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Draining / Refilling Coolant on New Citroen C4 / DS4 with 1.6HDi O ring for bung |
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gmerry |
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Member No: #11625
Joined: Nov 30 2009Location: aberdeen |
Hi For B7 and B78 cars with diesel 1.6HDi engine, I'm intending to drain/refill coolant as car is coming up to 5 years old. I've found the procedure in the Technical Document section. To drain I need to open air bleed screws located at heater hose and thermostat housing (left hand end of engine below induction air trunking) and remove bottom hose from the radiator and coolant drain bung from the near the bottom of the block. To replace the drain bung. I'm supposed to use a new O ring. Does anyone know the part number for this O ring. thanks G |
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iang |
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Member No: #9662
Joined: May 28 2009Location: Cambs |
Hi gmerry, I can't answer your question, but personally I would drain the engine side by sucking out the coolant via a tube fed deep down from the reservoir. I have a C4 Mk1 hatchback 1.6HDI 16v(92bhp) and did it this way first with an inexpensive (less than £5) hand held manual pump from ebay (after draining the radiator side the usual way by removing the lower radiator hose). Then, to see how effective it was at removing the old coolant from the engine side, I removed the cylinder block drain plug and almost no further coolant drained out (about 50cc at most). Getting the cylinder block drain plug out then re-seating it was not at all easy on my mark 1 C4 & I vowed I would never remove it again! I believe you have the Mk2 C4 so it may not be as difficult to drain by the cylinder block drain plug, but why drain it that way when the alternative is far easier? Also if you leave the cylinder block drain plug well alone, you will have no worries about whether you got the O ring seal + retaining clip back on securely, so no risk of leaks after you have done the job. If you haven't already seen my post "Cylinder block drain plug for coolant/ antifreeze" have a read. I've composed a very detailed "how to" in my second post with links to the cheap hand pump & Youtube video to give an idea how it works. The post is maybe almost too comprehensive as it's incredibly detailed on all aspects of changing the coolant & bleeding the system, but I would hope that reading it would save you time & unnecessary hassle in the long run, as well as getting a thorough job done in the most effective way. Your past posts have been very helpful to me, so I hope I am able reciprocate now. I look forward to your comments or questions ....... Ian. |
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iang |
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Member No: #9662
Joined: May 28 2009Location: Cambs |
I forgot to add a link to my "Cylinder block drain plug for coolant/ antifreeze" forum post with "How To" It's here ... - Click Here - |
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gmerry |
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Member No: #11625
Joined: Nov 30 2009Location: aberdeen |
Hi Ian, great suggestion to suck the old fluid out via the expansion bottle connection hose, rather than trying to remove and replace the cylinder block drain bung. The Pela should do the job. While I'm at it, I'll probably refill the system by vacuum to save having to bleed air out of the various pipes. I used this method to fill my solar thermal system and it was very effective at getting rid of all the air in the system. Thanks for the great tip. G |
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iang |
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Member No: #9662
Joined: May 28 2009Location: Cambs |
You're welcome. By the way, the cooling system is a piece of cake to bleed with a couple of standard long clear PVC tubes snugly connected to the bleed valves and fed back into the cooling system via a header tank reservoir. You just need 2 lengths (about 150cm and 250cm) of 7mm inner diameter/10mm outer diameter thick wall clear PVC tubing. It’s easy to push on the valve stems & creates a waterproof fit, which is great for bleeding the system, whilst not having any coolant leaks. Then fill until the header fills up & run the engine with the header tank in place to circulate the coolant. Using clear tubing, you can see immediately when all the air is out of the system as when the coolant returns to the top of the header tank from the bleed valves via the clear tubes, there will be no bubbles visible in the tubing. You will find any air is bled out very quickly, so you don't need to let the coolant get too hot! As long as you have a header tank for the coolant reservoir when refilling to create a little bit of fill pressure in the system, you'll have no problem. To keep costs down, I made a reservoir adapter to create a leak-proof seal with a 1.5 litre Cola bottle (which took me ages to make), but you can buy a universal design type by Sealey (VS0043 Automotive Coolant Filler Set) or similar which I'm sure would work very well. The key to filling & bleeding the system easily is to have the two simple pieces of kit. 1. A couple of lengths of clear thick wall PVC tube 2.)A decent leak-proof reservoir connector with header tank. When you're done, you can suck out any excess coolant from the filling funnel/header and reservoir with your Pela and keep for topping up. Ian. |
