I always thought the only way to get all the old coolant out, is to use a machine. And, the machine minimizes waste (no shop is willing to waste resources at let's say $25 per gal 50/50 (Toyota), or $25 gal 100% concentrate at some other brand (BMW).

I watched a muffler shop, and BMW dealerships through a window, and both hooked a machine up to my cars for coolant (the amazing thing is Lexus charges the same as BMW but does a drain/fill). imho the notion of a "Drain and fill" is a marketing scheme. Now with the tranny, I really don't know. Even Acura uses the term "3x3" and say to drain/fill an automatic, don't flush.

 

Yes, I was talking about a doitathome flush

 

Hence my suggestion early on to use the "over spec" stuff.......or actually drain it properly

 

I would say if one is gonna DIY at least 4 times, then get the nice funnel kit to bleed non pressurized cars. I got it because I had thought my wifes had a problem with the way I bled (the coolant went from FULL overnight cold, to 1.25" above FULL when hot, then cooled overnight and stayed at 1.25" above FULL. So I thought I could fix that by rebleeding. But with that funnel kit? Gone are the days of wrapping a towel around the neck to absorb spilling....

Whether needed or not I think once our cars are old, even using pink, switch to the shorter red interval. Overkill maybe.

 

Just so we are on the same page, what is flushing ALL old coolant? 100%? That is impossible. Noone is draining the engine and all of its cavities and hoses, and then wiping them dry lol Even using a machine I would argue that one can not get 100% of the old coolant.

So lets be reasonable, for a do it at home guys, opening the petcocks in the engine blocks plus draining the radiator, that should get ~90% of the old coolant? 85%? 95%? Whatever the number is, is there any evidence that there is a difference using the $20 vs $10 "not OEM-generic" vs "over spec" coolant? I am not saying the expensive coolant is not better. I am saying that maybe it does not matter considering how much the car being driven. Maybe it does matter 500K later miles, but again I am not going to 500K, and I assume most of us here do not either, no matter how much one love their LS.

So... imho... it does not matter too much which coolant to be used as long as using the correct coolant, and periodically flushing them. If one wants to use $20 to sleep better at night, go for it. I sleep fine with the cheapest Zerex deal that I can find, iirc $8 at Napa a few months ago, bought several jugs to flush coolant in my Land Cruiser.

Not sure how it is in the LS, but in my Land Cruiser with 4.7L v8, the petcocks can be reached by long extensions from the wheel well. Just need to jack up the car a bit. I find it a lot easier than trying to find them from the top or bottom of the engine.

 

I agree. I drain the pink and the red at 30k. Same schedule as my ATF drain and fill.

 

I use the OEM coolant. I worked at the dealership for a while and started using Toyota Red coolant for everything. You can’t go wrong with the Toyota Pink/Red.

 

Pull all drains, pull the rad hoses off, pull the core hoses off, flush with a hose until nothing is left

 

Except tap water. LOL

 

Magic item called a vacuum pump or a compressor takes care of that, leaves nothing but air behind.

 

Personally I don't prefer to mess with the hose clamps unless replacing them say as part of a hose replacement (which nowadays isn't needed for a very long time). My experience on other vehicles is they lose tension when opened, then put back, and gone are the days of $2 clamps!

 

I was always curious because it is documented online, that many techs prefer red, to pink, and use red in their own cars.

I personally think that if a car came from the factory, 10 years is way too long for the first replacement, and then to cut the interval in half the second replacement, is not scientific. So if a person is just going to do 2/30 going forward, red is just fine and if it has more benefits over pink why not.

The phenomenon or effect of the pink 10 yr. interval is our LS430s come used with zero coolant in the reservoir and zero that can be seen in the radiator. Even a dealer serviced car never got it touched. Boy did I freak out day 2 of owning my car in 2016, when I saw zero coolant with my eyes anywhere, never seen such a thing.

 

I hate how everything has gone up so much. Walmart used to have the Zerex Asian pink 50/50 at $8.xx/gal. Now it's closer to $13. I'm just not one of those who says who cares about $5, that's a significant %! My snow tire rims, from 2016 to today, $112, to $149. Nuts. Even a factory brake sensor wire is $139 (I know why bother get a $8 Raybestos--why? because there is no cheap aftermarket on some of the LS parts like an ABS sensor--that is pushing $400!).

500k if the car hasn't reached it by now (newest LS is 13 1/2 y.o. most are much older), time is the enemy, not mileage.

 

Wow, I learned something. I have never thought of such magic. That is awesome! I have never heard of anyone doing this with their cooling system.

I have a vacuum pump and a compressor. Where and how do you attach them? How long do you run them?

it would make a great sticky if you went through the steps with some pictures.

I’m imagining you unhook all your hoses and open all your petcocks and then flush your car with city water. Then you reattach all the hoses and somehow vacuum all the city water out of your coolant system. Man, and I thought I was OCD with my maintenance.

Will the vacuum pull what’s in the reservoir out? Or do you have to remove the reservoir and dump it separately?

 

Just suck from the same line it feeds the rad, not that complex and none of what I mentioned is all that difficult. I mean if you are doing a timing belt and have the rad out of the car and water pump removed it's very easy to get everything and make sure it's dry if you are obsessed with fully flushing it. After the first rinse you run the spec coolant for a while then drop that and fill again to make sure it's all new. Heater core is blown out then you send the thin vacuum line into it and tape off the entry side to allow it to pull anything else out. Same deal with the engine and rad until you are happy.

I don't use city water for my personal cars, my house has a full filter system so they get the equivalent of distilled for any work like that. At the shop it has never made a difference due to the second fill practice.

I mean in my case it's probably way worse than I make it out to be since for me pulling the rad out is not a big deal and takes under an hour. I'm coming from a bias of working on stuff daily so anything short of taking the engine out (and in some cases not even that) I consider "easy"

Factory CT clamps flat out suck long term and all my personal cars use hose clamps instead since the 8mm ones always hold tension and if you moly grease them before putting them on they don't freeze up. They also allow you to just use a auto ratchet vs a CT clamp tool to very quickly and easily remove them and since you don't have to drag them up/down the hoses you don't risk damage.

When I bought my LS430 I immediately did a rad, all fluids and filters, timing belt, valve covers, trans pan, engine lower pan, all front bushings, ball joints, headlight ballasts, PCV system, valve lash adjustment, and new tires and an alignment. Only took two days and I considered it a very low amount of work compared to my last daily that needed a new engine, trans rebuilt, all brake lines and other equipment, and countless other things including new axles and driveshafts and diff rebuilds