Changing antifreeze when changing water pump

Honestly, I am not meaning to be rude or flippant, however~~~~~~~

1] If you bought the parts yourself, ask whoever sold them to you. I presume you purchased from a parts store.

2] Call a Nissan dealer, ask for parts dept., see if they can give you the info. you want.

3] Ask any parts store, most are usually willing to help, hoping you come in to buy the a/f from them.

4] Goto Nissan forum, post this ? there, chances are someone would know. I'm afraid I don't know at this time.

If you have an owner's manual, it should tell you the quart or gallon capacity of your cooling system. or #2 or #3 might give you that. It should also recommend the type of a/f your system requires. From that info., you generally want to mix the a/f 50/50 with water for a good general range of coolant protection.

As far as what type a/f to use, if unsure for some reason, look at Prestone, they have some a/f that is compatible with all systems, get that.

When you take off the water pump and thermostat to replace them, pretty much all the antifreeze that is in there is going to run out. Your mechanic would be replacing it anyway. I think he is just giving you the opportunity to provide the anti-freeze along with the other parts. There can be compatibility issues with different antifreezes vs. the Nissan stuff that is already in there. If he isn't planning to do a flush, the safest thing is to have him use more Nissan stuff (get it at a dealer). Your owner's manual will tell home much you need. You mix it 50/50 with water when you use it, so buy half as much as the listed capacity.

thermostat to replace them, pretty much

WHY? Get 6 quarts of normal and use 6 quarts of water... Unless you like paying $10 quart for water.

BTW, why are you buying car parts for your mechanic when you don't even know the most basic of auto skills?

1. If you look in the owner's manual, it will tell you if you can use conventional antifreeze or you need something special.
2. If you can use conventional antifreeze, there is no reason you cannot mix the new antifreeze with the OEM antifreeze.
3. HOWEVER, this would be a good time to flush the system out and replace all the antifreeze while the thing is apart on the floor anyway.
4. If the vehicle will use conventional antifreeze, the premix will work, however the premix costs between two and five times as much as buying the normal concentrate. It is generally a ripoff.

--scott

Also if you flush the system with water you won't want to use premix. You should add half the system's capacity of full strength antifreeze and then top up with water. Reason is when you flush there will be water sitting in the low points of the system that is impossible to get out without turning the car upside down, so if you just fill with premix, your mix will be a little weak.

nate

E Meyer wrote in news:C1E4C3A8.C644% snipped-for-privacy@msn.com:

Are you sure? Most cars I'm aware of have a block drain, which needs to be pulled in addition to the items you list. There can be a quart or more stuck in the block.

Maybe the Nissan is different, I don't know.

If the antifreeze/water mix is old,I would change it out for fresh.As much of it as I could. cuhulin

You're right. Nissans have block drains, though they are usually uselessly inaccessible, unlike Hondas. There will still be some coolant in the block & the heater core probably won't drain unless the valve is open. The radiator is going to empty out though. My point was that enough of it comes out when you change those parts that it doesn't make sense not to change the coolant.

Different Acura for me, but the only block drain I have ever encountered that was both accessible and functional is the one on the 2000 3.2 TL.

"z" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@p10g2000cwp.googlegroups.com:

Since the warranty ran out in '94, every second year.

I only ever use Honda antifreeze, and change it every two years without fail.

Even with frequent removal, I still have to be careful, and have to use a 3' cheater bar on my ratchet.

Are you using a 6-point well-fitting socket? If the bolt is badly rounded now, you may be stuck.

I suppose you could get it off by using a grinder to make a flat on the bolt sufficient to use an air hammer to drive it off. Luckily the bolt is situated such (on 4-cyls) that you can hammer on the side away from the exhaust manifold, making it easier to get some leverage.

Dummies.

The only problem is that the block fluid will have been diluted to an unknown extent. If forced to leave the block drain in place, I would consider the block to be pure water and mix my antifreeze to accommodate a quart of pure water already in the system. This means you can't use Honda premix.

And since you've got some old fluid in there all the time, I'd use long- life coolant and change it every two years instead of every five.

One thing I'd like to point out here is that if you supply the parts to the auto center doing the work and one of those parts fails in the future, (i.e. water pump failing, not uncomon), then you will have no warranty on the labor for the repair. This can cost you quite a bit of money. On the other hand, if you purchase all the needed parts from the auto center, then those parts and the labor needed to replace them if they fail, are covered under warranty. This is a substantail value to you.

Steve