Please provide advise, photos and video links on how to flush radiator coolant on 97 Nissan Sentra
Where is the drain plug? Do I need to remove any plates to get to it as stated by the Repair Manual. If so, how?
There should be 2 additional vent screws that I need to remove to complete the draining process. Where are they located? What would happen if I actually do not remove those 2 vent screws?
How long can I drive the car without changing the coolant?

 

I reccomend going to a quicklube station at the least and having them flush your coolant with a machine.... it does a way better job........ but if you are tight on cash and just want to drain and refill, all you really need to do is un-screw the drain **** on the bottom of the radiator to drain the coolant.

 

Flushing your radiator is simple bud. I agree, if you can, have them machine do it at a local service center, but if not, it's not hard to do. Since you have a '97, stop by autozone and pick up a small jug of radiator flush/cleaner... should be like $6. With engine cool, open radiator cap, dump cleaner into radiator, replace cap. Drive around for a little while, get something to eat or whatever, to get the radiator to circulate the cleaner/flush. Then pull up to your house, let car cool, climb underneath with a pan large enough to hold about 1.5 gallons of coolant, and unscrew the drain plug (there's two or three under there) They'll be easy to spot, they're the screws in the bottom of the radiator, going straight up. Unscrew and begin draining, while draining open the radiator cap to allow air flow to help the draining process. Many people stick a hose in the radiator at this time, turn hose on, then turn car on to push the rest of the coolant through and out. Finish when fluids coming out of drain holes are as clear as the water going in from the hose. Turn off car, turn off water, allow water to completely drain, tighten drain plugs, refill coolant and remember to bleed out any air from the coolant, else you'll notice in the winter time when you're running your heat that it'll go from hot, to suddenly cold, back to hot sporadically. And that's it.

Things to keep in mind though, that if you do, do this yourself. Flushing it this way doesn't flush your heater core, in fact, depending on the amount of gunk built up inside your radiator, flushing in this method might actually cause a blockage in your core... have to tell you that disclaimer, but that's what the cleaner from step one is supposed to help with.

 

I know that this is an old thread, but I have a couple of questions.

You said that this method does not flush the heater core.
Would running the cabin heat flush out the heater core while you are doing this?

Why would you need to bleed out for air? Would filling it up with coolant solve that?

Not trying to be an @$$ just curious.

Th

 

I believe on the coolant flush/ coolant bottle it will tell you in one of the steps to 'burp' it when refilling. I did my GA16DE flush before summer and it does take a little while (1 hour) to do the full flush. But its easy dude.

 

Thanks for your inputs. The coolant change and radiator flushing was very easy. Even with 103k miles, the fluid was very clean, almost no rust in the bottom.

 

nice suggestion but if you really wanna save lots of money you can do it for yourself draining your radiator could just take you less than 15mins. i have a nissan sentra 98 the cap is underneath the alternator. I just used a screwdriver. Oppps i forgot this is already an old thread.

 

Im thankful for the Idea . Great.