(G) No antifreeze

My 2001 Punto currently has water only - no antifreeze - in the coolant system
I need to have the water drained off and replaced with coolant mix before temp drops to zero on Tues night.
Can anyone give me a rough idea of how long a job this is, so I'm prepared for likely cost when I take it to garage...?
Thanks in advance.

Hi.

Simple enough.. less than an hour and less than £10 in parts.

Why is it not ready now??

Had bad leaks??

Thanks

It has a very slow leak - about 4cm down on the reservoir- since it was filled up with water 4 months ago (after it boiled over).

Trying to keep costs to a minimum as can't afford to fix all the other issues on the poor old car which I've had now for 8 years...
just hoping to keep it on the road until MOT runs out in March...

Been wondering if topping it up with neat antifreeze would be an option... ?

Where is the leak?

Read these GUIDES.. it pretty simple



But YES.. you need to do it before the frosts https://www.fiatforum.com/cinquecent...nge-gars3.html

Basically all the systems need:

Remove clip from radiator hose..
Pull off hose.. catch old coolant in a bowl.

Replace clip..refit hose.. tighten clip

Open the bleed screws

Refill coolant.

Close bleed screws


Relax.. grab a coffee


Useful bleeding info :
https://www.fiatforum.com/punto-mk2-...ml#post4069375

In essence: remove hose..system is empty

Refit hose..fill rad to max mark. System is full.

Why would you pay a garage @£100..??

Charlie

Thanks Charlie

Any idea where would the bleed screws would be located, or what they look like?

And would I need to replace the jubilee clip with a new one?

Thanks.

The simplest method without struggling with rusty clips and broken bleeding valves is to buy one of these for a few pounds at the local motor shop.


Open the radiator cap and put the tube inside, pump/siphon out 2 litres and put it down the toilet. Then fill to max with antifreeze. Run the engine to temperature with the radiator cap off and continually top up to the max line with anti freeze until no more air comes out.

No hassles and no worries

Thanks very much for this, it sounds like something I could manage to do, fingers crossed

Off to source a pump and some antifreeze.

I've bought a siphon pump and as the Radiator doesn't seem to have a cap, I popped the siphon tubing into the coolant reservoir - but I can only get 600ml fluid out.

Tubing doesn't seem to go any further than the bottom of the reservoir...?

Was hoping to be able to siphon off 2 litres of water so I could replace with concentrated antifreeze...

Am I doing this right?


Any ideas very welcome!

Have you got a diesel..?

The petrols have a combined tube on the side of the rad.... easy to syphon

Diesels have a small expansion tank.. like in the cinq: sei GUIDE I linked you to .

If you have a small tank.. then it'll be easiest to remove the lower rad hose.. do let us know

Thanks, It's a petrol model.

Is syphoning the fluid off via the the reservoir bottle the correct way to do it...?

It sounds like you have a later model punto with a grand punto engine with the over one liter reservoir that fits to the front of the engine compartment.

You can still get a good amount of protection if you empty that bottle and fill it fully with antifreeze and let the engine slowly idle to circulate the bottles contents and then empty the bottle and refill it with antifreeze and allow the contents to circulate again. Then drain the bottle and fill it to the max line with antifreeze. Subsequently do all additions with antifreeze


You can add the antifreeze 'correctly' this way but each time you throw away the reservoir contents you are throwing away some antifreeze which means you have to add more to get the 1:1 ratio of antifreeze the engine requires.

the engine needs frost protection and corrosion protection from the antifreeze.

Dont drain much water,add concentrated antifreeze to the system.

Job done

Thanks for all your really helpful replies
I managed to siphon off a full 2 L by inserting the siphon tubing into the radiator through the front bleed screw (thanks for the great bleed link Charlie!).
Then topped up the system with 2 L concentrated antifreeze.
She seems to be running ok, and the heater still works too which is a bonus at this time of year!
I certainly know a bit more about the coolant system now, and moneywise it only cost me the price of the antifreeze and the siphon tool.
Thanks a million guys