Losing Coolant

[Tom_1569]

VT V6 Series 1.

After turning the car off, a couple of minutes later its leaking coolant, its wet the bonnet mat, and sitting on top of the radiator near the top hose and a puddle under the car. The coolant is definitly due for a change, now a browny green colour.

Should I be checking anything else of why its leaking? I only do long trips so not sure if its doing it on short trips, but it does seem to heat quicker in traffic, but not overheating.

How many litres of coolant do I need for a full flush, and what percentage water? Im on bore water so should I be buying demineralised water?

Do I need to bleed the system afterwards, if so how?

[Tom_1569]

Answering my own question sort of lol.

On the way home I bought new rad hoses and clamps in prep for flushing. Get home notice that its spraying out the heater hose, bugger, rad hoses were 45 bux
Ill go down shortly and buy heater hoses and coolant.

Reading the holden manual it says to remove the knock sensors to flush the system? Do I need to do this?

[Tom_1569]

I dominate this thread lol.

Spoke to Holden, they said theres no need to remove knock sensors, and would be pretty hard to do without a hoist anyway.

Im just going to do the whole lot, all hoses, full flush, new thermostat, even bought Genuine Coolant and the tablets lol. Just want to get it all out of the way, this cart does 1000Km's a week and cant afford to be off the road.

[accentstencil]

I've never removed the knock sensors to do a flush because it is a difficult job which is not really worth the effort. The only problem with not removing the knock sensors is that there will still be some clean water in the system after flushing. To combat this I make sure I put 6 litres of coolant concentrate in first then top up with water. The system holds 12 litres.

[Tom_1569]

Yeah, They recon you cant do it without a hoist, and honestly I cbf'd to get it on the hoist. I havent slept and needed a resolution but didnt wanna be doing it all again next week either. I used 5 litres of holdens coolant, because thats all they gave me and said it was enough, then I read cooling system is 12 or 13 litres. It'll be right anyway, its mainly highway K's and doesnt get hot.
All done, all up cost $146.16 for those interested in how much it costs to do a cooling system flush on a VT V6.

Prices for futurue reference:
Hose - Water pump to Heater Tap $17.94 (Holden)
Hose - Water pump to Heater tap $10.49 (Repco) There is two different hoses needed and holden didnt have the second one.
Hose - Rad to Water pump bottom $14.72 (R&E Autos, smaller local auto parts store)
Hose - Rad to Water pump top $25.50 (R&E again)
Holden Genuine longer life coolant 5L $44.85 (Holden)
Thermostat Gasket $3.05 (Holden)
Thermostat $10.87 (Holden)
3 Genuine Sealing pellets $10.06 (Holden)

On a side note what do the Pellets actually do, Holden said I really should use them, but my mate whos been a mechanic for 10 years has never heard of anyone ever using them, and looked at me strange when I said about putting them in.

[accentstencil]

I believe the pellets block small leaks. I never use them though.

[nicko]

i just bought HEAPS of distilled water. pulled my bottom rad hose off and then put it back on, Filled it up with distilled water, ran the car with the heater on. Dumped all that water again. then filled it up with coolant and distilled water.

[WAGON MAN]

The pellets are actually crushed walnut shells,

the bits flow around with the coolant.

They chip any buildup away from the back of the water pump seal helping to stop leaks.

[pablo]

nicko, pulling the bottom hose off only releases about half the water in the block. When I once did it that way, I measured what drained out, and it was only 6 liters, half of the system contents. So if you then filled it with 50/50 coolant on top of what was left behind, that would mean you only have a 25% concentration, way too low for corrosion protection on the radiator and welch plugs.