Changing Coolant Sunfire 2.4L

I have always done coolant changes on my cars but with my 2000 Pontiac
Sunfire with 2.4L engine I decided to have a GM dealer do it. I
suggested they flush it as well. It took about an hour. When I got home
I decided to look at how they did it. I could only find evidence that
they removed the pressur cap on the pressurized coolant bottle and the
rad drain had been opened. The block drain plug hadn't been touched and
I couldn't see evidence of any hoses being removed. Could somebody
tell me what technique a typical large GM dealership would have used on
my car to do this job?
Thanks,
Mike

"mike" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> I have always done coolant changes on my cars but with my 2000 Pontiac
> Sunfire with 2.4L engine I decided to have a GM dealer do it. I
> suggested they flush it as well. It took about an hour. When I got home
> I decided to look at how they did it. I could only find evidence that
> they removed the pressur cap on the pressurized coolant bottle and the
> rad drain had been opened. The block drain plug hadn't been touched and
> I couldn't see evidence of any hoses being removed. Could somebody
> tell me what technique a typical large GM dealership would have used on
> my car to do this job?

La-Machine!!! >>Grin<<

If your experienced and you know what your doing >> do it yourself, it's your
car!

BBA

"mike" > wrote in message
ups.com...
>I have always done coolant changes on my cars but with my 2000 Pontiac
> Sunfire with 2.4L engine I decided to have a GM dealer do it. I
> suggested they flush it as well. It took about an hour. When I got home
> I decided to look at how they did it. I could only find evidence that
> they removed the pressur cap on the pressurized coolant bottle and the
> rad drain had been opened. The block drain plug hadn't been touched and
> I couldn't see evidence of any hoses being removed. Could somebody
> tell me what technique a typical large GM dealership would have used on
> my car to do this job?
> Thanks,
> Mike
>
Why did you change your mind and let the dealership do the coolant change?
What made it different this time? Is there something radically different
about the 2.4L that makes it difficult or needs special knowledge? It
sounds like you know what you're doing, next time you should go ahead and
just do it yourself. It takes the guesswork out of whether someone did the
job right or not. (for the most part.. haha). If the hoses haven't been
touched, I can only guess that htey drained the rad, filled it with water,
warmed up the car until the thermostat opened, drained it again, possibily
repeated and then filled with 50/50. Or it's possible that this dealership
actually pays attention to detail and put everything back the way they found
it. =o)

-Bruce

Bruce Chang wrote:
> "mike" > wrote in message
> ups.com...
> >I have always done coolant changes on my cars but with my 2000
Pontiac
> > Sunfire with 2.4L engine I decided to have a GM dealer do it. I
> > suggested they flush it as well. It took about an hour. When I got
home
> > I decided to look at how they did it. I could only find evidence
that
> > they removed the pressur cap on the pressurized coolant bottle and
the
> > rad drain had been opened. The block drain plug hadn't been touched
and
> > I couldn't see evidence of any hoses being removed. Could somebody
> > tell me what technique a typical large GM dealership would have
used on
> > my car to do this job?
> > Thanks,
> > Mike
> >
> Why did you change your mind and let the dealership do the coolant
change?
> What made it different this time? Is there something radically
different
> about the 2.4L that makes it difficult or needs special knowledge?
It
> sounds like you know what you're doing, next time you should go ahead
and
> just do it yourself. It takes the guesswork out of whether someone
did the
> job right or not. (for the most part.. haha). If the hoses haven't
been
> touched, I can only guess that htey drained the rad, filled it with
water,
> warmed up the car until the thermostat opened, drained it again,
possibily
> repeated and then filled with 50/50. Or it's possible that this
dealership
> actually pays attention to detail and put everything back the way
they found
> it. =o)
>
> -Bruce

Most dealers use a machine they hook up to the radiator
and engine and pump out the old coolant (engine running)
and pump in new coolant. Some add a flush cycle before
adding the new coolant. This process usually does not do
anything to the overflow tank.
Ernie

