But how do I get the radiatior plug out? I tried it by hand. No way. I tried it by wrench, and it broke the ears off the plastic wing nut. I cannot remove this thing! Any suggestions now that the ears are broken off?

 

My previous post may have sounded that it is your fault, but things get brittle and they can break. If you have any shoulder left on the plug, you can try things like a pipe wrench (which grab on and squeeze harder as more leverage is applied). Next would be bolt extractor [much easier if the radiator is out]. Also go around the plug and make sure there is no paint that is binding the plug. PB blaster or equiv may help but again no guarantees.


There are other drain points on the engine block, so If I were you, I would leave the thing as is.


Salim

 

With 100,000 miles on my AWD RX-330 I decided it was time to change the coolant. After extensive research in which the only data driven data was the post I am responding to, I decided to state my conclusion after changing the fluid myself.

With the car sitting for a few minutes after driving, I removed the front section of plastic with 10mm wrench and opened the plastic draincock as described in the post, it takes a few turns to get the o-ring past the point to allow draining which is a nice stream straight down and into a clean pail for collection. I did turn on the heat setting just incase any thing came out of the heater coils, no key left in ignition. The draining comes and goes due to air working it's way back into the system and nothing may come out for a full minute and then it starts again. Note I did not take off the radiator cap and the overflow completely emptied out, but after things slowed down (20 minutes), I did take off the cap. Yes the fluid looks good because there is no galvanic action with deionized water and no abrasion due to additives like silicate in the antifreeze. This method yielded 5.5 quarts out of the 9.9 quarts (10.1 with towing package).

To refill, I hand tightened the drain. Mixed Dexcool 50/50 by volume with distilled water and slowly added into the pressure cap port, allowing for time to fill. The manual mentions deionized water and not to use tap. Note distilled is pure water and is deionized as confirmed by the two PHD chemists I contacted (yes, I did a lot of research). Deionized water still has impurities but they do not attack metal.

Why did I not use the Toyota antifreeze? Dexcool per ingredients is pure antifreeze tinted orange; someone would have to prove to me that the Toyota fluid is not pure antifreeze tinted reddish-pink. I do expect the blue antifreeze to have some additives, but note Saab (under GM) immediately switched from the blue to Dexcool, even though the dealer parts dept. would sell only the blue.

After discussing coolant change with the dealer along with the $129.95 price, someone would also have to prove to me that the dealer does much beyond what I described with the exception of flushing with deionized water, which seems un-necessary with perfectly clean fluid if that is what came out. If you are uncomfortable with not all the fluid going away, I put the old antifreeze at -20F and it did not freeze, so I am concluding that as long as no galvanic or water based ionic impurities cause it to lose effectiveness, it probably does not matter if it does not all come out. I might change it again in a year for peace of mind. Antifreeze cost on sale, $12/gallon, and the distilled water at a major drugstore is $1.29 per gallon. Please post if you have comments on my assumptions. If you start draining fluid and it does not look like new, it is a good idea to take to the dealer.

 

Welcome to Club Lexus, mrclockman, and thank you for your extended post. I do have a question for you.

Why would you decide to go with a Dex-Cool product, such as Prestone DEX-COOL® Extended Life Antifreeze, over a standard extended life antifreeze, such as Prestone Extended Life Antifreeze?

I also find it somewhat funny in that the unmixed containers of antifreeze do not say anything specific regarding the type of water you are to use to dilute. From my high school and college science classes I agree with you about using distilled/deionized water.

 

The Dex Cool contains 2-EHA in it. The Toyota Super Long Life does not. Honda specifically forbids 2-EHA in any of it's coolants. 2-EHA is a plasticer, which can be agressive to plastic gaskets.

MSDS for Dex - http://www.sueschauls.com/DEX_Cool_MSDS.pdf

MSDS for Toy - "worldpac dot com" then add this line to the web address "tagged/Antifreeze-Coolant_00272SLLC2.pdf"

Aside from freeze protection, the other major major purpose of coolant is anti corrosion. While your coolant may not have frozen, you have no way to tell if the corrosion inhibitors are spent.

