There is a manual in the knowledge base which shows pictures of the cooling system and bleed points and a description of what to do - which is more detailed than the one I did in the write-up.
Essentially the bleed points are ...
1. At the top of the radiator, driver side, a plug with a cross shaped depression for a screwdriver to undo it. This bleeds the radiator and prevents an air-lock.
2. On one of the heater hoses under the bonnet tray which has a small wheel type fitting moulded to the higher-most heater pipe. Can be undone by hand. This purges the heater circuit.
3. There may be one in the engine compartment on one of the bottom hoses, but I couldn't see one ...
To drain the system (my steps) ...
1. Move/lift the car to a location where fluid can be dropped or collected from underneath the car (not onto the garage floor) - ideally need to keep it level .
2. Undo the filler cap in the engine compartment.
3. Undo the radiator bleed point.
4. Remove the bottom radiator hose and be prepared for wet sleeves :badgrin:
5. At some stage during draining, undo the heater hose bleed point.
I have found that not all fluid drains out using the above method (which may or may not be correct) so ...
1. Put the radiator bleed plug back in, the bottom radiator hose off, leaving the heater one undone.
2. In the privacy of your own drive or garage ... Pressurise the cooling system - I pressurised it by blowing into the system and generating a constant pressure thus managing to purge more old coolant from the system, mainly from the heater circuit but also probably from the underfloor hoses [smilie=icon_eek.gif]
Before re-filling, as some old coolant will still be in the system (small volumes), and if you are bothered about this ...
1. Put the radiator bleed plug back in, the bottom radiator hose off, leaving the heater one undone.
2. Begin to put new coolant into the system via the filler bottle in the engine compartment.
3. As the system fills old fluid will be purged from the heater system as can be seen by old coloured coolant coming out of the heater bleed hose.
4. When the colour changes and you are happy, you can then proceed to filling up the system proper ... Which will, of course, require you to remember to put put the bottom radiator hose back on :wink:
I will stop writing anymore now as the re-filling and air purging procedures are documented in my article and in the manual.
Hope this helps anyway and remember, these are just my take on it - so there could be better ways etc ...
Martin
