Ford Focus (1998 - 2004) - 00 1.6 Changing antifreeze

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Mon 21 Dec 2009 15:55
00 1.6 Changing antifreeze - RedLake
I need to top up my coolant /antifreeze.

I know you should not mix the pink and blue varieties, but what is in my system currently is just a rusty brown colour. (I'm assuming it was once pink?)

Can I just add a 1litre top up, diluted as per instructions?... Or should I really drain the whole lot and refill from scratch?.... If so, how do I go about this?

Cheers

Edited by Webmaster on 21/12/2009 at 21:39

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Mon 21 Dec 2009 18:55
00 16 Changing antifreeze - andyp
Personally i would recommend a drain down, a flush through with clean water, then a refill with the proper Ford coolant. However on a lot of cars these days this job isn't quite as simple as it used to be back in the good old days, some vehicles needing special equipment/procedures to refill their cooling systems without causing airlocks etc, so make sure you find out if this is the case on your Focus first.
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Mon 21 Dec 2009 22:58
00 16 Changing antifreeze - mikej
If you've not had the coolant changed yet on your car and you've got the 10-year stuff in, then I guess it's due a change anyway, so you might as well do it properly and replace the lot. The Motorcraft (Ford) coolant is pretty reasonably priced too.

Changing the coolant on my 1.8 was a simple job - no special procedures were required and none were mentioned in the Haynes Manual, IIRC.

I think it was just a case of removing the radiator draining plug and letting the old coolant drain out. I then flushed through with plenty of water via the expansion tank and once that drained out, refitted the drain plug and topped up (carefully and steadily) via the expansion tank with the new coolant. I'd have then run the engine for a bit and topped up to the max level as necessary. I didn't suffer any airlocks.

This is just from memory though - get yourself a Haynes Manual and you'll recover the cost of it by doing this one job yourself !

Edited by mikej on 21/12/2009 at 23:02

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Wed 23 Dec 2009 13:12
00 16 Changing antifreeze - RedLake
Thanks guys. Will give it a do over the holidays
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