# 20 minutes to change 25 quarts of antifreeze



## Bigplanz (Apr 10, 2009)

Got a oil change yesterday at Valvoline. Had a 20% off coupon for other services so I changed the engine coolant too. This is a huge, messy hassle to do yourself, and my Navigator has 25 quarts of coolant. They hooked it up to a machine, pushed the new coolant out the upper radiator hose, and the old out through the degas bottle. Not a single drop spilled anywhere. Took about 20 minutes.

Six gallons of antifreeze alone would be $70 and draining, fillling, cleaning up etc would take me all day. The whole thing cost $80, took 20 minutes.

So worth it.


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## sestivers (Aug 10, 2007)

Dang, I've done that job too and you're right that is a great deal. I think I paid $60 just for the Toyota pre-diluted coolant to do my little car... drain radiator, refill, run the engine, drain and refill again, I think like five or six times. Then have to get all the drained coolant poured into the empty jugs and the auto parts store won't take it, you have to go all the way to the specified transfer station with the hazardous household goods dropoff. 



Nice find. Any idea if they'll do a transmission for a similar price?


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## Bigplanz (Apr 10, 2009)

sestivers said:


> Dang, I've done that job too and you're right that is a great deal. I think I paid $60 just for the Toyota pre-diluted coolant to do my little car... drain radiator, refill, run the engine, drain and refill again, I think like five or six times. Then have to get all the drained coolant poured into the empty jugs and the auto parts store won't take it, you have to go all the way to the specified transfer station with the hazardous household goods dropoff.
> 
> 
> 
> Nice find. Any idea if they'll do a transmission for a similar price?


They offered a transmission service, for about $100 (with 20% discount coupon), but I had that done as part of a tranny line leak repair a couple of years ago. My coolant was past 30K since the last change and looked cruddy. I was there for an oil change, had the money in the bank, a discount coupon, etc so I said why not. Really interesting process. Fully hot engine and no spewing steam and scalding coolant. Anybody know what that machine is? No leaks and a 25 quart coolant swap in 20 minutes. Pretty cool.


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## rjniles (Feb 5, 2007)

My understanding is that service does not replace all the coolant. It filters the existing coolant and replaced certain additives and some new coolant.

Sent from my Moto E (4) Plus using Tapatalk


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## Bigplanz (Apr 10, 2009)

rjniles said:


> My understanding is that service does not replace all the coolant. It filters the existing coolant and replaced certain additives and some new coolant.
> 
> Sent from my Moto E (4) Plus using Tapatalk


Thanks for the info! I will look into it. What is that machine? (If you know)


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## SeniorSitizen (Sep 10, 2012)

Good grief I'm glad it was easy back in the good old days when all the Fords I drove were self changing as they were driven. If the thermostat stuck closed once there went a gallon of anti on the ground in about 3 seconds and the inch build-up of oily dirt at all the parking meters told the story of oil changes.:biggrin2:


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## Bigplanz (Apr 10, 2009)

Website says they replace it. Machine say quarts/liters out on one side and quarts/liters in on the other.

https://www.vioc.com/services/radiator-service


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## chandler48 (Jun 5, 2017)

> pre-diluted coolant to do my little car.


You pay $13 for full strength antifreeze. You pay $11 for diluted antifreeze. Why do you pay $5.50 a half gallon for water???? Disposable society, I guess.


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## Bigplanz (Apr 10, 2009)

chandler48 said:


> You pay $13 for full strength antifreeze. You pay $11 for diluted antifreeze. Why do you pay $5.50 a half gallon for water???? Disposable society, I guess.


Convenience, more than anything else.


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## sestivers (Aug 10, 2007)

Yes, and you're really supposed to use deionized water so...


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## chandler48 (Jun 5, 2017)

Do you think for a nanosecond that Prestone or Zerex uses deionized water to dilute their product? Pffft!


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## Bigplanz (Apr 10, 2009)

chandler48 said:


> Do you think for a nanosecond that Prestone or Zerex uses deionized water to dilute their product? Pffft!


No, but I also don't think it makes any difference at all.


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## raylo32 (Nov 25, 2006)

I remember back in the day (way, way back) when we'd just drain out the old stuff into the street, hook up the Prestone flush kit and flush it into the street. Unbelievable thought these days.

But how did they disconnect the upper radiator hose without spillage? They must have done an initial drain from the petcock to get the level below that point.


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## raylo32 (Nov 25, 2006)

Oh, it does make a difference... it is just so gradual and takes so long to make that difference no one cares or connects the cause.

Probably not a huge problem for the old short life coolants that get changed every 2 years. But I'd never use plain tap water in a long life system that will go 5 or more years or 100,000 miles.



Bigplanz said:


> No, but I also don't think it makes any difference at all.


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## chandler48 (Jun 5, 2017)

> 5 or more years or 100,000 miles.


Educate me (us) on this, please. I don't think I'd ever trust a coolant for that long in a metal encased situation.


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## sestivers (Aug 10, 2007)

Genuine Toyota Super Long Life Antifreeze/Coolant is a new generation ethylene glycol based coolant which is pre-diluted 50:50 with de-ionized water for freeze protection to -34°F. 
Non-silicate, non-amine, non-nitrite and non-borate coolant formulated with long-life hybrid organic acid technology. 
Specifically formulated for Toyota engines for a service life beyond the range of conventional coolants. 
Excellent resistance to corrosion. 
Designed for optimum performance to 100,000 miles. 


What it doesn't say in the spec is how many years it will last. I've heard ten. My anecdotal evidence is that it was still okay after fifteen (I doubt the previous owner(s) ever changed it after the car was built). I probably won't ever have to do it again, so the extra cost per gallon was okay by me. I'm doing my best to not take the "disposable society" remark personally, but it is difficult with how hard I work to reduce my resource usage and creation of waste. Larry, from what I read about your truck that got wrecked by the deer, it had a ton of reliable miles on it so doing it your way clearly works, too.


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## lenaitch (Feb 10, 2014)

Same with Mazda FL22, 10yr/192K km and I believe Honda has a long life as well but I just bought one so haven't got that deep into the service cycles yet. All are diluted with de-ionized water. Most things I have read cite 5yr/240K km employing either something called OAT (organic acid technology) with no silicates or HOAT (hybrid organic acid technology) that does have silicates. I guess bottom line is use in accordance with your vehicle specs.


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## raylo32 (Nov 25, 2006)

Exactly. I just changed the coolant 3 months ago in my 2009 Tacoma for the first time with about 88,000 miles on the clock. It is supposedly good for 100,000 but there might be a 10 year time component.... but not sure about that. In any case it looked new in there and was probably good for more miles but what the heck, I just changed it.



sestivers said:


> Genuine Toyota Super Long Life Antifreeze/Coolant is a new generation ethylene glycol based coolant which is pre-diluted 50:50 with de-ionized water for freeze protection to -34°F.
> Non-silicate, non-amine, non-nitrite and non-borate coolant formulated with long-life hybrid organic acid technology.
> Specifically formulated for Toyota engines for a service life beyond the range of conventional coolants.
> Excellent resistance to corrosion.
> ...


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