Coolant change for Mazda3
Apr 23rd, 2008 by AnA
Two years is up and it is time to change the engine coolant. After some consideration, decided to go for the OAT coolant for my Mazda3. This OAT is suppose to be better than the conventional coolant and has longer life. As this is my first time doing this coolant change for car, I read the manual to determine how many liters of the coolant I should purchase. Manual stated about 6 liters. So, I got 5 bottles of 1 liter as I think some of the water/coolant will still remain in the cooling system which will make up to 6 liters eventually.
Basic procedures are shown in the pictures below…
The OAT coolant I am using…
The basic tools which we need…
Dismantled the cover from the bottom of the engine compartment…it has 7 screws and 2 clips.
Locate the position of the coolant drainage plug and placed a container under it as shown below…
Unscrew the drainage plug with a coin and plier…if need use a flag screwdriver as shown…be careful of the hot coolant coming out from the drainage plug…
Open the cap from the coolant reservoir to release the vacuum and the coolant will rush out from the drainage plug…
Once all old coolant was drained out, close the drainage plug and top up the coolant reservoir with clean water. Start the engine and let the water circulated within the engine for a few minutes. Then, drain out the water. Do this a few times until there is no sign of the old coolant left in the coolant system (by looking at the colour of the water).
Now, it is time to top up with new OAT coolant. All in all, I only used up 4 liters of coolant. So for me, I have one bottle extra. Anyway, I just keep it for future top up.
This Shell’s OAT coolant is red in colour…Enjoys!
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