Doing a Therm and FL22 change this afternoon, but need height to get at drain plug.Should i just front elevate or put the car up level on 4 stands for the full job? I have 10 ltrs of Distilled water for the flushes. I have ample FL22 as i have 2 X 5ltrs.
Thanks
Dave
Can’t advise but looking forward to reading this thread seeing I need to do mine next few weeks…
I hope you don’t mind me jumping in and asking questions too…
Do you drain then fill up with distilled water run upto temperature again then drain again,
also is this after the new thermostat or with the old thermostat.
I plan to drain, change therm, flush, replenish, burp system.
From what i understand through threads and You tube ect, you have to drain the system and then fill system with distilled water,( i live in a hard water area) then run engine to temp and drain.I may have to do this a couple of times as i understand that what you are trying to achieve is move the old stuff that doesn’t drain form the block. Then hope fully fill with FL22 and hope i doesn’t need to do much burping.The only thing im not sure of is, front end up on the ramps or get the car level on 4 x stands.
My Thermostat like many NC’s sits at about between 4/5 o’cock on the gauge. Ive also notices that although heater is warm, it not as toasty as it used to be.Ford do the same Therm for £24.99 not £72 as Mazda charge (Mazda parts guy actually recommended Ford as confirmed the part is the same). I was quite surprised to find my local Mazda dealer selling 5 ltrs of FL22 Longlife for only £14. So i bought 2 x 5ltrs as i understand system holds about 7ltrs, didn’t fancy having to pay nearly £10 for MX5 Parts for delivery.Loads of people on various forums where saying that Mazda where charging anything up to £40 for just 5ltrs of this stuff.
Plan to use Comma antifreeze just so much cheaper to buy for me from work and read that is compatible especially after a good flush…but will change the thermostat then do the flushing…
Just finished,god the 2 bolts you cant see on the therm are a pain. Got a bit worried after as heater was blowing cold.Dropped the car off the rear stands and continued to bleed with the nose up.Sorted,gauge in the middle and the heater is burning my face off.
Use grease in the end of your socket so you dont drop any bolts!
This is a job I have yet to do but to answer your question I believe to satisfactorily drain, flush and get the air out the car should be level.
However to answer your question I will never go under a car supported on just 4 stands. I am more happy with the front on ramps and the back on stands, less likely to have a stand move or collapse. If working on the rear of the car then with the ramps at the rear and stands at the front. If I have to use stands when removing a wheel then I will also have timber blocks as a back up should the stand collapse.
You can never be too safe when working under a car as I learnt when jacking up a VW Beetle only for the jacking point to collapse. Luckily I had some blocks underneath the chassis as well so no harm was done but could have been very nasty otherwise.
This is me all over…going to tape the bolt to the socket and extension bar, see some thread somwhere where they suggested this,make finger tight then remove tape…Sounds easy!!!
Totally agree, i only wanted the car level as to make flushing the old coolant out of the block. As the car is stitting so low i needed it off the bottom to get my arm under to get the Plastic bleeder loose with a stubby possise.Plus i couldnt get a container under.The nose in the air does make it easier to burp.With the car level the heater blew coil even though the fan had kicked in.Then once the rear stands had been removed it intantly blew hot.After three bleeding sequences and a couple of top ups its blowing very hot.Took it for a 3 mile blast and everythings good.
If its not bled right apparently it blows cold at idle ( with car level)and hot when under load.I experiance this after the 1st bleed & thought id cocked something up.
I would have contributed to this thread but guess what, I was doing my stat today too but here goes.
Had a look at my tools over the weekend and decided I had what I needed, the most important one is a flexible drive to fit an 8mm socket on and a universal joint for the socket set, oh! and as you say some grease, I used red rubber grease it’s a bit thicker.
Used ramps to to get the car up at the front, not too high just enough to get at the drain plug and get my bowl under. before I drained the coolant I removed air box and hoses and tucked them out of the way then the throttle body, left any electrical connections alone. Got to the point where I needed to drain to disconnect the small hoses on the throttle body going to the heater pipe manifold so I could get that tucked out of the way.
