Coolant Flushing!

[benl1981]

I have a toyota with hoses and reservoir bottle have quite a bit of brown corrosion looking scale in them.

I assume this would be in the engine water channels to some degree also.

I am not sure whether to use a product to de-scale the engine. I know sometimes dislodging all that stuff could be worse than actually leaving it.

Going to get all new hoses.

[adam-__-]

Do you get brown coolant aswell? I remember doing a coolant change on my dad's old 4wd and the coolant kept coming out brown and still is. If you've got a similar problem, I would like to know how to fix this also.

[MANWHORE]

Hey Ben

Prevention is always better than cure. I always change the coolant frequently so that the rust inhibitors prevent this from happening in the first place. Then they wont' have corrosion and there is no need to flush it (e.g. my car).

Of course, this doesn't help you in any way.

I have used radiator flushes in the past on many cars with great success. I stick by the nulon brand. I have personally played golf with the owner of Nulon. They have used their engine additive product, dumped it, and driven interstate with no oil in the sump at all. I trust their products.

When I have used the nulon radiator in the flush, it does remove a lot of the rust and scale. When you dump the water out, it is quite dirty.

My advice for you would be (if you are going to use it), to use it for the recommended time. I believe that the products are acid based, so using them for too long might eat lead solder joints etc.

PS: in response to the brown water keep coming out. I've found that after running the flush, the system is then clean. I use coolant with good rust inhibitors and it stays clean

Edited July 23, 2007 by MANWHORE

[benl1981]

Thanks Chris

might give the nulon a go. I'm getting all new hoses as the old ones have heaps of scale. Should probably put the new hoses on then do the nulon otherwise there will be heaps more muck in the system that could damage the water pump etc.

I assume that the scale it dislodges will not affect my new hosesas they won't be so degraded that the scale sticks to them. ANy thoughts on this?

nulon head office is in brookvale right?

[MANWHORE]

I'm not sure where the head office is, but I know there is an office between St Ives/Terrey Hills in the industrial area near Bunnings.

I doubt anything it dislodges will affect the new hoses. With the old hoses, for lack of a better word, they just become crap. Crap stuck on them, brittle rubber etc.

New hoses are nice and luscious. I put new hoses onto my daily driver wagon and ran a flush about a year ago. The mechanics who had worked on it previously had neglected it (as usual - charge you for stuff and not do it). Came up mint and is still clean (radiator and old hoses had this thick white crap and the water was brown). Now, the radiator is still spotless and the coolant is still green. For the price, you can't go wrong (the old ones would probably eventually split anyways). Hoses for main stream cars are only like $20 each or something.

[benl1981]

cool mate. Yeah - for a rav4 - all the hoses are only $70 thats all heater hoses, bypass hose, bottom and top radiator etc.

Its an online store, quite cheap:

www.gimmeparts.com.au

[adam-__-]

Thanks for the info MANWHORE. I might give my dad's 4wd a flush and give it some new hoses.