 

This is a bad URL.

 

Stupid internet thingy....can't get it to post properly. Had to fake the web address......hope it makes sense

 

2-EHA = 2-Ethylhexyl Acrylate
I also see that in some places it is listed as 2-ethylhexanoic acid. In the above URL for TEXACO Havoline DEX-COOL Extended Life Anti-Freeze/Coolant I do not see either of these, rather, the only thing I see that approximates is Potassium 2-ethylhexanoate. No mention of 2-EHA. A reformulation? The same thing?

I found somewhere the following: "Prestone doesn't use 2-EHA in it's long life coolant, instead uses carboxylate. " The MSDS for the products from Prestone are hard to find and do not seem to be on their web site. You have to email for them. They do have a PDF which lists ingredients for its products, however, it does not include their DEX-COOL product:
http://www.prestone.com/sites/defaul...statements.pdf

Over at Peak, they say their Global LifeTime is compatible with DEX-COOL. Here is the MSDS for Peak Global LifeTime Antifreeze:
http://www.peakauto.com/pdf/msds-pea...l_lifetime.pdf

There is a discussion over at BITOG that might be worth some reading for those interested:
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums...Number=2471928

So, let me ask a similar question I asked previous...

Why would owners of 2nd Generation RX even want to use an antifreeze marked as DEX-COOL? Why not just the standard long life stuff?

 

To confused matters a bit, when you check out Zerex one finds out that their DEX-COOL product IS what they say to use in our vintage RX:

http://www.sancarlosradiator.com/ima...-%20Z-1217.pdf

http://www.valvoline.com/pdf/zerex_dex_cool.pdf

I do see that they also have a Zerex Asian that states it is for use in Lexus which is also long life:

http://www.valvoline.com/pdf/zerex_asian_vehicle.pdf

 

It's all very confusing, and a far cry from the old days of just simple 'green' coolant.

For the minor extra cost and considering the cost of a new engine should you use an incompatible coolant and cause damage, wouldn't it be safer to just use the Toyota Super Long Life coolant as called for in the owner's manual?

 

Agreed. Though I would fee comfortable in using anything that was compatible, most of the stuff out there is, and not DEX-COOL.

I am lucky, somewhat, in that the next time I need to deal with this matter is when I have the timing belt and water pump installed. Will get to that sooner rather than later. Have not been putting too many miles on the RX of late. So, the independent shop I use will deal with the matter for me. However, I will be discussing with the the parts and fluids they will be using in advance. They had worked at Toyota previous, so I am comfortable in their work. They mentioned they would get the antifreeze and parts from WorldPac, so my guess is that it will be Toyota's brand or from their supplier.

 

When I had the tranny in my 400h replaced, the inverter also had to come out. The location of the thermostat is not the same as in the 330, and it's a pain to get at. Since the inverter was out and the thermostat easily accessible, I had them change the coolant and replace the thermostat at that time. So, I don't really need to worry about coolant for a while either (same with the inverter / tranny coolan since it was changed with the new tranny).

Sadly, it looks like the new tranny is now leaking oil from the same place the previous tranny was leaking coolant (there's a gasket/seam there where the cooling circuit is separated from the oiling circuit). When / If Lexus replaces it, I'm going to get them to do the spark plugs, as the rear three will be much easier to get at with the tranny and inverter removed.

 

Thermostat... now there is something I have not heard mention about previous. Guess that is a good thing. The other item I guess I need to look into is the lifespan off the various radiator hoses.

 

Preventative maintenance. The old thermostat was working fine, but when I saw how much needed to be removed to access it, I figured I might as well get it done while it was accessible (inverter and tranny out).

Don't forget the PCV valve if you're thinking of things that might need attention. Again, the location on the 400h is different than on the 330.

 

Already picked one of those up:

http://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/Re...+50039+2039028