Thermostat removal time, I was more worried about losing a bolt than actually getting them out, that’s where the grease comes in to hold the bolts in the socket upon removal, oh! and a steady hand. At this point my neighbours curiosity got the better of him and he came for a chat, he’s 70 yrs old and lives on his own, tea break time. Eventually got the thermostat bolts out after getting my useless light in there to see what I was doing (new one I think for Xmas) yes the top right is a pain to see let alone get at but it all went well and the grease in the socket worked well, I use the flexible drive after cracking the bolts loose to withdraw the bolt in the socket.
Care taken to replace said bolts again with grease to hold them in the socket and a steady hand to guide them into place. I put a large towel under the stat to catch any drips of coolant and catch any dropped bolts, the latter didn’t happen thankfully.
I used the long neck stat @12.40 (Mahle) from Opie oils, mine has the short neck stat fitted so I needed to trim the large hose around 30mm approx, the smaller hose connection remains the same.
Lastly I saved my coolant as it was only changed last year, filtered it through some gauze although there wasn’t much muck that came out with it and stuck it back in. I don’t know whether I’ll need to actually buy a 5 litre bottle of it as I’ve not managed to burp the system yet, still got under 1tr to get back in there.
Neighbours stop play again for a chat and the missus needed my attention (she’s on crutches with a poorly ankle) so I’ll have to burp the system another day, the car is sorn anyway so I’m no going anywhere soon in it.
When I did mine I had the front end up on ramps for the initial drain and flush x2 then back on the ground for the final fill with FL22. I removed just over 5l each time, also found that using the shop vac on the filler managed to get another 250cc out each time. Ran up to temp thermo open and heat to cabin each time before the next drain and flush. Final flush was not clear but felt that enough was enough and managed to get 5l of the coolant in on the final fill with no problem. Easy if time consuming job. Now onto front pads and brake fluid change over the coming months ready for Spring.
Did you manage to burp the system ok, have read it’s a pain to get the air out of the heater matrix/hoses?
Did you put the front up in the air to do the above?
Had no problems at all with the front on ramps. Just waited until the thermostat opened and the heater blew really warm for each flush. For the FL22 fill did the same then dropped the car back down and topped up with distilled water. Could have probably done a couple more flushes but the fluid was pretty clean and it takes ages to do the fill flush and cool thing plus 5l of distilled water each time as well. I did leave the rad cap off until the final fill don’t know if this is the correct way but had no problems with trapped air and the temp gauge seemed to be ok each time.
The tips above from those who have changed the NC coolant will be really useful when I get around to changing my coolant and thermostat this winter. This is what the Forum is all about and many thanks for sharing your experiences.
Paul
May I ask time wise how long did it take you guys,just the drain stripping and refitting (then I will add 1 hour for me)can burp in the dark…just don’t want to run out of daylight hours…
Give your self a couple of hrs, did mine in about 1.30 but if you drop a nut or socket the its enging guards off!
Mke sure you have a good set of pliers or similar for the hose clips.They are a pig to get off,a light rub of red rubber grease makes the slip back on easy.
Ive had a run up the coast this morning with the roof down.Heater on 3/4 and its toasty.Got some strange looks off the comuters,but suppose some poor sods have to work.Hardest decision ill be making today is ‘what cake i will have’
That’s why I gave myself an extra hour, for cake
Such a nice day I got the NC out for a burping session. Nose up on the ramps ran it up to temp, it wouldn’t relieve itself at first but it seemed all ok when I gave the hoses a squeeze, I actually heard it pass wind
Left it running and topped up again, let it go cool and topped it up again, I’ve still got around a pint to go back in and I lost some doing the draining??
Anyways the heater is now to blast furnace levels (well nearly) rather than just warm, the needle on the gauge is rock set in the midway position so a stat change was the correct remedy.
It’s such a shame I can’t actually go for a drive whilst it was toasty warm, It’s not taxed (sorned)
Just a quick simple question, did you disconnect the battery just a pain to go through the ECU relearn agaIn…