Pond Water
01-16-2006, 12:14 PM
#1
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Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Savannah GA
Posts: 838
Pond Water
Went to get a radiator flush today and the guy at the mobil one care center told me that he couldn't clean my cooling system because it has "pond water" in it
Never heard of that before said I need to go to the dealer and have them do a complete flush where they burp the system and it takes 3-4 hours and costs about 4-500 dollars for it. Anyone else had this problem.
Never heard of that before said I need to go to the dealer and have them do a complete flush where they burp the system and it takes 3-4 hours and costs about 4-500 dollars for it. Anyone else had this problem.
01-16-2006, 05:46 PM
#6
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Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Drexel Hill, Pa
Posts: 1,867
Re: Pond Water
Sounds more like lake water than pond water to me? 
When I worked for GM, we had this awesome coolant flush machine. You would screw the hose on the radiator cap, or resivoir cap and connect an air hose to the machine. The machine would use vacuum to suck out all of the old coolant. You could actually see the hoses get sucked flat. Then you would flip a switch, and the vacuum in the system would pull in new coolant from the machine.
When I worked for GM, we had this awesome coolant flush machine. You would screw the hose on the radiator cap, or resivoir cap and connect an air hose to the machine. The machine would use vacuum to suck out all of the old coolant. You could actually see the hoses get sucked flat. Then you would flip a switch, and the vacuum in the system would pull in new coolant from the machine.
Last edited by slayer6x6; 01-16-2006 at 05:49 PM.
Guy has no idea, he probably just didn't want to deal with the little job.
01-18-2006, 08:42 PM
#10
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Rolla/Blue Springs, Missouri
Posts: 494
Re: Pond Water
I completely agree with the idiot. Even the most basic shops like Jiffy Lube (where I was once employed) and mom and pops like Bob's Mufflers will do this.
The "machine" can be as easy as a 5 gallon bucket on a pedastal with new coolant, that has a hole in the bottom that connects to a hose, that connects to your radiator. The upper hose is taken off and connected to another hose (or simply pointed down in to a catch tank).
Your car is then turned on and when the thermostat kicks open, out pumps the old stuff, and in to the radiator goes the new stuff.
Any shop should charge between $50-$70 for a green flush, and $80-90 for Dexcool.
If you go to O'Reilly's and get a big yellow plastic pan, and then get some pvc pipe to vent the old fluid from your upper radiator hose (disconnect it at the radiator), you can actually do this procedure yourself by adding collant to the rad cap when it gets low or drops down. It might be messy, but it'd be super cheap.
Johnny
Oh yeah, turn your heater on so it gets the heater core as well!!
The "machine" can be as easy as a 5 gallon bucket on a pedastal with new coolant, that has a hole in the bottom that connects to a hose, that connects to your radiator. The upper hose is taken off and connected to another hose (or simply pointed down in to a catch tank).
Your car is then turned on and when the thermostat kicks open, out pumps the old stuff, and in to the radiator goes the new stuff.
Any shop should charge between $50-$70 for a green flush, and $80-90 for Dexcool.
If you go to O'Reilly's and get a big yellow plastic pan, and then get some pvc pipe to vent the old fluid from your upper radiator hose (disconnect it at the radiator), you can actually do this procedure yourself by adding collant to the rad cap when it gets low or drops down. It might be messy, but it'd be super cheap.
Johnny
Oh yeah, turn your heater on so it gets the heater core as well!!
01-19-2006, 04:19 PM
#11
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Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Ft. Worth, TX
Posts: 1,937
Re: Pond Water
I bought a car in CA on ebay, went to pick it up and was going to drive it home and the radiator fluid looked like mud and was about as thick...it was a beater '79 TA...anyway, took it to the nearest jiffy lube and they flushed it out no problem. Drove it right from the Jiffy lube 1400 miles back home 
So that guy was an idiot....
On a side note, once my wifes car over heated going to a concert, we made it there with fluid spewing out.....after the concert we walked out with any kind of drink that we could get out the door with (since there was no water source anywhere near this place) and filled the radiator with Sprite, some water, a little beer, and what water/ice was left in an ice chest....made it all the way home 50+ miles it overheated due to the electric fans dying, so once we were on the freeway it was ok...... so filling it with pond water isn't out of the question depending on the circumstances.
So that guy was an idiot....On a side note, once my wifes car over heated going to a concert, we made it there with fluid spewing out.....after the concert we walked out with any kind of drink that we could get out the door with (since there was no water source anywhere near this place) and filled the radiator with Sprite, some water, a little beer, and what water/ice was left in an ice chest....made it all the way home 50+ miles
it overheated due to the electric fans dying, so once we were on the freeway it was ok...... so filling it with pond water isn't out of the question depending on the circumstances.
01-30-2006, 07:12 PM
#14
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: New Orleans, LA
Posts: 265
Re: Pond Water
While working as a Service Manager for a national tire chain store, I had a customer come back shortly after having her '03 Impala coolant flushed (on one of the badass computerized machines). She had gone to the dealership because there were some air bubbles in the heater core that hadn't been fully bled out. The dealer had told her $500 to remove the heater core and bleed the system. Not replace the heater core, just remove it and put the same one back in. Somehow they had convinced her that she needed to get this done as we couldn't do it and taking out the heater core was the only way to get that pesky air bubble out. She was pretty pissed.
Once I pointed out to her that removing the heater core, and putting it back in wouldn't bleed the system or the air bubble, she calmed down. So we reflushed it, rebled it, got the damn air bubble out of the heater core, and wham bam thank you ma'am she said "you saved me $500" but in reality there's just some crooked people out there. Some of them happen to work in the auto industry.
Mook, sounds like the guy at Mobil didn't know what he was doing. I took my T/A to the Mobil down the street one day cause I was in a hurry and overdue by a couple hundred miles for my oil change. The guy there told me I should get my tranny fluid flushed. I have an M6. That's the first I've ever heard of flushing a manual transmission. I asked him how he planned on doing that, he couldn't really give me a good answer. But they didn't screw up my oil change luckily.
Abe
Once I pointed out to her that removing the heater core, and putting it back in wouldn't bleed the system or the air bubble, she calmed down. So we reflushed it, rebled it, got the damn air bubble out of the heater core, and wham bam thank you ma'am she said "you saved me $500" but in reality there's just some crooked people out there. Some of them happen to work in the auto industry.
Mook, sounds like the guy at Mobil didn't know what he was doing. I took my T/A to the Mobil down the street one day cause I was in a hurry and overdue by a couple hundred miles for my oil change. The guy there told me I should get my tranny fluid flushed. I have an M6. That's the first I've ever heard of flushing a manual transmission. I asked him how he planned on doing that, he couldn't really give me a good answer. But they didn't screw up my oil change luckily.
Abe
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