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gmerry |
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Member No: #11625
Joined: Nov 30 2009Location: aberdeen |
Managed to track down the O ring for the drain bung (sits just inboard of the water pump, up behind the engine). The part number is #1338g5. There's an ebay seller if you need one by post - Click Here - . The piping from the expansion tank might be a little too convoluted for the Pela suction tube, will try this method and have the new seal as a backup. regards |
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gmerry |
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Member No: #11625
Joined: Nov 30 2009Location: aberdeen |
Draining the old coolant and replacing with new is now complete. I used Comma / BASF G30 coolant, about 2.5 litres of concentrate plus same again of soft Scottish water. I removed the undertray, loosened the bottom radiator hose spring clamp and then removed the lower hose and drained the radiator side. The fill piping leading from the reservoir to the coolant pump is too convoluted to allow for a suction hose so I drained the engine block the official way: ie removing the plastic drain bung. Working underneath the car with the undertray removed, reach around above the driveshaft with long needle nose pliers and remove the metal locking clip. Then remove the plastic bung with fingers only because its delicate. Its tight because the o ring will have swelled. It helps if the metal heat shield down the back/lower of the engine, is eased away so that one hand can go in from the inner side, and the other hand from above the drive shaft. Only room on the bung for two fingers. Make sure your head is out of the way when the bung flies out so you don't get an unpleasant shower. Remove the two air hoses, inlet into the air filter box and the short hose from the air filterbox to the turbocharger. This provides access to the bleed screw which is part of the thermostat housing (just above bellhousing) To fill, replace the drain bung using a new o ring. Reconnect the lower radiator hose. Remove the battery to gain access to the heater bleed valve (same plastic cap as thermostat bleed screw). I used a rubber flask stopper with a hole through the middle and a funnel in the hole to fill the system. Disconnect the upper radiator bleed pipe and hold this upwards (or tie with string so the open end is higher than the filling funnel. Pour in the 50/50 antifreeze mixture until liquid comes out of the heater bleed screw then replace that. Keep going until liquid comes out the thermostat bleed screw then replace that. Keep the expansion chamber full to the top via bung/funnel. Replace the radiator top bleed pipe. Now the entire engine and heater will be full so safe to start the engine. Fast idle the engine, 1500 rpm until hot and hot coolant goes into the top radiator (may take 20 minutes or so). At this stage the air will be bleed out from the radiator and the level in the expansion tank will drop. Top up as necessary. Check internal heater works (max setting/max fan) then turn that off to speed up the coolant temperature rise. Once level stabilised (no more air coming from radiator bleed connection), suck out any excess fluid from the expansion tank, replace cap and road test vehicle. Check and adjust coolant level in the expansion tank. Wash out any split coolant with a stream of water from a garden hose (around bottom of the radiator/back of the engine above drive shafts. Job done. Note, to speed up the job, it would be worth making a filling hose assembly for the radiator. Possibly this could be done by disconnecting the radiator upper hose and then filling the radiator separately to the rest of the system via a special hose assembly. The special hose assembly would just be a spare hose elbow connected to the radiator top connection! The radiator top connection is 32mm, so a 32mm hose elbow would do the job of filling the radiator directly rather than waiting for the engine to heat up and for the thermostat to pass the hot coolant through to the radiator |
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gmerry |
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Member No: #11625
Joined: Nov 30 2009Location: aberdeen |
The correct sized rubber flask stopper to fit and seal the top of the expansion bottle is number 35. Its easier to buy one with a hole already in it, such as those sold by King Scientific (labware). Here's an ebay listing for the same. - Click Here - Using the bung and a funnel provides additional head so that the coolant level in the funnel is higher than all the bleed screws making elimination of air very easy. |
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