I was at the stealership, and among my buisness there i managed to ask what it would cost to drain, and swap my coolant.

this guy, who i assumed was the head mech. cause he had a big desk, and seemed old, and knowledgeable, told me that its over an hour of work because you need to bleed the coolant system...

can anybody tell me about this? i'v checked the bently manual and they dont mention it. i dont wanna hit the summer months and have my coolant system not working right.

or is this just another stealership technique....

thx

-Z

 

it is a pain in the rear to bleed right, and takes some time, but pretty much just involves disconnecting the upper radiator hose from over the top of the intake manifold and waiting till water comes out... and it takes a while. and you have to turn the car on and off here and there to get the water pump moving. then the heat wont work for a day, and miraculously it starts to work, and then you put more water in it, then you are done.

 

not sure about audi's really cuz have never really changed coolant just for sake of changing it before as g12 coolant that our cars use is lifetime coolant, but usually you use a flush machine to change coolant like that at a dealership, but you gotta remember everything at a dealership is flat rate, so 1 hour sounds about right for the labor charge, if you do it yourself, you need to bleed it out, the best way i do it is just run it with cap off expansion tank and it will work the air out and you will see the coolant drop quite a few times, it takes about 20-30 minutes to work all the air out, ask soley we just did it the other day.

 

if Audi was doing it they have the pressure drain and feed tools and it can be done in 20/30 mins easley (probably less), the tool does it without letting air in while flushing the full system till clean then adding the new coolant all at the same time

 

Remove the three screws from the expansion tank. Remove the cap. With engine running and heater on, raise the tank and add anti-freeze. Do this until the level is attained with the tank in origonal position.

 

agreed ^

 

so basically make the tank the highest point in the stytem, so it flows all coolant to the bottom, and the air to the top?

what about disconnecting the radiator hose like xxx said?

 

i just did it like 5 times cause i kept screwing up my reinstallation of the head and timing belt. it works, and you dont have to take anything more apart on your car than you have to.

 

sweet thx guys