By Tomorover on Friday, June 22, 2001 - 08:21 am: Edit

I have searched the archives, and cannot seem to find a complete procedure for draining/flushing/filling radiator coolant in a 95 Discovery. Can anybody help a beginner?

By Ron on Friday, June 22, 2001 - 08:23 am: Edit

It is under orange coolent

Ron

By Tomorover on Friday, June 22, 2001 - 08:51 am: Edit

I must be searching incorrectly, as I still can't find it.

By Moe on Friday, June 22, 2001 - 09:45 am: Edit

Actually, I think it is under green coolant. K

By Tomorover on Friday, June 22, 2001 - 09:47 am: Edit

Now you're toying with me...

By Moe on Friday, June 22, 2001 - 10:09 am: Edit

You got us pegged Tomo. To drain the system, you will have to loosen the lower radiator hose (on the passenger side). Before doing this inspect your hoses and buy new ones and do everything at once. Make sure you pick up good quality clamps--the stock ones aren't that great. Also consider changing the thermostat at the same time. If you want to flush the system, you'll have to close it up, fill with water, run engine untill warm and then drain again--some people repeat this a number of times. Best of luck.

By Bill Bettridge (Billb) on Monday, June 25, 2001 - 06:16 am: Edit

This may sound cheesy (because it is), but the $4.00 Prestone flush/fill kit from an autoparts store works pretty well. You splice the provided tee fitting into your heater hose (beside the intake plenum) and hook up the trusty garden hose and let that sucker run until only clear water comes out. Then you can refill through the other provided stuff the kit gives you.

By Tom Proctor on Monday, June 25, 2001 - 07:01 am: Edit

Bill,

If you leave the t-piece from the flush kit spliced into your system, make sure you replace the plastic cap with a brass one. You can get them at Home Depot for a $1 (std. garden hose thread) and the brass will not crack.

I've had the plastic caps crack on other vehicles. With the Rover v8, better safe than sorry!

Tom Proctor
96 Disco

By Tomorover on Monday, June 25, 2001 - 08:17 am: Edit

Thanks for the input. I tried this on Saturday, and was foiled because I couldn't get the #@!!?&# bottom hose off of the radiator! I had earlier inspected the hoses and they looked fine (I was not going to replace them), so I didn't want to cut the hose off. Ended up sucking as much coolant as possible out through the fill hole with a siphon, then replacing with 50/50 new coolant/water. I changed out about 2 gallons, so at least I replaced 2/3 of the capacity. Next time it will be a complete flush!

By Bill Bettridge (Billb) on Monday, June 25, 2001 - 08:45 am: Edit

Tom - you're right - can't hurt to be safe - that's why I replaced the radiator plastic plug with a brass one also

Actually, the gasket is more important than the actual cap - don't use PVC garden hose washers because PVC max's out at 140 deg F - underhood temps are considerably higher.