Ballin_is_a_Habit

Alright everyone -- thanks for your help -- it took me about 2 hours to do this but if you knew what you were doing i bet you could do it in half or even a quarter of that time (much of that time was spent trying to locate the drain on the engine block)

i ONLY flushed the radiator -- i was able to locate the engine drain plug but it was too hard to unscrew and plus it just would have drained all over my suspenision -- i didn't really want to risk having no plug for the coolant in my engine so it's just gonna have to deal with it. if you are adventurous enough to do it (or you have the engine out of your car i would suggest taking it off and telling me what comes out -- you can find a diagram of the cooling system here Factory Service Manuals -- but i only located it after looking in my haynes manual (which btw stated that there are 3 drains in my enigne but i think there are only 2 maybe in the s4's there are more.... anyway my whole operation went off without a hitch so i hope i can help someone.

here are the pictures:
this is the coolant resivoir -- i unscrewed this and took it out -- dumped the anti-freeze into my antifreeze container -- then washed it out with a hose to remove and debris

obviously this is the radiator cap -- this is where to pour in the anti-freeze once it is all drained and where to put the hose to flush it.

this is the car's undercarriage cover -- you will need to remove this to get to the bleeder on the radiator -- pretty easy to do i would recommend going to get some 10mm nuts and washers to replace your beat up rusty ones -- be sure to spray with a rusted bolt/nut remover if they are too ditry or else they will break off inside (one of mine did oops!!)

this is a picture of a spot in the undercarriage shelid where a nut/washer combo goes (the nut is missing)

did i mention it is very helpful to lift your car to get under there? i used a floor jack and two jack stands (from my neighbor!) and two wood blocks behind the back wheels obviously put the parking brake on!!

picture of the undercarriage with the cover removed -- the front is the oil cooler the one that you can just see the foam lining on is the radiator and has the bleeder plug on it

there is the bleeder plug (it is plastic and will strip easily so go very slowly when unscrewing it -- make sure you have your pan in place already and then unscrew slowly -- try not to get anti-freeze in your eye!

MAN that is some DIRTY coolant!

first off that is not my hand in this picture but anyway -- once all the fluid is draned from the radiator you should go ahead and put a garden hose where the radiator cap covers and let it run for a little bit

Ballin_is_a_Habit

it should look like this when you do...

this is what your dirty anti-freeze will look like

you cant see in this picture but deep down in here somewhere is your engine drain plug for coolant -- it is forward and above the oil pan -- i found it but its a bitch and can really only be removed from above with some strength and ***** because it would be hard to get back on (maybe not i could be wrong)

-- once your done running the hose trough the bleeder you can screw the plug back in part way and start to pour your anti-freeze (i used pro-line 50-50) back into the radiator -- when you start to see some drip from the bleeder then screw it all the way in and continue pouring until you fill it up (i did it till no more fit in the radiator) -- then i filled up the coolant resivoir to the full line on the side of it and put the undercarriage sheild back on (hopefully you went and got some 10m nuts and washers to replace your old ones and maybe even a new sheild because odds are it is cracked.... start your engine and let it idle for a bit make sure the tempature is right and you should be good to go

hope i can help someone -- ignore my old post asking for help on this or just delete it if your an admin because this one is better.

SirCygnus

iTrader: (1)

what if you have air bubles? how do you eliminnate those?

Ballin_is_a_Habit

i have no idea... i did see some bubbles come up out of the radiator though as i re-filled it, i would say just take the cap off and let them rise up naturally -- hmm good question though

RandomHero

iTrader: (2)

I choose to run a little heavy on water, more like 60/40. If you choose to drain the block as well, then the drain plug is where the driver's side engine mount meets the block, it will drain all over the subframe but its worth the peace of mind. If you drained the block as well, fill the radiator and run the engine with the cap off till the thermostat opens. The upper radiator hose will get hot and the coolant level will drop as it begins to flow through the block. Keep filling until the car is up to temp and not taking any more coolant. Then put the cap on and run it a little longer. To be sure there is no more air in the system, wait for it to cool off and top off the radiator and resevoir.

RandomHero

iTrader: (2)

Also, you should flush and refill your coolant (including the block) once a year, and while youve got the system empty, you might as well change the thermostat.
Brett

Ballin_is_a_Habit

i noticed that -- thats the other reason that i didnt do it because it looked pretty damn messy