getting air out of cooling system.

[kazuma]

Okay so yesterday I noticed the car over heats after about a 30min drive, so I let it cool down and tried to get the air out of the system by loosening the bolt on the intake manifold and running the car at idle and adding fluids until no more air bubbles came out of the radiator but after about 20-30 minutes of doing this I noticed the coolant would go down and I'd add some to it and then it would suddenly rush back up and spill out.

Now I kept trying to do this for several minutes with no luck and I decided to stop as I didnt want to damage anything and after I turned off the car I noticed a bubbling sound come from the radiator(guessing the air bubbles).

Did I do the air removal trick properly? Should I have taken that bolt out completely?

Any help would be greatly appreciated thanks.

[!Zar!]

Why is there air in your lines in the first place? Did you recently change or do anything to your coolant system?

How is the condition of your headgasket? Did it overheat bad recently?

What I normally do is jack the car up, fill the car with whatever coolant you want then squeeze the upper radiator hose. After It's looks full, I'll drop the car then open the weep hole on top of the coolant inlet neck on top of where the thermostat is.

After that you should be fine.

[ms!3]

jack up the front, heater on full blast.

if that doesnt work you might have a blown head gasket like Mel said.

[jrbump]

I used to do that method but after sticking with the FSM method for awhile I really think it is best.

Park your car on a level surface.
Top off the radiator
Start the car with the heater on and let it reach operating temp. Rev the motor with no load a few times as well.
Shut the car off
Crack open the air bleeder until water comes out, or you at least don't hear air coming out.

Repeat the: top off, warm up, shut off and bleed procedure until you get fluid right away when you crack the bleeder.

That should do it.

[kazuma]

Why is there air in your lines in the first place? Did you recently change or do anything to your coolant system?

How is the condition of your headgasket? Did it overheat bad recently?

What I normally do is jack the car up, fill the car with whatever coolant you want then squeeze the upper radiator hose. After It's looks full, I'll drop the car then open the weep hole on top of the coolant inlet neck on top of where the thermostat is.

After that you should be fine.

I have not had a recent bad overheat recently, the car boosts fine(ka-t with tuned ecu). I dont have any white smoke coming out of the exhaust of the car or any sign of a bad gasket(no coolant in oil, no white/blue smoke, no abnormalties while driving).

I'll try jacking the front of the car up and following your instructions though to see if that helps at all.

thanks for the advice :)

[kazuma]

I used to do that method but after sticking with the FSM method for awhile I really think it is best.

Park your car on a level surface.
Top off the radiator
Start the car with the heater on and let it reach operating temp. Rev the motor with no load a few times as well.
Shut the car off
Crack open the air bleeder until water comes out, or you at least don't hear air coming out.

Repeat the: top off, warm up, shut off and bleed procedure until you get fluid right away when you crack the bleeder.

That should do it.

Iam guessing when you do it this way the pressure is gone when you open the bleeder valve right? lol dont wanna burn my self again(long time ago :D).

[jrbump]

The opening caused when you crack the bleeder valve is tiny, plus the bolt makes any liquid squirt down.

Just crack it, don't remove it.

[dori_sil8t]

buy the snap on kit. its pretty much a big funnel. comes with the kit ull need to use. fill it up and it uses atmospheric pressure to force out the air. (car running heater switchd to full) clean n easy no burns

[kazuma]

buy the snap on kit. its pretty much a big funnel. comes with the kit ull need to use. fill it up and it uses atmospheric pressure to force out the air. (car running heater switchd to full) clean n easy no burns

hey looked on snap on's site and didnt find it, can you give me the name of the kit so i can try to look it up?

[dori_sil8t]

ill try to find it. do you know anyone that has a snapon truck that goes there. they carry it around on there trucks.

[dori_sil8t]

they dont have it on there site. i know they got them on the trucks or can get them for sure

[upSLIDEdown]

I've actually had the same issue recently. Haven't done anything different. The car just decided it wants to overheat if I get in slow moving traffic for longer than a few minutes. I need to bleed mine too.

[g6civcx]

The way the heater hoses have to be redesigned to fit RHD engines into LHD cars can cause the heater core to trap air.

Make sure all the connections in the system are tight. Raise the front end as high as you can. Open the radiator cap, set the temp selector to full hot, and run the engine while topping off coolant.

Then alternating between the bleeder bolt on the upper water outlet where it meets the upper radiator hose, and the heater core hose, you loosen each a little bit and then tighten it back up.

Loosen the bleeder bolt until coolant runs out in a steady stream. Then loosen the heater core hose just a tad and quickly tighten it back again. You will feel a quick rush of vacuum and then coolant will shoot pass the hose if you don't tighten it back quickly enough.

Just keep alternating between the bleeder bolt and the heater hoses. Remember to top off the radiator.

After 5-10 minutes of going back and forth like that, your heater core will be bled and you will have heat, as well as not overheat.

I tried bleeding without loosening the heater hoses and the car can run for 30 minutes and still have air trapped in the heater core even with the bleeder bolt open and shooting a steady stream.

Just be patient and make sure you don't crack the heater core fittings. They're plastic.

[jrbump]

^ never thought of that.

Are we talking SR or KA in this situation though?

[g6civcx]

^ never thought of that.

Are we talking SR or KA in this situation though?

Both. Ideally you just have to set the temp to full hot, but sometimes cracking the heater hose open real quick can release pressure and cause enough suction to suck coolant into the hose and then into the radiator core.