Coolant Service
 

Hi from Down Under folks!
I gotta 2013 Oscar Mike JK Wrangler 3.6L V6 Petrol. It says in service schedule that coolant does not need to be replaced until 10 years......aye right! Its time now and I am now servicing mine with a flush and new coolant.
Normally I would when car cold:
1. Set Heater on hot and Empty Rad
2. Fill with demineralised ONLY and run for no more than 15seconds. Then empty coolant. repeat again. until coolant empty is clean.
3. Empty and clean expansion bottle then replace with fresh coolant red premix as specified.
3. Fill engine and rad with coolant mix red premix as specified. Run with rad cap off and heater on until coolant burps. Then top up. Then replace rad cap .
4. Run round local streets for 10 mins. Stop and stand until cold. Then top up to complete.
QUESTION: is there anything extra to be done? For example when I had a 1989 TB42 Patrol it had a drain plug on the block. Is there anything like that with the wrangle or is it as simple as steps 1 - 4 above?
Cheers
Thor

If the Jeep is cold when you do this and you crank it for just 15 secs, won't the thermostat be closed, NOT allowing any coolant left in the engine into the radiator to be drained? Its time for mine to be serviced as well and I've been contemplating on the best way to go about it. I'll may just do a drain and fill on the radiator as I suspect that will replace 90% of the coolant anyway.

I did mine sometime over the last year. I thought it was a bigger PITA than it needed to be. Main issue is that you don't drain much at all from the rad.....and it takes a long time cuz it drains so slow. The lower hose is long, and the way it routes down and around.....you don't really get anything from it and that is frustrating. I'd say just draining the rad itself you get MAYBE 2/3 of a gallon out. Now, if there was no big thing about HOAT vs.OAT coolant, might not be a big deal. 2013 was the year things changed, and you can go down a real wormhole reading up on color and crap between the two. After jacking around with several cycles of the method you outlined, I ended up removing the upper hose from the rad, and pouring diluted backwards (was hot and thermostat was open), until everything coming out was clear. Did another couple cycles when done to make sure the heater core was cleared. I swear, we have the worst petc0cks on our rads. Flushed wife's Nissan Armada few months ago and was as simple as could be using method you outlined.....just as you'd expect.

Yeah I get the thermostat thing. I had an old VS Commodore with the similar issue and the manual recommended removing top and bottom rad hose at block to empty both rad and block. Re attach bottom hose then filling rad with demineralised slowly until water comes out of top hose connector on the head. Then connect top hose at head only. Then top up block with the water through top hose whilst holding vertically up from the head until water seeps out of rad cap filler. When this happens slap the top hose onto the rad pretty damn quick and tighten all. A slow back fill that fills system geddit? Run for 15 secs only. Dump water then repeat as per my prev post.
I'll update when I do this In a week or so them finalise what I did on this thread ok?

Cheers
Thor