'03 TL Thermostat Change / Coolant Flush

[Slowpoke]

PM time this spring and from the service manual, the thermostat change looks straight forward. (Thermostat's behaving fine, but ... while the fluid is out... why not.)

Are there any hoses on the 3.2L engine that are prone to failure that I should change at the same time? Any additives that Honda engines like? Aluminum-safe orange five-year 50/50 Prestone fine for a replacement fluid?

Car's coming up on 5 years, 124,000km. Street driven daily driver, never sees track, but sees stop and go and winter.

(I normally would change coolant sooner... but I didn't realize that it wasn't done at the 96,000km dealer service until I came across the bill the other day in the files.)

[HBomb]

I think you can go even further than 124K on your first coolant fill. 160K if I'm not mistaken - the same time as your first timing belt if it has one.

I'd stick to the blue (changed from green) pre-mix Honda stuff. It's only a couple of dollars more (likely the same if you by during the group buy) than Prestone. I wouldn't use the Orange Dex-Cool equivalent. I believe it's too thick for Honda engines.

I've seen hoses/belts go 250K before needing replacement or about the same time as the second timing belt :)

Hanif

[Slowpoke]

Hrmm! Yeah, that factory stuff is green... and the first fill is supposedly good for 192,000 km or 10 years! Well... coolant isn't expensive, so I think that I'll do it in the spring anyway. Factory original Honda stuff it will be.

As for the belt, it's supposed to be changed at 168,000, or 100,000 if the vehicle is "normally driven below -29C". Well, it's not NORMALLY driven at those temps for sure.

This is the wife's car, and her specification is: "It isn't allowed to fail." :D She's owned VW's and GM's in the past, so she knows what a realistic expectation is, but unless I want to get questioned each week on if anything needs to be done on the car... I'll just stay ahead of things, thank you!

P.S.: The day after switching to winter tires three years ago, one of the Shrader valves must have gotten a little stuck and it deflated on her while she was at work. She waited half an hour after work for CAA to change it for her. I still hear about that every time I change from summer to winter tires... :p

[BrianL]

Hanif is right, anyone that has a car that came with the newer "blue" coolant might want to stick with that if they do change it out. There is a bit of silicone in there that helps lubricate the water pump. The '06 up civics are using the blue stuff, not sure when TL's would have changed to it.