Technical How to perferom Antifreeze flush and change

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Technical How to perferom Antifreeze flush and change

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Hey guys I know there is a passage somewhere about changing antifreeze in a grande punto. But I am specifically after anyone who has done it on a tjet sporting petrol model? As we know models vary sloghtly and with such an imprtant thing as coolant i dont want to mess up.

I am trying to find out if my car has a drain bolt or not or if it's a drain via removing a hose. I have a picture of something but do not want to twist on it if it's nothing at all to do with draining my antifreeze and next thing I've snapped it off.

So any ideas on how to do for my vehicle would be amazing.

IMG_1757.jpeg IMG_1755.jpeg
 
One of those is the drain and one is useful for bleeding.
I recommend using a 13mm socket, not a Philips screw driver.
Take the drain screw completely out.

The coolant will go everywhere! have some trays ready.
It's only about 4-6 liters of coolant. but when i did the timing and water pump i could only catch about 3-4 liters.. a lot of it went on the floor.
 
Bottom one (behind the front skirt) is the drain, the top one is the bleeder. You might need to squeeze/force open the expansion tank's plug as it's mechanically locked; for the drains use a 6 faces socket (they're plastic...) If I remember well you can fit a plastic pipe (flexi-clear) on the drain plug body so you can easily collect the coolant.

Regards, Bernie
 
Bottom one (behind the front skirt) is the drain, the top one is the bleeder. You might need to squeeze/force open the expansion tank's plug as it's mechanically locked; for the drains use a 6 faces socket (they're plastic...) If I remember well you can fit a plastic pipe (flexi-clear) on the drain plug body so you can easily collect the coolant.

Regards, Bernie
Thanks again bernie. It never seizes to astonish me how much you know lol. Few things
1) When you say the 'top one' do you mean the top picture is the bleeder . or in the 2nd picture there is a little spout above a hex plug, are you saying that is the 'top one'.

2) When you say expansion tank plug, do you mean the bleeder? And you say force it open cz it's mechanically shut, do you mean ur have to give it some force to open the bleeder? As I don't want to break anything.

3) from the drain plug will it drain out all the coolant in the system. As I am planning to put in a new 50/50 mix from halfords as I find paraflu quite hard to find and expensive. But I want to be sure the drain bolt gets it all out as I no your not meant to mix coolants. There not going to be any coolant that remains in the car despite opening up the drain bolt?
 
One of those is the drain and one is useful for bleeding.
I recommend using a 13mm socket, not a Philips screw driver.
Take the drain screw completely out.

The coolant will go everywhere! have some trays ready.
It's only about 4-6 liters of coolant. but when i did the timing and water pump i could only catch about 3-4 liters.. a lot of it went on the floor.
So have you changed your coolant before? If so when it came to jacking up the car. Did you have to put it on all for axle stands to lift it up but also get it level. Or is ok to simply jack up the front and leave the back as keeping the car level won't have anything to do with process?
 
Anyone not got a video on doing this it would help alot of people on this form out on how to do even the Haynes manual is hard sometimes to go by video is always better
 
When i did it i had the car level, it was on a inspection hole/trench.

Do not get to fussy about removing all the old antifreeze.. some will stay in the motor/the pipes, the inside heater..etc
 
Hi Emmerson,

1. The drain is located at bottom of radiator, left side (when sit in the car) while the bleeder is on the top, right side, somehow hidden by the turbo moving vanes actuator electro-valve.

2. I mean the blue cap on the expansion tank, that's where you fill the coolant in. It's neither a bleeder nor a breather, its purpose is to seal the circuit so the pressure can increase over one bar so the coolant would not boil at 100°C. It would release a huge anount of very hot water/vapour mixture if you'd open it when coolant is hot! Therefore they designed the cap to be quite hard to unlock, so yes, you definitely WANT to open it :)

3. Have the car flat, anyway some water will stay in the circuit, if you want to clean as much as possible, set the heater on max hot, drain the circuit, fill again with pure water, have the engine getting to temp (thermostat open), drain again (be carefull with vapor), refill, untill you feel that only water comes out, then do the final fill with your Halfords or Paraflu (recommended) mixture...

Regards, Bernie
 
Hi Emmerson,

3. ... set the heater on max hot,...

Bernie that is no longer needed on 90% of new cars (centrally not in ours).
It was indeed needed back when the heater knob controlled an actual valve that blocked the flow of coolant to the interior heater.
But now the heater is always filled with coolant. The knob only directs airflow through the heater matrix (more air or less).

It is still good practice especially if you are not familiar with the cooling/heating system.
 
Hi Emmerson,

1. The drain is located at bottom of radiator, left side (when sit in the car) while the bleeder is on the top, right side, somehow hidden by the turbo moving vanes actuator electro-valve.

2. I mean the blue cap on the expansion tank, that's where you fill the coolant in. It's neither a bleeder nor a breather, its purpose is to seal the circuit so the pressure can increase over one bar so the coolant would not boil at 100°C. It would release a huge anount of very hot water/vapour mixture if you'd open it when coolant is hot! Therefore they designed the cap to be quite hard to unlock, so yes, you definitely WANT to open it :)

3. Have the car flat, anyway some water will stay in the circuit, if you want to clean as much as possible, set the heater on max hot, drain the circuit, fill again with pure water, have the engine getting to temp (thermostat open), drain again (be carefull with vapor), refill, untill you feel that only water comes out, then do the final fill with your Halfords or Paraflu (recommended) mixture...

Regards, Bernie
Thanks bernie you are da man! Lol
 
Bernie that is no longer needed on 90% of new cars (centrally not in ours).
It was indeed needed back when the heater knob controlled an actual valve that blocked the flow of coolant to the interior heater.
But now the heater is always filled with coolant. The knob only directs airflow through the heater matrix (more air or less).

It is still good practice especially if you are not familiar with the cooling/heating system.
Auric thanks again all this info is helping me out!
 
@ Aurick,

old man, old practice ;-) ...

And BTW, I should have said to let the engine cool down before refilling with cold mixture, losing the basics :-(

Rgds, Bernie
 
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Bottom one (behind the front skirt) is the drain, the top one is the bleeder. You might need to squeeze/force open the expansion tank's plug as it's mechanically locked; for the drains use a 6 faces socket (they're plastic...) If I remember well you can fit a plastic pipe (flexi-clear) on the drain plug body so you can easily collect the coolant.

Regards, Bernie
Another quick one. At then drain bolt. If I Undo that does it come out of the drain bolt or that little spout above it? Thanks
 
There is a little piece of vertical plastic piping that goes down, just underneath the drain tap, hard to see but you can "feel" it; that's where you'd connect the flexi-clear to collect the coolant...

Rgds, Bernie
 
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