Coolant Flush - 1st Gen Tacoma - Beginners Guide

Here's a quick guide to flushing your coolant on a 1st gen Tacoma (Pictures are of an '04 Tacoma). You'll want to do this any time you need to drain the radiator; change timing belt, water pump etc. In my case, my mechanic added a bunch of low quality Peak coolant and tap water into my system, so I decided to do a flush and write this guide.


Here are the things you'll need:
Socket wrench
1x 14mm socket head
1x 12mm socket head for skid plate removal
1x Swivel (U-Joint) socket adapter
1x safety glasses
1x Funnel (No Spill funnel for coolant change is preferred)
1x oil pan or bucket
1x 1/4" PEX tubing - about 3 feet
4x gallons distilled water (make sure its distilled, no deionized or filtered)
3x gallons of Toyota Super Long Life Antifreeze Coolant (or "Long Life" coolant if your Tacoma is older than 2004). 2 gallons for the flush (pictured) one extra to have around and to top off after air has be removed from the system. The flush might take just slightly over 2 gallons anyways.




Steps to flush your coolant:

1. Make sure engine is completely cold. You will be removing the radiator cap, and if the engine is hot it will be pressurized and will spray hot coolant all over you if you pull the cap off. Don't do this!

2. Put on safety glasses and remove radiator cap under the hood. Keep safety glasses on.

3. Remove the skid plate from under the vehicle so you can access the radiator drain valve which is located under the radiator on the passenger side. It's a little plastic valve with a spout. Put a bucket / oil pan under the spout and slowly loosen the valve (you may need pliers to turn it) until coolant streams out.



4. Locate the engine block drain valve located behind the passengers side tire. You'll have to remove the rubber skirt hiding it if you have one. It's pretty far back and hard to reach, but you should be able to get your hand in there.




5. Place one end of the 1/4" tubing over the nipple that's under the drain nut. Place your 14mm socket , extensions, and U-joint adapter on the drain nut located directly above the nipple.



6. Place the other end of the tubing into your drain bucket. Loosen the drain nut to drain the coolant from the engine block. Keep the socket wrench in here so you don't have to fish around to get it in place again later.

7. let everything drain completely, then tighten both the valves.

8. Place your funnel on the radiator and add 2 gallons of distilled water. This should be enough water to fill the radiator and engine block with a little left in the funnel.



9. Momentarily loosen both valves again and close them once you get water flowing out. This is just to make sure you're pulling water through the system and there are no big air bubbles on the bottom.

10. Start your engine and turn the heater + AC on with the heat set to hot and fan on max. This pulls the water through all parts of the system.



11. Let the engine warm up for a couple minutes while keeping an eye on the temperature gauge to make sure it doesn't go over half way. Also add water to the funnel if it all gets sucked into the radiator.



12. Turn off engine and drain all the water from the system through the two valves discussed above. You may need to fill your empty containers with dirty coolant from the bucket / oil pan before it gets too heavy.

13. Repeat steps 7 through 12 with the remaining 2 gallons of distilled water to make sure there is no old coolant in the system.

14. Tighten the valves again. Now it's time to add the Super Long Life Coolant until just a little bit is sitting in the funnel. You also want to fill the overflow reservoir to the full line at this point, which is located on the drivers side to the right of the radiator.



15. As before, momentarily loosen the valves to make sure coolant is pulled through the radiator and engine block, then tighten them before draining too much coolant.

16. Turn on engine as before, with the heat and AC on. Keep an eye on the temperature gauge and coolant level. If needed add coolant to the overflow reservoir to keep it full.

17. Pinch the large coolant hose connected to the radiator several times to help force out air bubbles in the system. Some cars have burping valves for this, but I couldn't locate any on my truck, so please comment below if you can find them.