--
BBA
°?°
BBA's RC Site - http://www.billybadassrc.com
When Privacy Matters -- http://www.epic.org
"Bruce Chang" > wrote in message
. com...
>
> "mike" > wrote in message
> ups.com...
> >I have always done coolant changes on my cars but with my 2000 Pontiac
> > Sunfire with 2.4L engine I decided to have a GM dealer do it. I
> > suggested they flush it as well. It took about an hour. When I got home
> > I decided to look at how they did it. I could only find evidence that
> > they removed the pressur cap on the pressurized coolant bottle and the
> > rad drain had been opened. The block drain plug hadn't been touched and
> > I couldn't see evidence of any hoses being removed. Could somebody
> > tell me what technique a typical large GM dealership would have used on
> > my car to do this job?
> > Thanks,
> > Mike
> >
> Why did you change your mind and let the dealership do the coolant change?
> What made it different this time? Is there something radically different
> about the 2.4L that makes it difficult or needs special knowledge? It
> sounds like you know what you're doing, next time you should go ahead and
> just do it yourself. It takes the guesswork out of whether someone did the
> job right or not. (for the most part.. haha). If the hoses haven't been
> touched, I can only guess that htey drained the rad, filled it with water,
> warmed up the car until the thermostat opened, drained it again, possibily
> repeated and then filled with 50/50. Or it's possible that this dealership

Not even that --La-Machine = just plug in the coolant recycler -- flip the
switch to on -- run the engine a bit and boom-viola-done!

BBA

"Billy Bad Assr©" > wrote in message
...
>
>
> --
> BBA
> °?°
> BBA's RC Site - http://www.billybadassrc.com
> When Privacy Matters -- http://www.epic.org
> "Bruce Chang" > wrote in message
> . com...
>>
>> "mike" > wrote in message
>> ups.com...
>> >I have always done coolant changes on my cars but with my 2000 Pontiac
>> > Sunfire with 2.4L engine I decided to have a GM dealer do it. I
>> > suggested they flush it as well. It took about an hour. When I got home
>> > I decided to look at how they did it. I could only find evidence that
>> > they removed the pressur cap on the pressurized coolant bottle and the
>> > rad drain had been opened. The block drain plug hadn't been touched and
>> > I couldn't see evidence of any hoses being removed. Could somebody
>> > tell me what technique a typical large GM dealership would have used on
>> > my car to do this job?
>> > Thanks,
>> > Mike
>> >
>> Why did you change your mind and let the dealership do the coolant
>> change?
>> What made it different this time? Is there something radically different
>> about the 2.4L that makes it difficult or needs special knowledge? It
>> sounds like you know what you're doing, next time you should go ahead and
>> just do it yourself. It takes the guesswork out of whether someone did
>> the
>> job right or not. (for the most part.. haha). If the hoses haven't
>> been
>> touched, I can only guess that htey drained the rad, filled it with
>> water,
>> warmed up the car until the thermostat opened, drained it again,
>> possibily
>> repeated and then filled with 50/50. Or it's possible that this
>> dealership
>
> Not even that --La-Machine = just plug in the coolant recycler -- flip the
> switch to on -- run the engine a bit and boom-viola-done!
>
> BBA
>
>

How does "La-Machine" hook up? You have to attach it to a coolant hose and
the OP said it looks like none of the hoses had been removed. If that's the
case, then "La-Machine" wasn't used.

Hi Bruce,
This system is a bit different to what I'm use to. The coolant recovery
bottle is pressurized; the pressure cap is on it. There is no cap on
the rad. There are a couple of extra air bleed hoses which feed into
it. The system was filled with GM's Dexcool. From what I have read it
is extremely important to get all air out of a system filled with
Dexcool since air mixed in will cause sludging. Getting at the block
drain plug is a bitch. There is also an air bleed mentioned in the
workshop manual but I was unable to find it. So I thought who better
than the GM dealer? Yeh, I know!

Hi Ernie,
Would you have any idea how this machine attaches? I would be very
interested in knowing.

mike wrote:

> This system is a bit different to what I'm use to. The coolant
> recovery bottle is pressurized; the pressure cap is on it. There is
> no cap on the rad. There are a couple of extra air bleed hoses which
> feed into it. The system was filled with GM's Dexcool. From what I
> have read it is extremely important to get all air out of a system
> filled with Dexcool since air mixed in will cause sludging. Getting
> at the block drain plug is a bitch. There is also an air bleed
> mentioned in the workshop manual but I was unable to find it. So I
> thought who better than the GM dealer? Yeh, I know!

The dealer will most likely use a machine to exchange the
coolant. It usually hooks up in series to the upper rad
hose. That would be the only item that would have been
taken off and re-installed. Doing it this way doesn't get
any air into the system as it pushes fresh coolant in behind
the old coolant as it is pushed out. Your particular vehicle
doesn't really have any issues with air locks...that engine
and cooling system pretty much self bleeds itself. If anyone
takes the time to actually look at the hard coolant overflow
bottles on late model GM vehicles....they would see quite
quickly why it's virtually impossible to "clean" out those
bottles.

Ian

Hi Ian,
What your describing is somewhat reassuring! I'll check the upper rad
hose again.
In my case they also did a rad flush first. Is that possible using this
machine?
Mike