Coolant Change Interval

[RedRaptor]

Planning to have my coolant flushed at MoT and have them use FL22. Thanks for all the info.

[Fobio]

Planning to have my coolant flushed at MoT and have them use FL22. Thanks for all the info.

I didn't even know about this thread til after I got mine done at Agincourt...it was well under $100 with the TM3 discount, and eventhough, I didn't "need" a flush, I figure at 2 yrs, the car deserves it with all the stop and go she sees.

[TheMAN]

the way you drive has nothing to do with how quickly coolant deteriorates... all they did was made your wallet lighter and laughing their way to the bank
if anything, you ruined the life of your cooling system because they probably used a "shared" machine to flush your car (for old mazdas and new mazdas), plus the fact that they're more than likely to use tap water because its cheaper and more readily available

had you left it alone and followed the manual's recommendations, you would've been perfectly fine
aluminum engines also don't cause buildup anywhere with the right *working* coolant, which is another reason why flushes are a rip off... even older mazda iron block engines don't have buildup problems as long as the coolant has been changed out on time

[Fobio]

the way you drive has nothing to do with how quickly coolant deteriorates... all they did was made your wallet lighter and laughing their way to the bank
if anything, you ruined the life of your cooling system because they probably used a "shared" machine to flush your car (for old mazdas and new mazdas), plus the fact that they're more than likely to use tap water because its cheaper and more readily available

had you left it alone and followed the manual's recommendations, you would've been perfectly fine
aluminum engines also don't cause buildup anywhere with the right *working* coolant, which is another reason why flushes are a rip off... even older mazda iron block engines don't have buildup problems as long as the coolant has been changed out on time

I was not aware that the dealerships offered a "coolant change" as well as a "coolant flsuh"....in fact, I told the service manager I want to change my coolant and they then said, "you mean a coolant flush".

[TheMAN]

the service manager makes money on commission also, so they're always quick to sell you crap you don't need!

[Gods Son]

Bought my coolant from Joe at MoT and brought it to Street Performance to change it for me. Pure win.

[shu5892001]

so its good to stick to oem coolant? Is it bad if i do a coolant flush and use amsoil coolant?

[TheMAN]

yes, yes, maybe

[mazda3ride]

Can someone please confirm that this is the right coolant I should be using for my 04 3. My car is currently using the NON FL22 coolant. Even though by reading this post I could actually use the FL22 coolant, I would like to stick with what is already in the car.

[M&D Executive Auto]

Yes that is the regular Mazda coolant. If you look on the bottom left corner of the label the part # is 0000-88-AFLG that is the regular coolant. The FL22 coolant has a part # that ends in FL22.

[mazda lover]

going to change the anti freeze in my M3 2005, no where does it say FL22, can I use regular Prestone? The colour of the anti freeze in the car is green, I believe Prestone is yellow. Read all the threads and still confused or maybe more cautious thats causing the confusion. Have a few jugs that I want to use so the reason for the question or should I just buy the regular Mazda anti freeze for peace of mind, just want to do a drain and fill. Prestone says it is compatible with all colour anti freeze.
Thanks

[TheAnswer_03]

coolant flush are overrated
the 3s uses aluminum engine blocks and therefore don't "rust"... plus there isn't any sediments to that flake off the inside of the engine block because it's not cast iron (where they use sand to cast them)... furthermore, as I said earlier, shops typically use tap water for flush machines (and also drain & fill operations)... I have NEVER seen anyone use distilled water in a shop (maybe they do at high end places), but what I'm saying is, the impurities in tap water cause more harm than good... it reduces coolant life and also causes buildup in the system... this is why the scheduled intervals are much lower after the initial coolant change because mazda assumes tap water is used (assume the worse)

as long as you follow the scheduled maintenance on the coolant drain & fill strictly, you'll never have a problem for the life of the car

use mazda (or subaru coolant as long as the car doesn't use FL22) and mix with distilled water and you'll be fine

I just had a coolant drain and fill at the Mazda dealership where approx 3.78 liters of coolant was replaced.

I brought in Peak 50/50, it states the coolant can be used to top off the existing coolant and also it's phosphate and silicate free. Is using Peak coolant okay?

Also, owner's manual for my 07' says non-FL22 is to be replaced at 96,000km or 4 years, after that every 2 years. Is that referring to a complete flush? When should it be changed next for a drain and fill?

[TheMAN]

no, there's no such thing as "for all makes and models"
http://www.crownvic.net/ubbthreads/u...1728557&page=1

the manual refers to drain and fill only... if you follow the schedule, there's no problem as you're replacing only half of what's in the system (draining the radiator only drains out half of what's in there)... the new stuff mixes with half the old and since the old stuff is still relatively clean, it's fine, and the new additives in the new coolant will provide the protection you need

look on the coolant cap.... if it says FL22 you have FL22 and you don't have to mess with it for 10 years
if it doesn't, then you have regular phosphate based coolant

honestly, for stuff that cheap and hardly changed, I would go buy the mazda or subaru stuff just to have a peace of mind... why contaminate the cooling system that can shorten its life or cause other problems just to save a few bucks once every couple of years? They aren't premixed and you need to buy distilled water to mix it of course... it's cheaper to do this anyway

subarus (older ones at least) uses the same exact dark green coolant mazda used to put in, so their coolant will work just fine for our non-FL22 cars... just ask for coolant for something like a 2002 WRX lol
mazda canada for some odd reason chose to sell only the piss yellow "gold" coolant which is pretty much the same G-05 coolant they used in the Tribute... a different formulation... they say it's compatible with all mazdas using the older style green coolant though... the only way to get the old style dark green mazda coolant is from the states, and it's not worth the drive just for $20 of coolant

