I'm overdue for replacing antifreeze. There is a coolant air bleed valve that the shop manual says to open on refill. But it does not say HOW to open it. The valve is on the end of a short stub hose that is attached to the water distributor, which is on the driver's side of the engine, higher up, about over the bell of the trans.

My question is... how does it open? The bleed valve is a black plastic cylinder, which has two notches on its top outer edge. Inside the cylinder is a black plastic piece, obviously a separate piece, that has sort of a flat-blade screwdriver slot in the center of it. On its outer edge, it has a small projection, that fits in one of the slots of the cylinder's edge, as if the projection was an indicator.

I'm wondering if one inserts a screwdriver, and turns it slightly CCW to open, to move the inside piece's projection to the other side of the slot. It won't be much turning movement at all, as the slot is of a pretty short length.

Do I have it figured out right? Or does it work completely different? I really don't want to break it...

 

I'm facing the exact same situation. Were you able to figure this out?

I found this guide, which doesn't use the bleed valve: . I'll resort to that if all else fails.

 

Like this?

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The thread (talking about the 2.5V6 in Fusion), that pointed to it said it just unscrews CCW, the projections and slots are just a semi-captive design to stop it inadvertently coming loose.

https://www.fordfusionforum.com/topi...-valve-on-25l/

 

Yes, that's it exactly!

Good to know that I can use a little force to get it to open.

Thank you, I really appreciate the help.

 

No problem, I just tried finding the same engine and symptom in any other Ford...and got lucky :-)