happygomez

Honda charges $18 for a gallon of coolant premixed at 50/50.
Ripoff!
That means to flush and refill I gotta buy two gallons and pay $36 bucks.
They dont even sell undiluted coolant so that means you gotta add extra coolant to flush out the water so you dont end up with a mixture below 50/50.
Any bright ideas on where to buy this shit cheaper?

 

l4zy415

its best to flush your system with water. leave the drain plug open and run the car. just use your water hose to keep filling the radiator. thats what i did to drain my shit. my coolent was out and all i could see was clear water coming out of the radiator. when the car is pretty much hot. turn off your vehicle and stop pouring water into the radiator. that way most of the water can come out with the thermostat open. Then just refill it with the honda radiator fluid. bleed it so air won't be in your system. mine works perfectly. i did this a couple of months ago. i dont have any problems yet.

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18" Limited 341 Chrome Rims/\Matador Red Paint/\Weapon R - Secret Weapon Intake/\LED Bright White Dash Lights/Floor/\Kenwood KDC-X590 Excelon Mp3 Deck/\Ford Taurus Coin/Cup Holder/\2 12" Kickers/\1200 Watt Sony XM-2200GTX 2-Channel Xplod Amp/\2 Rockford Fosgate Capacitors/\Power Acoustic Capacitor/\Clear Rear Turn Signal/\Reverse Glow Gauges/\Swapped 88' Headlights to 89'-90'/\JDM Rear Chrome Trim/\Stromung Muffler/
Soon To Come: Rebuild Motor and 5-MT Swap

Ken

I did mine a while back with Prestone. Filtered water with 50/50 coolant.

I took the thermostat, radiator drain plug, and top radiator hose off and ran tap water through it all until it was fully clean, then I bolted everything back on and filled it with the coolant/water.

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. k e n

Parting out a 91 L 5-speed, let me know if you need any parts besides engine and 5-speed parts. The car is Rosewood brown with type E cloth interior.

TO90LEGEND

How do you all get rid of the old antifreeze?

pnoye2

Call your local garage. Not the auto parts store, but the service station, and ask them directly about recycling the radiator fluid.

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294K+ miles; original power/drive trains

legendvr

If your coolant is not contaminated with oil, you should be able to just flush it down your toilet (but not the street drain). Coolant is largely water and alcohol and bacteria in the sewer love this stuff...

legend89chopped

Honda fluid is always best. Here's a tip when draining-there are two water jacket drains on the engine, and they look like bleeder fittings. You can only see them from underneath, and they are located under the middle cylinder on each bank. Crack those open when you drain the old fluid, or you'll never get that stuff out. Even when you flush the system, it doesn't get that water jacket area very well. Leave 'em open while you flush water or a flushing solution through to make sure you get it real clean. Just remember to close them back up, obviously.

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telafonic

The impression I have kind of gotten over the years is that the G1's are much more tolerant of different brands than the G2's are. Even though I've had temperature issues with my G1 in the past, I don't believe they were due to the brand of coolant, as much as improper maintenance by the previous owner.
Last time I talked to my knowledgeable Acura parts guy, he said that Acura doesn't recommend flushing the coolant. A simple drain and refill is all that is needed unless the coolant looks really bad.


Not quite sure why it's more expensive there. I paid about $12 for a gallon of premixed 50/50 solution. I didn't think Honda was even selling non 50/50 coolant anymore. I would call around or double check on that.

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VIP Legend

I doubt the validity of this statement.

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Legendo

Hi, I'm a noobie. I've been lurking on the site for about 4 years and have always found the info I needed so I never had a reason to join and post.
Now that I've got some time, I joined and wanted to reply to the use of distilled water in the radiator.

My dad is an engineer on a Navy base and he has a chemical engineer coworker that uses tap water with his coolant. He said distilled water would could corode your motor more than tap water. The reason is that water likes having mineral type things in it. And if you take them out, it wants to get them back so it will take them from your aluminum insides though corrosion.

I like the idea of filtered water best. My tap water is full of mineral crap. Its so bad, one time we had a leaky tub faucet for about half a year and the drips would spash onto the side of the tub and dry. There was a layer of white mineral stuff by the time the leak was fixed. I used CLR and it came off in thin sheets. I definately don't want that stuff in my engine. I think my Britta filter gets most of it out because it plugs up about every 3 months.

PS By the way, I've got a 90 LS coupe . 170K miles. Works great and its worth investing money into when it needs it which I couldn't say for my 94 Mazda MPV...THAT vehicle was waste of earth's resources.

l4zy415

Welcome, thats some good advice about tap and filtered water. Also, we gotta see some pics of your ride. Enjoy your stay here.

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18" Limited 341 Chrome Rims/\Matador Red Paint/\Weapon R - Secret Weapon Intake/\LED Bright White Dash Lights/Floor/\Kenwood KDC-X590 Excelon Mp3 Deck/\Ford Taurus Coin/Cup Holder/\2 12" Kickers/\1200 Watt Sony XM-2200GTX 2-Channel Xplod Amp/\2 Rockford Fosgate Capacitors/\Power Acoustic Capacitor/\Clear Rear Turn Signal/\Reverse Glow Gauges/\Swapped 88' Headlights to 89'-90'/\JDM Rear Chrome Trim/\Stromung Muffler/
Soon To Come: Rebuild Motor and 5-MT Swap

jmoser1981

Me too, I will use distilled water...

I have no idea what they(the shop) put in when they changed my water pump a few months ago

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legendvr

Why?

Unless the tap water already has aluminum in it at saturation concentration, it will still "take" it from the engine block. That is precisely why coolant contains inhibitors - substances that have lower half-cell redox potential than your metal block alloy. So these substances oxidize before your block does.
Tap water these days is, typically, basic (pH ~8.5) to protect pipes from corrosion. It probably won't harm your engine block, but may do harm to rubber seals.
Purified water is pH~6 because of dissolved carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide exists in equilibrium with carbonic acid in water and does cause corrosion. However, the amaizing chemical engineers at Prestone also know this and that is why coolant has inhibitors to protect the metal block. Also, the solubility of carbon dioxide is very small in water-alcohol mixture (ever tried to mix fizzy water and vodka??).

So, in general, because you don't really know what ions are exactly in your tap water without elemental analysis, I would use purified water instead.
Take it from a chemical engineer.

Legendo

Thanks Dr. Chem, that settles it for me. I guess the dilemma boils down to what water to use for rubber seal protection.

pnoye2

I'd follow the manufacturers recommendation, it has work for me so far ...but you can't argue with a Chemical Engineer

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294K+ miles; original power/drive trains