First, I have to give credit to our old friend ederny, http://rx300how2.home.comcast.net/anti_freeze.htm as he has a good explanation that can help complement what I am about to describe with my experience yesterday. He also includes the relevant page out of the service manual, though as my cousin and I discovered, the service manual is more worthless for this section.

I did an update with photos starting at post 44 which shows how I did it when I got to Florida, and that might be more useful to most. That starts on the bottom of page 3,
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/rx-...ant-diy-3.html

There are 9 liters in your system, whether you have AWD/FWD.

What you will need:

1. 4.5 liters of demineralized or distilled water. They often just sell it for 5 liters at a grocery store.
2. 2 of the 3.785 liters of Toyota Red Coolant.
Optional: You can get the Toyota Pink Coolant, but you will need 9 liters of it. I have no idea what configuration they have for it in the U.S.
3. Highly recommended: 1 bottle of Redline WaterWetter (I can't get it here anymore) or 2 bottles of Nology NotHot (as shown .355 ml in each bottle) (I use 3 in the picture due to high altitude cooling issues). I also recommend Royal Purple's Purple Ice, one bottle is sufficient.
4. One 10mm or 3/8ths wrench, socket wrench will work better than a regular wrench.

Just like Lexus, I recommend for sea level 50 coolant/50 water. ***What I am going to demonstrate via photos is the sea level method, not the method where I dump in about 9 liters of coolant for this altitude (even though that is what I really did

OPTIONAL PROCEDURE: You can mix the water and the coolant in jugs ahead of time, but it will not make a difference once the water and coolant are in the same system together.

 

1. Improving upon earlier information: Drive the vehicle about 15 minutes and then come back. Let sit for about 1 hour and then start procedure.

 

2. Remove the Radiator Cap.

WARNING: Make absolutely sure the car is cool. This takes about an hour or so minimum.

 

3. Loosen the drain plug on the radiator.

Advice: Loosen it as much as possible otherwise it will drip even in future steps.

 

4. Loosen the engine block drain plugs. There is another photo later on by fellow members of the rear plug location. At the time I did this in late 2006, I could not locate the location so I drain just the radiator and front plug shown below.

 

Loosening this engine drain plug requires a 10 mm wrench that attaches on the very end of the plug. Same goes for the rear.

 

Open it until you start to see dripping like this. One thing that can be used and its option is a plastic hose to attach on to the end where the water drips out, so that it can drip out easier into a pan.

 

5. Let both plugs drip. (Took me fully about 20 minutes or so until it stops).

a. You should see under the vehicle to drip locations. The most prominent here below the radiator with some minor dripping from the engine block.

b. The radiator itself should drain and you should not see any coolant in the drain plug area along with the coolant reservoir. If not, don't worry for now I'll get to the solution in the next few steps.

c. One of my gripes here is that the one from the engine block drips on to the exhuast manifold. Granted, the vehicle is cool for now, but this process of dripping might be inadequate for some as we will soon see in my case (see the next post).

 

d. OPTIONAL: If for some reason the dripping is going too slow with all drain plugs and/or radiator plug open (as in you have waited a few minutes but still nothing). I recommend turning on the vehicle for about 10 seconds and step on the accelerator until you get to 2000 rpm to get the coolant running In addition, turn on the a/c to hot just before you start the vehicle fully up (key in ON mode to do this).

Note: shortly after you start the vehicle, if you see the temperature gauge rise above mid-way as below, turn off the vehicle.

 

e. OPTIONAL: If you had to follow the step in the previous post, then after turning off the vehicle, let it drain what it can.

During the part of running the vehicle, the coolant should run much faster out of the two drain plugs and you may see some steam as shown below.

 

6. Once all coolant has drained, close the drain valves on the engine block and radiator.

 

7. Pour in 4.5 liters of Toyota Red Coolant through the radiator cap.

a. If you are using the premixed pink, pour it in until it tops off at the radiator cap area (i.e, the liquid is about to come out at the top) even if you swear it was not 9 liters (I will get to this later).

b. OK, so each bottle is 3.785 liters, how do we get to 4.5.? I didn't have to do this step since I use straight coolant, but use an extra 1 litter water bottle and fill it up between halfway and the top (unless you really have something you can measure with) and this will come close enough.

 

c. OPTIONAL: Pour in any additives like 1 bottle of Redline WaterWetter, 2 bottles of Nology NotHot or 1 bottle of Royal Purple Purple Ice.

 

8. Pour in water until it tops off at the Radiator Cap.

a. As I mentioned in step 7, you may notice you felt like you did not hit 4.5 liters of water or even anything close. DON'T PANIC at this point.

 

9. Pour in water in the coolant reservoir until you reach the full mark. Put the Radiator Cap back on and close the top of the coolant reservoir.