Coolant

[Bogmonster40]

The top blew off my header tank about 10 weeks ago and I lost most of my coolant. I was not far from home (less than a mile) so i managed to get enough water to re-fill it to get back home. My intention was to drain they system and refill making sure I had enough coolant in.
Anyway not quite sure how but it completely went out of my head till yesterday when my father was putting coolant in his car.
How many litres of water does the 2.5i V6 petrol hold ?
Am I right in thinking that there should be at least 25% coolant in the system ?
Where is the best place to open the system so it will all drain out B4 I refill ?
Most important - Have I likely done any damage over the last 10 weeks running round with no coolant in my system??
Thanks people in advance.

[hijimhere]

you need at least 30% but most of us run with 50%

[helen&tony]

Hi
One of the reasons for the 50/50 mix is that it's the optimum for the corrosion inhibitors in many makes
Cheers
Helen

[mikeWalsall]

According to the handbook the cooling system holds 13 litres ..

To drain the coolant I usually remove the bottom hose from the radiator, then 'ram' an hose pipe into it to reverse flush the system ..

[haydn callow]

DO MAKE SURE you bleed the system properly.......you have been very lucky if you have done no damage.........see the 'how to bleed fact sheet ' and search 'bleeding bongos' on YouTube .
If you don,t do this properly you will be looking at Massive expense.

[rita]

Its a 2.5i V6 petrol...


You need to find out what caused the cap to blow off.

[Bogmonster40]

I love this site, no matter what the problem there is always someone on here to help.
"My wife goes out everyday shopping, and everyday she buys clothes everyday" help me with that one please No suggestions of hair dryers in the bath or tampering with the brakes on her car - The police are still suspicious about the demise of the first "Mrs Boggie"
The header tank lid blew off cos I asked "The current Mrs Boggie" to put it on when she finished the top up, and foolishly I never checked !
I had to bleed my system previously and re-filled using that "Pre-war" video on Youtube. Only kidding if it wasn't for people like them people like me would not have a clue - Hang on, I still don't know what i'm doing......
I like the idea of "Ramming a hose in" to flush the radiator, i can just imagine Mrs Boggie now - "Do you know what your doing" - urhhh No, thats why the laptop is on the front seat.......
I am right in thinking it was Red coolant in the system the last time I did it ? Sure it was and I only got 2 litres so I better go and buy another 5Litres cos I think the signs are we are going to have a bloody cold one this year in South Wales.....

Once again many thanks for your replies, even if I did not love my Bongo so much I think i'd still use this site as everyone is so damn nice

[Simon Jones]

While the capacity of the system is around 13 litres, because you can never get all the coolant out, you'll get nowhere near that amount back in there. Personally, I would drain it all out, flush the system out, fill with 5 litres of new antifreeze (same type as before) and then top the rest up with tap water.

If you have been running around on a very weak mix, you may have some extra rust and sediment in the coolant now, so giving it a good flush out will help.

Out of interest, what why did it need topping up in the first place? In normal use, you should not need to top up unless you've got a leak somewhere. If you haven't already, get a Haydn low coolant alarm.