Trying to arrange an 11 year service but the local dealers only have a scheduled for up to 10 years 
I believe a yr11 is a year 1 PLUS coolant. I see MX5 parts sell coolant for c£25 but i don’t know how much labour is involved. I’m guessing 30-45 mins?
Can anyone advise?
Where in the country are you?
Hi
Can you not change it yourself ? its an easy job and the drain is on the N/S of the car underneath theres even a pre drilled hole in the belly pan so you dont have to disconnect any hoses just undo the drain plug drain flush and refill .
If not it will take an hour tops for any garage 
Nope - the service schedule states 11 years
Gloucestershire
But I’m not sure i see how that relate to how long it takes to change the coolant? Do different parts of the UK have different gravitational forces that impact how long it takes to drain? 
I walked through the service and parts door of my local Mazda dealer and asked for FL22. He broke into a bulk 6-pack and charged it out pro-rata at just under £15.
12 months ago so …
Google this place, seems local
Performance Link - Gloucester
A local Mazda dealer is quoting a suspiciously round £300 for a year 11 service incl change of coolant…not far off what my village garage is quoting…
As their website quotes £192 for a year 11 service that equates to £108 to change the coolant (despite it being on schedule for year 11). Given MX5 parts quote c£25 for the coolant, that infers £83 for labour…which is probably 45 mins…
Please don’t tell me I’m better off doing the work myself…
Similar situation, I went for the Mazda main dealer for the annual service because although not the cheapest it wasn’t outrageous. I also think they (broadly) know what they’re doing, the service on the record is worth something in the future and it was within walking distance! Will enquire about coolant change next year…presumably the level is at least checked as part of the Mazda basic service…
You’re better off doing the work yourself. Well the coolant change at least!
I paid £100 for a MX5 specialist to convert my car to waterless coolant. That meant a flush with basically ethanol before hand.
Its not complicated but if you do it properly then there are at least 2 flushes with de-ionised water and then a burping process which involves warming up and cooling down 3 times if my memory is correct. There was a post on here a couple of years a go with a full step by step process if you fancy doing it yourself, and doing it properly…
If not then let the Dealer do it and probably not the correct process, they will just drain the system and top it up, leaving probably al least 1 if not 2 litres of the old fliud still in the engine together with a potential air lock meaning the heater may not work properly.
Have a look at this:
If dealer does it you will get a rad full of fresh antifreeze, like when they change brake fluid ,syringe out the res and top it up , standard times probably get 0.2hr for coolant and 0.3 for bk fluid
I agree with others. The dealer won’t do it thoroughly. They will just drain and refill. Pot luck how much old and new fluid you end up with. I did my own and it took me all morning because I followed the procedure that somebody had put on here. i.e. Drain thoroughly, fill with water (I used rainwater), bring up to working temperature. Drain again and if the water doesn’t look too dirty then fill with coolant if water still murky flush with clean water again getting it back up to working temperature. Once you’ve filled with coolant need to get up to working temp’ again to get any air out.
I can appreciate many people won’t want to or feel able to do it themselves but it would be good to find somewhere to do it properly but that would be expensive due to the time involved.
I bought the coolant FL22 from MX5 Parts to do this year, i.e 10 years old,(as I thought).
BUT then read the manual and it is at 11 years old.
Mine only has around 30000 miles on it but it’s the age thing that kicks in.
I’ve also bought a new thermostat and expansion tank to do at the same time.
Likewise, x2 5 litre distilled water to flush through.
As above a pretty easy job (on looking) to flush through, but the thermostat is a little tricky due to one of the bolts.
Will pick a nice day towards the end of Summer to do it.
Just an additional note. The capacity of the cooling system is 7.5 litres. You need 2 x 5 litre cans of coolant.
questioned my dealer about this job and service manager said they never do it. so I’ve left mine alone.
Hmmm, are you saying they have never done it because it doesn’t need doing or because they have never been asked to do it?
As surely that would go against Mazda’s service requirements, (in my opinion of course).
Flushing a system will always leave about a gallon of whatever you flushed with in the system. In the bad old days, you would then add your premix, and top off after running, with concentrate, with a hydrometer to hand to check you are to spec.
Coolant now is premixed. Its not premixed to take account of the 1 gallon left of water in the system. You will end up coolant that is more dilute than intended. Maybe that’s ok from a cooling point of view, because the UK is not that cold a country. But the coolant does contain anti-corrosion additives, and now they will be less effective.
The coolant is designed for a 10 year service in a new engine, 5 years thereafter. Adding a distilled water flush (taking into account dilution effects) would be better. Flushing with 50-50 coolant/water even better. And flushing with FL22 top drawer.
£100 to convert to Evans waterless doesn’t sound so bad now. First flush is with solvent, to remove all water from the system, which adds to the cost. For me, the benefits were better cooling at surfaces (according to the science), better laptimes (according to the MX5 team that did it) and lack of pressurisation (according to me. I can pop off the rad cap on a red hot engine with no fear. On a practical sense, it means less stress on hose connections, and less likelyhood of catastrophic loss of coolant under pressure. Saved my engine twice now when mechanical and electrical aspects of the cooling system have let me down (stuck thermostat in closed position and corroded fan connector)).
The reason for extended changes is to reduce the environmental impact of discarded coolant. That distilled water will also need to go to waste, not down the drain, so it will attract a disposal cost, besides being a purchased consumable (would not use tap water, nor “rain water”)…
I have seen reference to “Mazda Flush Kits” (water? and Wynns?). Mercedes now have a “Citrc Acid Flush”. Its citric acid powder that you add to the water, presumably to dissolve all that scale that you think has built up despite using a long life coolant to spec.
Modern coolants don’t break down like the old antifreezes. In theory, like synthetic gear oils, they should be good for the lifetime of the car, unless contaminated. Which is a given, due to use of rubber hoses.
When i worked at a main Toyota dealer we only changed the coolant if it changed from red to light green. Or somebody had put water in there