Coolant drain
02-01-19, 10:10 AM
#1
Driver
Thread Starter
Coolant drain
Ok guys well the ls I bought couple months ago have been a great adventure except when it got really cold this past couple of weeks. I started noticing that it was overheating really quick and it only happen when it was cold. So I added coolant because it looked like there was none, so I simply added some to check if it was it. At first it seemed like it fixed it took it around the block and it started overheating when I stopped and turn it off I open the hood let it cool down and see what the issue was. Well I’ve read about touching the hoses to see if one is hot and one is cold well to my surprise they were both hot. But the hose that goes down to the radiator about half way down the way I went to feel it and it was cold so I squeezed it a tiny bit and it was like a slushy and found out it was frozen, so clearly the owner before was running water instead of coolant and didn’t tell me 😑. Anyways it’s suppose to warm up and was wondering where the drain plugs are to drain the water/coolant. It sucks because driving the ls was great.
02-01-19, 10:23 AM
#2
Lexus Test Driver
http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/cooling/coolant.html
this site will be very good to you, and to get to the two drain plugs on the engine you'll need like a 2ft extension
also use the toyota RED (not pink) coolant, if there was anything other than that previously in there, you might want to flush it out first before putting the RED in
this site will be very good to you, and to get to the two drain plugs on the engine you'll need like a 2ft extension
also use the toyota RED (not pink) coolant, if there was anything other than that previously in there, you might want to flush it out first before putting the RED in
02-01-19, 12:32 PM
#3
Advanced
I don't know how you (it) has made it through the last couple of days with this cold spell. Have you been operating it regularly the last 2-3 days? It sounds like the coolant isn't circulating. What year is your LS? If it is older, it may use the green coolant. I don't know which year Toyota/Lexus switched to the red, my 98 has the red. You don't want to mix them as Stroock639 mentioned.
02-01-19, 12:45 PM
#4
Driver
Thread Starter
I don't know how you (it) has made it through the last couple of days with this cold spell. Have you been operating it regularly the last 2-3 days? It sounds like the coolant isn't circulating. What year is your LS? If it is older, it may use the green coolant. I don't know which year Toyota/Lexus switched to the red, my 98 has the red. You don't want to mix them as Stroock639 mentioned.
02-01-19, 12:51 PM
#5
Advanced
I'm in southern Indiana, near Louisville Kentucky. It's supposed to warm up the next few days. Maybe it will in Illinois depending on your location and you can figure out which way to go with this. Can you tell if it has green coolant? If you can't get to the drain plugs at least see if you can get a good mix going (50/50 if possible). It may have air in the system as well, which can cause overheating, lack of heat for the HVAC, gurgling noises, etc.
02-01-19, 01:43 PM
#6
Driver
Thread Starter
I'm in southern Indiana, near Louisville Kentucky. It's supposed to warm up the next few days. Maybe it will in Illinois depending on your location and you can figure out which way to go with this. Can you tell if it has green coolant? If you can't get to the drain plugs at least see if you can get a good mix going (50/50 if possible). It may have air in the system as well, which can cause overheating, lack of heat for the HVAC, gurgling noises, etc.
02-01-19, 01:49 PM
#7
Racer
Green was used by previous owner so I continued using it, no issues so far
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02-01-19, 02:22 PM
#8
Advanced
If it's green, I'd stick with that. It would be more work to drain and flush out all the green just so you could change it to the red. For now you want to see what is up with system overheating. The link that Stroock639 posted gives an idea on adding coolant (step#10) and (step #12). Residual air is removed in step #20. Be easy with it since you don't know what exactly is going on. Let it warm up a little then bring it up to 2000 rpm and hold it a minute or so, let off and repeat a couple of times.
02-01-19, 03:19 PM
#9
Lexus Test Driver
the cooling system isn't like the transmission where suddenly changing the fluid can create a problem, i don't see a benefit to sticking with green just because that's what was already there... but oh well as long as it's an ethylene glycol coolant it'll be fine
and it really isn't any more work, assuming you actually open all 3 drain points and not just the radiator pretty much all the old coolant will come out anyway
if you really want to be a bit more thorough, you can fill it up with just water, run that for a few minutes, drain the water, then just fill it back up with the red stuff
the red coolant is not premixed however, and you're supposed to mix it with distilled water, so i guess there's a bit more effort involved there... but hardly since you can just pour in the whole gallon of coolant followed a whole gallon of water, and then i just did roughly half coolant and half water in a pitcher and topped it off
and it really isn't any more work, assuming you actually open all 3 drain points and not just the radiator pretty much all the old coolant will come out anyway
if you really want to be a bit more thorough, you can fill it up with just water, run that for a few minutes, drain the water, then just fill it back up with the red stuff
the red coolant is not premixed however, and you're supposed to mix it with distilled water, so i guess there's a bit more effort involved there... but hardly since you can just pour in the whole gallon of coolant followed a whole gallon of water, and then i just did roughly half coolant and half water in a pitcher and topped it off
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