18. Make sure both valves are snug tight and remove the tube and wrench.

19. Replace the skid plate on the bottom of the vehicle.

20. Take the vehicle out for a test drive around the block a few times. Keep an eye on the temperature gauge to make sure it doesn't go too much over half way. When you return, check the coolant levels and add more as needed.

Over the next few hundred miles, air will naturally get removed from the system, so make sure to keep checking the coolant levels every couple days and add more as needed. It is good to keep some backup coolant with you for this, but you can also add distilled water instead if you don't have any left.

Remember to fill the empty containers with the old coolant and take them to your local recycling facility. A lot of auto shops will recycle your old coolant as well, just call them ahead and ask. Do not dump old coolant down the drain.


That's it, you're done!

 

Pics don't work

 

Strange, they work fine on all my devices, even with cache cleared and logged out. If others have an issue too, I'll consider switching from imgur to photobucket.

 

My work must block imgur then. I can see photobucket pics just fine.

 

Pics with for me.
Awesome write up!

 

Thanks! Good to hear. I just resized the images because they were taking over. A little smaller now, but a little easier to read the writeup.

 

How do I request a sticky?

 

I'm not sure how to request sticky. Glad the guide was useful!

 

Obligatory bump warning.

Isnt Super Long Life coolant for newer vehicles with alluminum radiators?

You should be using Long Life coolant mixed with distilled water on 1st Gens.

 

Super long life started in 2004.

 

I was just looking through the manuals. Thunder is correct, super long life started on the '04 Tacoma which is what is pictured in the guide, before that was "long life" coolant. Good catch, I didn't know that when I wrote the guide. I added that info to the guide.

 

You might want to add to the first paragraph of your description that this procedure was written for 2004 3.4L engines. I suppose it will work on other 3.4L engines but I don't know which ones.

I have a 1998 3.4L engine and my block drain is located on the passenger side about midway back from the engine's front. It has a nut that one can supposedly turn to let the coolant in the block drain, but only a hole below the nut for the coolant to drain out. No way to attach a tube or hose. I didn't look, but I don't think my engine has any coolant drain valve near the rear as your photo shows.

Other than that, I think you've done a very good job with the photos and procedure!

 

Thanks for the guide! It helped me a lot. Did this over labor day weekend. I took a few pics also. I have an 01 2.7. All parts came from camelback except coolant. Got it from local dealer for 21$/gallon. I had 2 gallons on hand but only needed 1 along with 1 gallon of distilled for final fill. I think manual says 8.7qts capacity for 4x4 4cyl auto. I originally drained out almost 5qts from radiator and the overflow bottle. Then located the block drain. To get to that I needed a 17mm socket and series of extensions and universal joint on the end. I had a clear tube hooked to the drain but didn't need it. I eased the block drain out and coolant poured out of it instead of the little drain valve. I got almost 3qts out of it. Then tightened and filled with distilled and ran till it was warm with a/c and heat on. Drained all that out then filled with long life coolant and distilled. I measured exactly 3qts of coolant and 3qts of distilled in radiator then added 1/2qt coolant and 1/2qt distilled to the overflow bottle to the full line. I have a tester but it should put me real close to a 50/50 mix. Not sure when coolant was changed last as I got the truck in may but didn't see any rust while draining or any in hoses or thermostat. I also changed upper and lower hoses and thermostat and new radiator cap. On my truck the jiggle valve was indeed at the 12 o'clock position so I put the new one in like that. Again thanks for all the pics and tutorials on here

 

Great write-up, I'll be attempting this soon!

 

Super Long Life is backward compatible with the earlier models as well. It was introduced in 2004, so that was the first year it was called out, but it is perfectly safe to use in older trucks.

 

That's what I heard as well but the parts guy at Toyota dealership told me one of their techs used it in his forerunner and nearly ruined it. He immediately flushed it all out and went back to the red long life . I just decided to stay with the red for peace of mind.

