[janeygee]

Hi,
trying to drain the system prior to changing the coolant.
I've removed the 2 blue drain plugs on the bottom of the radiator and expansion bottle(I think) and collected about 3 litres of coolant.
The car spec sheet says the full system including heater holds 7 litres.
How do I get the rest out ....... other drain plugs etc ?

I don't want to refill with new coolant, having left more than half of the old still in the system.

 

[dailydoggy]

engine block drain aswell but yal never get it all out tho (the cabin heater matrix and pipes) unless you do a coolant flush a decent thorough flush usually negates the need to drain the block aswell tho..

make sure cabin heater is set to full heat when filling or flushing..

 

[janeygee]

Thanks for advice, though the coolant I've drained is blue, and the new coolant, bought and recomended from the BM dealer is Orange and should not be diluted with water .......... so how do they get it all out to change in a dealership ?

 

[dailydoggy]

i don't think they do they just drain the rad,bottle and block..

THE DIY'er usually does a flush cos he has more time on his hands to arse about flushing and draining..

BMW dealer coolant is usually blue and not premixed was last time i bought a bottle before xmas, dunno if they use different in diesels for the cast iron block or summat? i dunno..

if its different coolant and premixed ide drain the block aswell get as much as you can out before refilling..

 

[janeygee]

Sounds good to me ............. if it doesn't work I'll re-post

 

[janeygee]

Just for information in case anyone else has a go .......... there seems to be many different setups of bits around the coolant system.
This is a 1999 January 320d.
Could not get anywhere near the block draining plug at all, but I found that opening all the bleed valves ( secondary heater, primary heater, EGR coolant pipe, radiator on top of expansion tank, and one more to the right of the EGR valve.)
These are shown on the "How to" section in TIS.
Disconnected the lower EGR coolant pipe and all came out. I measured the volume of the old coolant, and it was almost exactly what the book says ....... 7 litres.
Refilling the system, followed the instructions given in TIS and it worked perfectly.