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Having recently drained and filled my radiator, I thought it would be a good time to do a write-up!

Items needed:

10mm wrench
Disposable gloves (highly recommended)
Lots of towels
Honda Long Life Type 2 Antifreeze/Coolant  (You can get this at your dealership.  I recommend printing out handaaccessories.com's price on the coolant so that your dealership can price-match like mine does)
(http://www.handa-accessories.com/OL999-9011.jpg)

Drain Pan preferably like the one pictured to make disposing of the coolant easier.  Don't be cheap either, the bigger the pan the better.
(http://www.autozone.com/images/products/blz/blz11845003.jpg)

Get in the car, turn the key to the "ON" position but don't start the car.  Turn the heat on the hottest settings.

If you can fit the drain pan under your radiator without raising your car, you're golden.  That pan wouldn't fit under my car so I had to use the factory jack to raise the front a little.  

This is not necessary, but I recommend that you wear some disposable gloves like the ones they use at the doctor's office.  Once the car is raised with the drain pan under the radiator, open the radiator cap.  Be careful, have some towels around it because some fluid will leak out.  

Once the cap is off, look at the bottom of the radiator and in the very center you will notice a white plastic wingnut.  Unscrew it with your hands, it is easier to do this from up top then from the ground, and not to mention safer!

Now you have some options.  Unscrew the bolt a little and let the coolant drain slowly but in a controlled fashion.  I chose to remove the bolt altogether.  The coolant will gush out and spray all over the cross-member, the bottom of the front of the bumper and just get everywhere.  The coolant will leak out of various places and get all over your driveway so I recommend just letting it drain slowly unless your garage is sealed and easily cleaned.  

Even with the bolt removed as I had, it takes quite a bit of time for the fluid to drain completely.  You can help it along a little by squeezing the lower hose a little especially when it's getting to the part where it just drips out.  

Once all the fluid is drained, clean off the plastic wingnut, insert it back into the radiator, and hand tighten it.  

With a 10mm wrench, unbolt the single bolt holding the reservoir jug in place.  Unscrew the cap, pull out the long hose, and slide out the reservoir tank.  Drain it with the rest of the coolant.  You may want to clean out the exterior of the reservoir tank if you're a neat freak like me.  You can also wash out the tank with some tap water to get all of the old coolant out of it.  

Slide the reservoir tank back and tighten it back up.  Clean off the rubber hose and insert it back into the tank.  

With a proper funnel, fill the radiator all the way up and follow the instructions in the manual how to properly bleed out the system.  

If you're going to be using a drain pan like the one pictured above, getting rid of the old coolant will be a lot easier.  You will use at least an entire gallon of fluid so save the container and drain the old coolant into it.  You will need another container so that you can drain the remaining coolant.

Courtesy of Milan.

Pictures Added courtesy of Thien.

(http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a279/7thGenVillain/08302010058.jpg)
(http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a279/7thGenVillain/08302010059.jpg)
(http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a279/7thGenVillain/08302010062.jpg)
(http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a279/7thGenVillain/08302010064.jpg)
(http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a279/7thGenVillain/08302010065.jpg)
(http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a279/7thGenVillain/08302010066.jpg)
(http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a279/7thGenVillain/08302010067.jpg)

so how much coolant do you need to replace?  i bought 2 of those jugs couse i need to change mine but didnt had time yet. hope this week

when would be the best time to replace the fluid? at 60k or when the fluid turns darker in color?

id say 60K. mine is at 70K now and i need to replace it, its doesnt cost much so better to replace it when honda tells you to

Replace it at 60K.  Good coolant will protect your system from corrosion and won't gum up.  Worn out fluid won't necessarily.  Running until it starts turning black won't cause our cars to over heat as it doesn't gell up completely like dexcool does, but it's still a good idea to replace regularly.

If you have a gm that got 60k miles or more on it, get it out of there.  Flush the dexcool out with water, and replace it with the yellow stuff dodge and ford use (I forget the name, but it's also available at napa).

^^^ thx fellas ill do it @ 60k

Rule of thumb is once every 5 years or go by factory scheduled maitenance interval.

