VP coolant question

[spoonfork]

Hi there,

When I service the car, Everytime I drain the coolant I only get about 5 litres out. The service manual says the cooling system is approx 10 litres so I expect to get at least 9-10 litres of old coolant drained out right! I remove the drain plugs under each of the headers, undo the cap and remove both hoses from the radiator. One thing I noticed is that no coolant actually comes out of the drain holes where I have removed the drain plugs.

The only way I am sure I have drained all the old coolant out is to connect everything backup and fill with water then run the engine for a bit then remove the hoses and drain. I repeat this process about 4 times till the only thing that comes out is just water. Then I do it another 2 times with distilled water and then finally fill the system up with coolant. I assume there is liquid trapped somewhere? when I fill it up I only get 5 litres of coolant in before it fills up.

Any suggestions

[commsirac]

Hi there,
One thing I noticed is that no coolant actually comes out of the drain holes where I have removed the drain plugs.

Any suggestions

Blocked drain plugs? perhaps undo the drain plugs while the system is hot and under pressure and see what happens.....but wear some rubber gloves and protective gear to protect yourself from the obvious.
Possibly the heater core is worth 1-2 litres, but dont know about the other missing litres. Theres really no way of emptying the core unless you syphon it out, or you can try blowing compressed air through them. Best just to disconnect a heater hose and run the garden hose through the core until it runs clean.

[spoonfork]

Yes everytime I've filled and drained the system with water, the plugs have been left off. Yes I've run the car without the plugs and still the same nothing coming out of those drain holes.