I'm trying to change the coolant on a TT...replacing the old with concentrate and preferably distilled water. Problem is I cannot remove the engine block drain plugs to completely empty the system. The left side is visible but cannot be accessed without removing either the engine mount, the cross member or the A/C compressor. The right side plug is hidden. The method in the Tech Section is fine but doesn't allow the use of distilled water unless the flush is carried out with distilled water which would involve a large amount. Any suggestions?
its basicly impossible to get the drain plugs out on these motors, best way to do it is just flush it as per the tech article and use distilled water only for the very final part of the flush. you can buy sistilled water in 15ltr box's from coventrys and no doubt other auto stores, thats what i use when i buy distilled water
Open your radiator cap and have your garden hose ready to fill up the radiator, pull off the top radiator hose and if you have some spare tubeing laying around stick it on the end of the outlet to direct the water out of the engine bay, then start the engine and wait for water to start pouring out the top hose while continually topping up your radiator through the cap when your ready turn off the hose then the car and let the remaing water drip out! Then pull open the drain plug on the bottom of the radiator and drain the water out. Should be right to refill with fresh coolant after that.
I got the right side drain plug open by removing the alternator. Like you said, the left hand side one was pretty much impossible to get to without removing a tonne of stuff.
Thanks guys. Good to know I wasn't missing anything obvious. I'll get some distilled water and finish the flushing with that.
I flushed mine last week. I know what your taking about. I didn't want to risk putting tab water in so I just bought lots of distiled water. The system is only about 11L I think so you don't need too many bottles to give it a good flush. Don't forget to flush your overflow tank as well. It took me 20L of tap water to get the filth out of there.
overflow bottle another trick for the overflow bottle, if it is brown and mucky the sides will be stained on the inside. I removed the overflow bottle and put some course sand into it along with water and then shook the life out of it for a while. Then you just rinse out all the sand and it will be clean.
Thanks. I'll flush with tap water and follow up with distilled which won't remove all the tap water but at least will dilute it.
also, when refilling, lift the front of the car up so that the filler cap becomes the highest point in the system, allowing air bubbles to work there way to the filler cap and out. once you think its full, put the cap on, run for a couple of minutes and then open and recheck the level, usually able to add quite a bit more.
The passenger side isnt impossible to get at - but it is difficult! It's best attempted with an adjustable pivoting type wrench, and carefull finger work.
yeh - thats important otherwise you'll be topping it up forever - the manual states 30 degree incline from the front when filling to make sure the water level is above the engine block head (to displace the air)