^^ thx thien ill keep that in mind too

I did this at 70k miles a few months back. It sounded sort of intimidating at first...but honestly it is extremely easy to do. Just make sure you have 2-gallons of the coolant...the I4 holds about 1.4 gallons if I remember correctly...I think the V6 is around 1.6 gallons.

would adding water wetter or purple ice be good idea? or just replace coolant?

I'd replace it with coolant.  Not water.  You should be using a mixture of coolant and water with a 1:1 ratio.

i got 2 jugs from honda, i think its premixed. i was talking about coolant additivie, i know two, one by royal purple, i think its called purple ice and other one called water wetter forgot who makes it

Redline makes water wetter. I have a bottle sitting at home waiting to be poured in.

i will take this project on am at about 70k better to be safe then sorry but i will thinking of draining the whole system and adding the blue stuff like the new Honda's is it safe?

Well, I bought 2 jugs of that stuff from Honda (well, according to the time it'd be yesterday). After work I'm going to drain the coolant and replenish it. They took off like 3 bucks for each one, and I didn't even show them the price from handa :P

Here is something you guys might not now. The "resevoir" is actually an overflow bottle.

did mine yesterday. but did not turn heat on with car off. what is that do?
only put in galon of coolant. i guess its not all of it

I think the reason for turning the dial all the way to hot is to cause the thermostat to open up.

ok so i guess i didnt do it right. should i redo it or it will be fine?

Top off your coolant, let it run for awhile until the fans kick on. It may take awhile.

so if i didnt had heat on, do i have to do flush again?

You aren't suppose to have the heat on at all. Just top it off, let it run until the cooling fans engages. After that, you should be fine.

Dont stress it Misha. I really don't know why you gotta turn the knob to hot, but if it says to do it in the manual, there must be a reason why. Not that big of a deal if you didnt though. Doing it all over is just a waste of perfectly good fluid you just put in already so do what Thien said and check ya fluid level.

where would you be able to take the old fluid to for recycling? I asked my local auto parts store if they take it and they said no.

We have a station at our local landfill that takes any hazardous liquids.

Auto Zone does.

I thought any place that sells it is legally required to take it back. I saw that on motor week.

I wish but Advance Auto down the street from me is the place that said they won't take back my old anti-freeze. They didn't tell me why though. Would the DEP or Department of Trans. be able to give me this info.


closest Auto Zone is like 45 min. away from meor I'll wait till I go to NY. Is it all Auto Zones or only the ones who participates in that service like a franchise. I'll explain further if you don't understand what I mean by Franchise.

Walmart takes it back. I either take my stuff there or advance auto parts. If you have a Wal-Mart, there will be a blue or black box behind the store in the parking lot. Just leave the jugs there.

wow, my area sucks. Advanced auto doesn't and the closest Auto Zone is like 45 Min. away. I'll try Walmart then but I doubt that they will take the anti-freeze either.

Should we be using "Honda Only" or can I get some AntiFreeze from AutoZone...? I gotta do mine, im running almost to Minimum!

Ya Billy, Honda only. It's not expensive at the dealer. I think like 11 bucks a bottle. I would have to double check my invoice. You're also gonna need two bottles if your gonna do a drain and fill I believe.

I recommend using honda. There only a few things that I will not use from honda since the other stuff is better. But yeah get the antifreeze from honda. I need to flush my soon. The previous only used some blue crap. I didn't even know that antifreeze/coolent comes in blue. I though they came in highlighter green/yellow or red such as the redline water wetter.

New Honda coolant is blue just to let you know Ken. Older Honda uses green.

thanks Thien. Yeah I was like why is my shit blue? lol I like 3 of those gallon since my uncle works at honda and he just gave them to me. I also have differential fluid for my mom MDX and auto tranney fluid.

Kool, just making sure! I will be doing this next week... thanks

Why you should use Honda/Acura only AntiFreeze: Guess this answers those why should I use it questions....

Genuine Honda Coolant is the Only Way to Go

Increasingly severe operating conditions and the advent of lower maintenance requirements have resulted in significant changes in the variety and the concentration of additives used in engine coolant. Also, the continual improvements in engine and vehicle design have challenged coolant suppliers to design products that perform well in a more demanding environment.

