I thought that I might change the engine coolant soon, any ideas which is a god one? And how much do you need? I take it it's just a case of removing the bottom hose? Any advice would be great!
I used 7 litres of Halfords ready mixed "high performance" coolant. You need to remove cap from the expansion tank and then undo the bottom hose on the radiator and let the system drain. Once the coolant has drained undo the top hose to the radiator and flush through with a hose pipe. Then put hose pipe into the top hose going into the engine to flush the thermost and engine block. Then put the host pipe in the expansion tank and flush through the rest of the system.
Then reattach all the hoses, undo the bleed valve on the thermostat and pour in the new cooland via the expansion tank slowly to ensure you don't get any air locks in the system. The system should be full up when coolant starts coming out of the bleed valve at which point you tighten the valve. Top up the coolant so that the level is halfway between the min and max markers on the tank. Start the car up but don't rev and just let the coolant circulate for a while checking the level and top up if necessary.
I should point out that getting the clip off the bottom hose is a real knuckle scraper so it would be easier if you take the front bumper off.
