Coolant flush

[m4rkw]

I dropped my car off for a change of the power steering fluid and the coolant. All done and on the invoice there is a "cooling system flush" listed at 13.99+vat which presumably is some kind of cleaning chemical. Should I be concerned that they've put something into the cooling system other than antifreeze and distilled water?

[Rutlandlex]

Hi Mark.  Could that item on the invoice be a labour item i.e. the act of flushing the cooling system?  Without seeing the other items on the invoice it is hard to say really.  Maybe you could ring the garage for clarification.

Neil

[sorcerer]

No, as the description says, they've flushed it, so whatever they used it's only gone in and come out again, probably taking some crud with it. And what they've probably done in reality is to stick a hosepipe in the radiator, taken a pipe off somewhere else and just let it run through for a few minutes.

Once they've let it all drain out and they've refilled the system with the correct coolant, everything will be fine. I think my RX300 needed Toyota Super Long Life Pink coolant if I remember right. I know I bought it from my local Toyota main dealer (we don't have a Lexus dealer here) and it was on offer at the time, almost half price!

[m4rkw]

No, there are three items:

Coolant flush - 13.99
Antifreeze - 18.00
Labour for drain/refill/bleeding the coolant system - 78

The labour is indicated separately.

[m4rkw]

I was under the impression that nothing should go into the system other than antifreeze and distilled water, and that if a garage uses the word "flush" you can basically prefix it with the word "wallet".

[sorcerer]

14 minutes ago, m4rkw said:

No, there are three items:

Coolant flush - 13.99
Antifreeze - 18.00
Labour for drain/refill/bleeding the coolant system - 78

The labour is indicated separately.

That doesn't sound too good, just listing "antifreeze". OK, you'rs is a 2.4 Harrier import so I accept it may be different to 'ours', but if the owner's manual specifies a certain coolant (like mine specified Toyota Super Long Life Pink) you should stick with it. It's not only antifreeze but the whole chemical makeup of the coolant and how it reacts with the rubber seals and suchlike.

I don't buy "genuine Toyota/Lexus" things like brakes, batteries or exhausts etc., because Toyota/Lexus don't make them - they just buy them in from whoever does and they put their own markup on. I do, however, always buy the recommended fluids because there's usually more than just the face value of 'fluid' to take into account if you see what I mean.

[m4rkw]

I just called the garage, they said they used the Toyota Red stuff that the car calls for and that they always check what each car requires.  So that's good.  The flush they said is something that 9/10 cleans the cooling system out, so I guess I'll trust them on that.

[Rutlandlex]

In that case it must be something like this: https://www.wynns.eu/product/cooling-system-flush/

I wouldn't be worried about the product itself just whether they actually used it or not!