To meet these needs, Honda engineers have developed a superior, high-quality coolant that has several advantages over the competition.

Some antifreeze, although labeled as safe for aluminum parts, may not be compatible with Acura cooling system components. Extensive research and testing by both Honda R&D and CCI, the manufacturer of the Honda coolant, have proven that the abrasive silicates and/or borates found in most domestic coolants can cause these problems:

- - Silicates bond to the surface of the water pump seal and act as an abrasive, causing considerable seal erosion and coolant leakage. In actual tests, the silicated coolant caused early leakage. This leakage increased dramatically until a substantial portion of the coolant had been lost. In contrast, the Honda coolant had almost no leakage through the duration of the test.

Chart here, entitled "Coolant Leakage from Water Pump Seal", showing Leaked Coolant Volume in ml as follows for each test duration in Hours:

24 hrs: Honda Coolant 0, Typical Silicated Coolant 21
48 hrs: Honda Coolant 1, Typical Silicated Coolant 36
72 hrs: Honda Coolant 2, Typical Silicated Coolant 47
96 hrs: Honda Coolant 2, Typical Silicated Coolant 55
120 hrs: Honda Coolant 2.5, Typical Silicated Coolant 56
144 hrs: Honda Coolant 3.5, Typical Silicated Coolant 57
168 hrs: Honda Coolant 4, Typical Silicated Coolant 58.8
192 hrs: Honda Coolant 6, Typical Silicated Coolant 63
200 hrs: Honda Coolant 6, Typical Silicated Coolant 64

- - Silicates tend to gel and settle in the coolest parts of the cooling system, causing radiator plugging and overheating.

- - Borates cause pitting corrosion on the cylinder head.

- - Silicate inhibitors are difficult to stabilize and, therefore, limit coolant shelf life.

Most commercially available coolants were originally designed for cast iron engines. Silicate, an inexpensive additive, was added to coolants to prevent aluminum corrosion, but the long-term durability of the combination was not tested.

In contrast, Honda coolant was designed specifically for aluminum engines. It contains an organic corrosion inhibitor instead of silicate. This superior formula gives these advantages:

- - No silicate abrasion of water pump seals. For example, these graphs show the surface roughness of two aluminum water pump seal rings. Seal A, exposed to silicated coolant, shows considerable damage. Seal B, exposed to Honda coolant, displays only minimal wear.


[graphs here, showing roughness across the surface, with A a very wiggly line, and B a very smooth line]


- - No plugging or overheating caused by silicate gelling.

- - Excellent corrosion protection for aluminum components.

- - Long-term corrosion protection for other cooling system materials (steel, cast iron, copper, solder, gaskets, seals, and O-rings).


You can find less expensive coolants on the market, but now you can see why genuine Honda coolant is the only coolant approved for Honda and Acura vehicles (it MUST be used for warranty repairs). Honda's non-silicate formula delivers added protection not offered by 95 percent of other brands. Since our customers expect lower maintenance, you're doing them an injustice if you use any other coolant.

very nice. Just wondering what is the difference between the old honda coolent/anti freeze vs the new one besides the color? I have 2 gallons of the old green one still in my garage but my other accord use the blue one? Can I mix it?

The big difference is the green coolant is made to be used until about 60k miles, the new blue coolant that Honda puts in all their cars now lasts about 100k miles. As long as they completely flushed your system your fine. I wouldn't mix the 2 though just to be on the safe side. Since Honda uses blue coolant now I would recommend to use it only!

Also the blue coolant is 50/50 as apposed to the green coolant...

alright thanks. I think the car was flush last year. Not 100% sure. I don't have the record of what was done on the car besides the rear brake pads done at the dealership.

Edited:

Also the blue coolant is 50/50 as apposed to the green coolant....

Pics added for better visualization.

pretty simple to do. im really glad when i went to honda to buy 2 gallons of the coolant he said ill only need one.  :mad: i said no i think i need two. he said nope. so now i need a 2nd gallon and the parts department is closed tomorrow. :mad: :mad: fucking bastard

Should've listened to the guys here that already did it. Never listen to parts guys. They don't know shit.

^This.