PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post

hobberslobbers · #9 07-09-2011, 10:34 PM

if i may chime in, i am a big fan of doing radiator flush/fills every 2 years or so, depending upon mileage. for me, this is about every 25K miles. i am NOT a big fan of introducing chemicals or detergents into the cooling system unless it is absolutely warranted, as in the case of a recent head gasket failure where oil actually ends up in the coolant. for me, here's what i do, keeping it really simple and effective (you are forewarned):

The 10 Steps
1. drain the coolant and dispose of in an environmentally friendly way (not down the toilet or other sewer drain). also, don't leave coolant out in the drain pan or your neighbors might get peed off when their pets turn up dead from drinking it. don't worry about draining the block. repeat, don't worry about draining the block. it's a waste of time IMHO.
2. connect garden hose to spigot. turn spigot counter-clockwise until water comes out of the end of the garden hose. (i told you i was gonna keep it simple.)
3. let garden hose run until "fresh" water runs from the end of it.
4. stick flow of water from garden hose into the plastic fill bottle in your car and fill to "full" mark.
5. drive car to temp.
6. park car in the same place it was before.
7. drain radiator into the driveway. it's mostly water at this point anyway. your bleeding-heart-liberal neighbors might stare at you in disbelief when you do this, but that's what you have a middle finger for.
8. repeat steps 4 through 7 as many times as it takes to get the water run as clear out of the bottom of the radiator as when you put it in the plastic fill bottle in step 4. do not proceed to step #9 until/unless the drain water is sparkling clean.
9. fill with 50/50 Zerex G-05 and bottled water (you should only need 2 to 3 gals)...nothing else... not the orange pukey stuff, not the pink sissy stuff, not the green glow-in-the-dark "its-universal-coolant-and-can-be-mixed-with-anything-according-to-the-autozone-dude" stuff...nothing else. (caveat...ok, maybe the MB approved stuff for those of you who have big buck$ and like throwing money down the drain [pun intended]!)
10. repeat above process in about 25k miles. for those of us who live in harsher climates maybe more frequently, say, once yearly.

doing a radiator flush and fill is a great summertime project, especially when you need to get away from the wife who is driving you bananas about painting, wallpapering, interior decorating, and other non-essential non-MB-related activities.