[TheAnswer_03]

no, there's no such thing as "for all makes and models"
http://www.crownvic.net/ubbthreads/u...1728557&page=1

the manual refers to drain and fill only... if you follow the schedule, there's no problem as you're replacing only half of what's in the system (draining the radiator only drains out half of what's in there)... the new stuff mixes with half the old and since the old stuff is still relatively clean, it's fine, and the new additives in the new coolant will provide the protection you need

look on the coolant cap.... if it says FL22 you have FL22 and you don't have to mess with it for 10 years
if it doesn't, then you have regular phosphate based coolant

honestly, for stuff that cheap and hardly changed, I would go buy the mazda or subaru stuff just to have a peace of mind... why contaminate the cooling system that can shorten its life or cause other problems just to save a few bucks once every couple of years? They aren't premixed and you need to buy distilled water to mix it of course... it's cheaper to do this anyway

subarus (older ones at least) uses the same exact dark green coolant mazda used to put in, so their coolant will work just fine for our non-FL22 cars... just ask for coolant for something like a 2002 WRX lol
mazda canada for some odd reason chose to sell only the piss yellow "gold" coolant which is pretty much the same G-05 coolant they used in the Tribute... a different formulation... they say it's compatible with all mazdas using the older style green coolant though... the only way to get the old style dark green mazda coolant is from the states, and it's not worth the drive just for $20 of coolant

Alright, thanks for the info. I actually had the coolant drain and fill at 101,500km or 5 years (manual says 96,000km or 4 years as I definitely do not have FL-22), shouldn't be a big deal hopefully. I never had overheating issues and the original coolant was an olive green color even though I can't really judge the coolant condition based off that. I'll just get drain and fills every 2 years then.

I also had a transmission flush done at Mazda recently too, some say a transmission flush is harmful but why would Mazda offer it?

[TheMAN]

it's harmful if the trans was neglected... doing it regularly scheduled, won't harm anything except your wallet.... drain and fill has always been fine as long as you changed the fluid every 50k
only real reason to flush it is if you're changing to synthetic.... that way everything gets changed over

but mazda doesn't recommend transmission flushes, nor do they actually schedule tranny fluid changes in the manual... it's only something the dealer has decided to do, and 50k intervals is standard industry practise

[TheAnswer_03]

it's harmful if the trans was neglected... doing it regularly scheduled, won't harm anything except your wallet.... drain and fill has always been fine as long as you changed the fluid every 50k
only real reason to flush it is if you're changing to synthetic.... that way everything gets changed over

but mazda doesn't recommend transmission flushes, nor do they actually schedule tranny fluid changes in the manual... it's only something the dealer has decided to do, and 50k intervals is standard industry practise

Well I did switch to synthetic ATF and got the flush.

I got the 2.3L and the manual says it takes 4.3L (or 4.5 quarts) capacity of motor oil, I recently brought in five 1 quart (0.946L) bottles and only four bottles were used. Is that normal? If I bring in four 1 quart bottles from now on, is there ever a chance a different mechanic saying it's not enough? (I like to bring in my own oil.)

[RedRaptor]

Are you talking about transmission fluid or motor oil?

For an automatic transmission, the entire fill is close to 9L so if you got a flush, you would have needed at least 9L of ATF. I've flushed my ATF twice and replaced with Mobil 1 Synthetic ATF.

I also bought a 4L jug of Motormaster ATF for the flushing and asked Jimmy to use Synthetic ATF to fill.

[TheMAN]

Well I did switch to synthetic ATF and got the flush.

I got the 2.3L and the manual says it takes 4.3L (or 4.5 quarts) capacity of motor oil, I recently brought in five 1 quart (0.946L) bottles and only four bottles were used. Is that normal? If I bring in four 1 quart bottles from now on, is there ever a chance a different mechanic saying it's not enough? (I like to bring in my own oil.)

your motor might be underfilled... check the oil after the car has been sitting overnight to be sure

[RedRaptor]

After getting a drain/fill coolant service today, I'm curious if its a good idea for my next coolant change service interval to have a FLUSH done with the new FL22 coolant used in 2007+.

I mean the idea of not having to service your coolant for years...

[TheMAN]

you'll need to get every drop of the old stuff out... impossible to do... flushing machine using tap water, you won't get the full life out of it... using several rinse cycles of drain and filling with distilled water, you'll still have minute residual traces of the old stuff...

IMO, it's not worth bothering

I just drain and fill the coolant myself, just like doing an oil change... it's easy... why pay someone to do it when the money is better spent on gas?

[RedRaptor]

So theoretically, even if you were to flush the old coolant out with lots of distilled water and then filled with FL22, it still wouldn't be worthwhile?

[standsideways]

So theoretically, even if you were to flush the old coolant out with lots of distilled water and then filled with FL22, it still wouldn't be worthwhile?

Unless you wanna waste coolant/water

Our cooling systems work more than fine, the oem cooling supported tripoints mazda 3 up untill around the 500hp mark.

I think a drain and fill will be more than good enough!

[knowell]

Just to revive the thread.

If Im currently using the non-FL22 coolant, can I just do a drain & fill and refill it with the FL22 variant? Im due to my first coolant change and I want to know which one should I buy from the dealer.

[rpelich]

sorry to bump an old thread but im a nooby. how can i check the condiiton of my coolant and which type i have? just check the color in the resevior thingy and see if it looks clean?

[G ~ MINI]

So theoretically, even if you were to flush the old coolant out with lots of distilled water and then filled with FL22, it still wouldn't be worthwhile?

Engine coolant FL22 ... Replace at 190,000 km or after 10 years.

Use a good radiator flush like LIQUI MOLY Radiator Cleaner removes deposits containing oil and lime/scale deposits. Its basically a CLR for your radiator