Replacing Coolant

[Simon Williams_42232]

Going to replace the thermostat and going from the Toyota Repair Manual.

Draining the coolant and checking/changing the thermostat isn't a problem.

My question is, when it says replace coolant, how do I go about this?

Is it simply a case of filling the resovoir again?

I'm just not keen on starting the engine after and the block being full of air, or getting an air bubble in the system period.

Thanks

[Scarlett Arrow]

I've heard bleeding the system of air is a bit of a PITA on the Gen 7.

I won't be doing mine until later this year, but I do know you need to unbolt and raise the coolant reservoir and suspend it from the bonnet catch. Have the heater set to hot, and remove the reservoir cap while the air bubbles escape. You may also need to massage the larger hoses to purge the system.

Is there an instruction label attached to the underneath of the bonnet?.

Also, out of curiosity, are you using Red or Pink LongLife?.

[Simon Williams_42232]

Use the pink stuff from Halfords.

Im fine with the method you mentioned. But my question is how do I properly replace coolant after emptying the system. I don't want to simply fill the resovoir leaving the block empty and then blow the head gasket.

[armoredfist2002]

You can only fill it through the reservoir that's what it's there for.

Unbolt the reservoir (10mm socket)

Lift it up and you'll notice a little V shaped pocket facing you, stick this on the black part of the bonnet catch, which makes it about 4 inches higher than the engine.

The small hose on the right hand side may need to come out of it's holder on top of the radiator, it just pulls out.

Take the black cap and white bleed valve off reservoir.

Fill up with coolant, quite a lot of the air will come out as the coolant goes in.

Then follow bleeding instructions on the sticker under the bonnet.

Pretty simple once you've done it once, had to change my water pump around 12months ago.

If you do a lot of miles during the week, keep a bit of coolant in the car just incase it needs topping up. You'll struggle to remove 100% of the air, but it will make it's way slowly back to the reservoir, I took my bleed valve off everyday to release any air for about a week.

Hope this is some help.

And it's very hard to cook a gen 7 headgasket.

[simon_williams]

Excellent answer, thank you very much.

I've tried burping the system to fix my problem, next course of action is the thermostat. Which I will crack on with asap.