Corolla E12 1.4D4D 2006 coolant change

[HelioMV]

Hi all, 

My 06 D4D 1.4 (1ND-TV) is now well due coolant as the old stuff is quite watery now. I watched a tutorial where a lad with an Auris did it but it's a little different to my design and I'd like some advice. By the way I'm going to go straight for the Toyota pre mixed stuff. I would just like some advice on how to do it so I do not make any mistakes. 

My car differs from my old yaris. It seems to have no radiator cap and the only way coolant can go in is through the expansion/overflow bottle who's pipe feeds into the top of the water-pump. It's hard to see the level as the bottle is half black and awkwardly located. I attach a photo of an engine bay exactly like mine.

For draining, I will wait until car is cold and open radiator plug and expansion bottle cap. I am also advised there is a block drain plug, where is this, is it best left alone? Anything else I should do.

The engine regulates it's temp perfect, so don't think it's needs flushing, but if so, how do I do this safely? 

For refilling, do I pour as much as will go in, start the engine with heater on, then keep topping up until reaches capacity? Or do I use another method? Also is there any special bleeding required or bleed points I should be aware of? Additionally, is there anything to be scared of or warned about, like the EGR cooler?

Any advice appreciated! 

Regards,

Helio

 

[Red_Corolla]

I haven't got any specific advice for your engine, only general advice having done this a number of times on various vehicles over the years:

- Set your heater control all the way to HOT before you start. Not really necessary on many modern cars but it's good practice.

- Do remove the block drain if you can find it and it's not seized up. It's usually very hard to get all of the old coolant out of the system, so use every drain point you can

- Bleed from everywhere you can find a screw. Places they tend to put them are in the side of the cylinder head or the top heater matrix hose. If you can't find one then disconnecting the hose from the thermostat housing is one way to open the system and better than nothing. Whatever location you bleed from, it's a case of keeping it open while you fill SLOWLY and only replace the screw or reconnect the hose after you see coolant running out from that point.

- You can buy a 'spill free funnel,' which is a large funnel that seals onto the top of your radiator or expansion tank (wherever you're filling from). What you do with these is overfill the system all the way up into the funnel and it works like a header tank, allowing you to run the engine with the system open and let it self-bleed. Highly reccomended but, whether you have one of those funnels or not, do be sure to run it WITHOUT the cap on until it's properly warm and the fan has cut in so that it can purge itself of any trapped air. Squeezing the radiator hoses will help this process.

- I already mentioned this, but fill it ***SLOWLY***. This is the most important thing in avoiding air traps.

I hope that's helpful. Hopefully someone else can help further with the bleed points.

[HelioMV]

Thanks for the advice! Here's my process:

In the end only 2L came out of the radiator drain plug. I had to get air through the system to push the rest out! 

I disconnected top and bottom rad hoses and flushed through block and radiator with the hose (no rag required). The hardest part of this job was the hose clips. They were very very tight and turned round so that I couldn't access them without droppig the undertray. FUN!

With everything checked and tightened and replaced etc. I refilled it slowly through the expansion, it took 4.5L and all drained down to the rad no problem so no worries. Started up and with the cap off barely needed topping up. Only needed another 0.3L. After running with the cap off some very small bubbles came out and I made sure it was up to temp fully before summarised there was no air in the system. Let it cool and contract before replacing the rad cap. Has been running great with no issues whatsoever after that day.

Worringly however, 2 weeks ago I started noticing a small bit of pressure in the pipes when the engine is cold (even after a weeekend) - When opening the cap I get a pressure release and worse again; The coolant is now bubbling (very small micro-bubbles) when the engine is running. Now, to be clear, this is nothing I did (or so I believe). Was obsessively checking it every week since and it only started to develop this presure and bubbles couple weeks ago. I haven't lost any coolant, and the coolant is clean, clear and has kept its colour, there's no sign of contamination, same with the oil. I can be idling in traffic and all electrical bits on and there's no movement on the temp gauge, motorway driving perfect temp etc. it's been perfect. It gets up to temp, and stays there, and haven't heard the fan at all. I am hoping this is not a head-gasket, maybe it's the EGR cooler or something else, any ideas?

[HelioMV]

Oh and couldn't find any sensible bleed points (didn't need them) and the block drain was not only awkward but looked like it wanted a fight. I didn't!!