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I want to drain the radiator in my truck and put some fresh coolant in. The coolant looks clean and only has 50k on it so I'm just going to do a drain and refill with fresh this time(figure I'd flush at 100k).
Figured the easiest way was to remove the lower rad hose but it has some kind of different plastic fitting. How do you unhook these and can you reuse them?
I dont know about the 2013, but my 2010 has a white plastic bolt on the drivers side that lets you drain the radiation.
Just looked and mine has the same set up. Looks like you thread it down and the coolant comes out a nipple on the side, hopefully everything works like it's supposed to. Those plastic threaded parts make me kind of nervous, especially when they've been subjected to heat cycles.
I found out how to remove the hose couplers but the lower rad hose is far enough up on the rad that you won't get everything drained out so I'm going to try my luck at the plastic valve.
The retainer on the hose is easily removed with a pick and if your lucky you may be able to reuse it. If replacing the hose,they come with a new oring and retainer.
Got the coolant changed last night. Drained most of it out through the fitting on the bottom of the radiator and then unhooked the junction where the lower radiator hose meets up with the two hoses going to the trans cooler since this place was lower than the radiator.
Everything went pretty smooth. The plastic valve on the bottom of the radiator was barely tight. I put a wrench on it and it instantly broke free to where it wasn't even hand tight, I made sure to snug it up good when I was done. The special fittings on the hoses was a breeze to work with, pop off the retainer spring and the hoses just pulled apart. I don't know how ford keeps the fittings from leaking with as loose and sloppy as they are but somehow it works.
I was able to get about 4 gallons drained out(system holds just under 6). The coolant coming out was just as clean and nice as the stuff going back in so I'm not too concerned about not doing a total drain and flush this time around. At 100k I'll get the system flushed out.