msrdude

I have a 03 navigator, has anyone ever flushed their coolant before??? Any special things or steps needed to be done???

msrdude

ok never mind, I got Mitchell on Demand to give me step by step. I see no one has done it before

But another question, what engine coolant does this car take? The owners manual says green or yellow, but the car came with orange. What???

jwko

Orange? That sounds like Dexcool.

I would flush it a couple of times with water, until it runs clean, and use Prestone in the yellow jug.

Hamfisted

Are you the original owner of the vehicle? The stock coolant should've been yellow colored. Whichever you choose to refill it with make sure it meets Ford spec M97B51–A1. (Page 310 in your owner's manual) That would be either Ford Premium Gold ($14 at the dealer), Zerex G-05 ($12 at NAPA), or Peak Lifetime coolant (Good luck finding it...). No green coolants meet that spec. There's a engine block drainplug on either side of the block. Takes a allen wrench to remove the plug. The drivers side is easy to get to, the passenger side is a bear. Open both front and rear heat controls to full hot to allow flushing out the old coolant from those heater cores. Total system quantity is about six gallons, so you'd need three jugs of coolant and three jugs of distilled water to complete the flush.


- Mike

msrdude

No I am the second owner. Maybe bad yellow coolant turns orange? My corolla went from green to yellow when it turned bad.

Isn't there a drain plug on the radiator somewhere??? Any way or have a picture for me to see the location exactly?

Bert

There should be a drain plug on the opposite side as the lower radiator hose. It's plastic so be careful with it.

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Bert

msrdude

i think gm is the only one who uses orange coolant??
I used a hydrometer to suck out the coolant to check out the color cuz looking through the jug is just wrong. I sucked some coolant out and it looks yellow. One problem. I do not know if it is actually yellow, or if it was green and the green turns yellow when the coolant is bad/needs to be replaced and flushed. My best bet, i believe, is go to the dealers and give them my vin number and my production date so they know the right color. I think its green because the coolant never got replaced and it is 100,000 k miles. Also, it smells too

Bert

Ford did put yellow anti-freeze in at the factory. Look at page 310 in your owners manual.

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Bert

msrdude

Yeah, it is yellow/gold. Went to Ford dealers and they figured it out from the production date. They said if the production date was dated after 7/2002, it would be gold/yellow.

msrdude

Ok, the manual says the radiator can hold 26 liters of coolant, which is abt 6 gallons, and I only poured in 4 gallons and it was full.. degas bottle still says it full. after driving it and its been 24 hours aldredy still says full. Why is that