 

I'm going to jump into this on Saturday morning. I had been debating doing this, but am now needing to. In a rushed decision to get the truck running (was having engine troubles earlier this week) my friend and I added some Peak coolant to top off the radiator. I keep reading this is a no no, I'm gonna get to it as soon as possible. A couple questions if you don't mind.

First, we added Peak Long Life 50/50 coolant. Says its compatible with all makes and models and their website says its both phosphate and silicate free. I believe our trucks want silicate free. I guess I'm just hoping this is less of a mistake as adding some kind of dexcool or silicate based coolant. Can anyone chime in on this? Help ease me?

Second, the engine block drain plug on my 95 does not seem to have a petcock. I'm gonna hope that a funnel with attached fuel line / garden hose will be enough to keep the coolant from running all over me. I found a picture on toyota-4runner.org showing what my drain plug looks like (no petcock or hose attachment) Theirs is a 97 4runner. This just looks messy and i'm trying to avoid it. Anyone else drain their block sans petcock?



That persons post is here: I'm also wondering about the volume needed. I read that in total the system needs 8.7 quarts or something like that. More than my one gallon Long Life toyota coolant + one gallon distilled water. Do I need to pick up another gallon of the toyota coolant? I also read about a couple aftermarket coolants that play well with toyotas. Can I mix those in with toyota coolant? I believe the two brands are Zerex and Pentosin.

 

As far as the petcock goes, mine had a little tube extension below the actual block drain bolt. You can see it in my pic but mine is a 01. Once I loosened the bolt coolant poured out of it instead of the little tube. I just put my drain pan underneath to catch the coolant. I ended up getting about 7.5qts to drain from radiator+block. I also changed both hoses which had a little bit in them and thermostat. I also emptied out the overflow reservoir as well. Long story short your 1 gallon+1 gallon should be plenty especially if you don't drain the block. I cant comment on the mixing of coolants, I stuck with the red long life for peace of mind but again I have an 01. I know other people have used them though. I think with 2000 or before most just use green coolant, the change didn't happen till 2001 I believe.

 

Great write up.

For those of us who are older, have hurting joints / bones, and limited time. You can do the following:

1) Drain the radiator (skip the engine block drain valve)
2) Empty the overflow tank
3) Add distilled water, start engine and recycle it as described above (heater on and high fan), drain the radiator. Keep doing this until the water comes out clear
4) Drain the radiator one last time and close the drain plug
5) Add Toyota antifreeze, or if you like to save a few dollars the Zerex Asian vehicle antifreeze (It has worked well for several Toyota's with high mileage that I am aware of).

$22 Zerex Asian Vehicle Red Silicate and Borate Free 50/50 Prediluted Ready-to-Use Antifreeze/Coolant 1 GA

https://www.amazon.com/Zerex-675130...1476411002&sr=8-6&keywords=toyota+anti+freeze

The only issue with either brand antifreeze is that it is a 50/50 mix, so with distilled water left in the engine block, the mixture is going to be less than 50/50 which may be an issue in extreme climates.

I drive the car for a few days, drain 1 gallon of antifreeze, add a new gallon of antifreeze and consider it done.

If anyone knows of a compatible antifreeze that is NOT 50/50 mix, please post as that will allow accurate 50/50 ratio to be mixed, by mixing it with the water left in the engine block.

 

Yeah I wish my engine had a petcock built in to the block, but I scoped out the scene today and didn't see anything like that, just a shiny bolt head.

I guess I'll just see if I can get a funnel to work and keep the mess down.

I'm gonna give the hoses a good inspection tomorrow. Seems kind of foolish to skip hoses and thermostat if I've got everything apart...one thing leads to another.

Someone posted that they had added the same coolant as I had to their Toyota coolant without any issues. I'd still like to be safe and flush it all when I can.

The head guy in the parts department confirmed that my 95 should use the Red Long Life, and said that none of the tacomas used green. Not to argue, just putting that out there.

Thanks for the response. I'll post my findings here once I dig in.