant is the worst in contamination as it picks up metallic particals, Vodka tastes much better, especially direct from the freezer.
Anti Freeze is like oil, the arguments can go on forever, as you have plain water in it it doesn't matter choice is down to you. Premix can be quite expensive, I pay around £25 trade for the renault stuff.

What I said, it's not that difficult.
Coolant is still another name for anti-freeze+ ( hopefully distiled) water, mixed by the manufacturer.
Adding distilled water to any coolant or anti-freeze doesn't harm at all, it just dilutes the mix.
You're right about the warning not to mix old fashioned coolants ( blue/green) with the long life version( red, orange yellow).
I never use premixed coolant, because you don't know if it contains tap water.
I mix Paraflu Ultra Protection G12 ( long life) with 50% distilled water to fill my cars.

So you are saying it is ok to mix water or anti freeze with premix coolant?
MMMmmm ok.
All the internal vehicle manufacture memos we get from most of our franchises must be wrong as is the Renault owner handbook which also warns you not to mix with anything bar coolant (premix).
If you pay the price for a decent premix not a supermarket or halfrauds speacial cheap deal you will not get tap water mixed in it, you will get all the addatives your engine may require, which most concentrates don't give you.
But if you think there is no differance and you can top up premixed coolant with either water, distilled or not or antifreeze than thats fine by me, the age of the vehicle it is going in to it should at a guess not do a thing, damage wise. I ran mine on tap water and Saab anti freeze, most workshops you go to will top up with tap water around here even we do as a major vehicle outlet of 7 franchise, tap water for us on the older cars and some Suzkies, the rest is coolant to manufacturer standard.
I am guessing the chap with the R8, who had it flatbacked into us yesterday thought the same as you, during the cold spell before Christmas he throught his R8 was low on coolant so he topped up with halfrauds premium antifreeze (what ever that is), drove the car around 200miles home left it in his garage to find a puddle under it on boxingday and a very strange noise when it ran, he faces a bill of around a grand now, as water pump has gone and some gaskets are leaking badly, he wants warranty, Audi say no and send a sample of coolant as it sounds like he has added anti freeze to it, Audi have told us what is wrong with it and to change every gasket on the cooling system, other wise it WILL spring another leak, they even have an alkaline solution to flush system with, moral of story, its all in your handbook, you probally will get away with mixing concentrate with premix, with older cars, all you will do is screw up the premix and lessen it to a normal anti freeze, it you are using the real cheap stuff then this is probally all you have bought anyway........
As I said it is like oil some people run thier cars on the cheapest economy oil they can find and the car is fine other use to grade synthetics it is a matter of choice and your car, older cars are more tolerant in some ways.
If that is what you think then, that is what you think, I am not here to change the way you think, I have ran my Fiat on Saab concetrate n tap water for over 7 years and 150K without a problem, I am still on the same water pump so I don't care, the Renault runs on Renault premix coolant which I have stuck with for again over 7 years no problem, all the tecs here never mix anytihng with premix it is not the done thing, but as said if you think it is fine, ok! I reckon the chap with the R8 is wishing he read his handbook, and will be by next week definatly when he gets his answer from Audi.
At the end of the day Daviedaly has only water in his system so the conversation about mixing premix does not come into it he needs some kind of anti freeze in it, which hopefully he has in it by now, if you want to mix anything with premix coolant then that is up to you, I would not advocate it myself, all I would say is read the can, it tells you on it what you should do if you have bought a decent premix, if Fiat have come with a premix already in the car from new, read your hand book it will tell you what to add, the makers of the premix and the car manufacturer do know best.
Put even more simply look up mixing bleach and toilet cleaner, two totally safe products to use by themselves, put them togther in your loo bowl and!!!! Look it up on google.
Not the same as mixing anti freeze with premix but never the less two safe chemicals, anti freeze could easily turn your premix into and acidic liquid which eats gaskets and and alloy it finds inside your engine, as Mr. R8 has just found out!

:shrug: