Hello

 

I'm about to start a major 90,000km service on my 2010 Yeti (4x2 110TDI) that I bought a couple of years ago.

 

Apart from all the filter changes I need to change both the coolant and the brake fluid, so a couple of questions please for those that might have already done this job themselves:

 

- is there a technique to getting all of the coolant out, other than what drains if just the bottom hose to the radiator is removed?

- is it ok to use my old Gunson easibleed pressurised tool at low pressure (below 20psi) on the master cylinder? 

 

Most grateful for any advice or guidance.

 

Cheers

 

Philip

Why do you need to change the coolant? 

Certainly wasn't done on mine at the service nearest to 50k miles, and I've now done nearly twice that mileage at the same age as yours. The dealers just check it's strength and to up as required, which has been never in my case.

Good point! I tend to change the anti-freeze on all my vehicles every 4 years. I've always believed that the corrosion protection degrades with age, and don't know how to test this at home.

 

Cheers

 

Philip 

DIY testers are readily available for checking the strength of coolant. They are just a small plastic hypodermic containing 4 or 5 plastic balls. When you drew coolant in, the number of balls floating would indicate the strength of the anti freeze (ie its Specific Gravity). Very basic, cheap and they worked. Service garages should have something similar but on a commercial scale.

BUT if you look at the commercial versions, you will find a whole range of testers for testing different types of antifreeze.

 

The chemicals contained in anti-freeze are also the corrosion inhibitors, so provided the strength is maintained, you should be ok.

If you never dilute a modern "long life" ethylene glycol based coolant by topping up with water, it should stay at the original strength for years unlike methanol based anti-freezes which may lose strength due to evaporation.

The long life factory coolant that Ford has used for years as anti-freeze/corrosion inhibitor is guaranteed to be good for 10 years as long as it's added at the correct strength initially and there are no coolant losses, and I suspect that VW use very something similar.

 

My recommendation is only to replenish with the same product as the manufacturer's original long life product.

 

If you google long life anti freeze, you can spend hours reading all the conflicting advice that's available from experts the world over!

Edited 1 January, 201610 yr by speedsport