How to Drain Fill Bleed Radiator 2007-14 Chevy Suburban
Created on: 2017-07-28
Learn how to drain, refill, and bleed the radiator on the 07-14 Chevy Suburban yourself with the tips in this how-to video
-
step 1 :Removing the Fender Liner
- Open the radiator cap
- Remove the 7mm bolts from the fender liner
- Pry out the barbed clips in the liner with a flat blade screwdriver
- Peel back the fender liner
-
step 2 :Draining the Radiator
- Have a drain bucket ready
- Loosen the hose clamp on the lower radiator hose
- Pry off the lower radiator hose
- Let the coolant drain
- Insert the hose to the radiator
- Tighten the hose clamps
- Clean off the area
-
step 3 :Filling and Bleeding the Radiator
- Insert a funnel
- Fill the vehicle with the appropriate coolant (Dex-cool)
- Place the cap on
- Start the vehicle
- Watch the coolant level
- If the level dips, turn off the vehicle and refill the coolant
- Place the cap on
- Start the vehicle
- Set the fan to the lowest setting
- Set the heat to the highest setting
- Run the engine until it reaches normal operating temperature
- Let the engine idle for 3 min
- Shut the engine off and let it cool
- Top off the coolant
-
step 4 :Reinstalling the Fender Liner
- Press in the clips to the fender liner
- Tighten the 7mm bolts to the liner
Tools needed
-
Funnel
Socket Extensions
Paper Towels
7mm Socket
Drain Pan
10mm Socket
Ratchet
Needle nose pliers
Anti-Freeze
Trim Tool Set
Hi, I'm Mike from 1A Auto. We've been selling auto parts for over 30 years. We're dedicated to delivering quality auto parts, expert customer service, fast and free shipping, all backed by our 100% satisfaction guarantee. Visit us at 1AAuto.com, your trusted source for quality auto parts.
Before draining it, open up the radiator cap on the expansion tank. It will just let air in so it will drain faster. To get to this lower radiator hose, we've taken the wheel off so you can see it better, but you can do this on the ground, you can just turn the wheel. We're going to have to move this splash shield, and just peel it back.
I'm going to take my 7 millimeter ratchet, I'm going to take out these 7 millimeter screws. Now we're going to take a flathead screwdriver or a trim clip tool, and just kind of work it under, get these barbed clips out. That one's loose. Set that aside. It's got three different style push clips up here. You've got to kind of work either the screwdriver under the side of them, or you can use this trim tool. Then you kind of get it under there, and you pull up the middle, and it will unlock them. Sometimes the middle comes out, that's okay, just pop out the rest of them like that. Take this, the splash shield, just fold it up and out of the way.
We're going to drain the radiator of this vehicle by removing this lower hose. There's no drain on it, so we're just going to undo the clamp here, work it off the gooseneck, and then it's just going to pour out. You want to make sure you have a drain pan ready to catch all of this because it's going to be a significant amount of coolant with this big truck. All right, I'm going to use these pliers here to undo this clamp. You've got to squeeze it together. It takes a pretty good amount of force. There's actually a little lock on them. I'm going to work the hose off with the clamp right now. This little lip here is like a little drain guide I guess.
We're going to just pop this hose back on here now that the majority of the fluid is out because we're going to go up and remove the expansion tank. Take your pliers, squeeze this clamp back together, and work the hose back on. Make sure it's fully seated. Release the clamp. That's on there nice and tight. After you put the hose back on, just take some paper towels and dry it up as best you can. Then when you're all finished with the project you can take a hose and some soapy water and just kind of spray it down to get rid of all the residue from the coolant.
All right, so we're just going to put this back here for now so it's out of the way, but we're going to go up top and work on the coolant expansion tank, or reservoir. We're going to use a 50/50 mix of Dex-cool because this truck is a GM product. The total capacity of this truck is about four and a half gallons, but we didn't drain anything out of the engine, just the radiator. So it might take less, but we're going to start by filling it up here. As soon as it's full up to the bottle, we're going to let the truck run. After it cools off, we'll check the coolant level again.
All right, so we're going to put the cap on, and we're going to start the truck and let it run until it's hot. As soon as I started the truck, it pretty much sucked in the gallon of coolant that I poured in here. Since I didn't measure what we took out, I'm just going to add another gallon until it's full again before I restart the truck.
Refill the coolant reservoir, and run the engine until it reaches normal operating temperature. Once that happens, you can let the engine idle for about three minutes. Then you can shut the engine off, let it cool, and then go back and check to make sure that the coolant is at the correct level. You can top it off as necessary.
We're going to put this plastic splash shield back in. You can use this, one of these little barbed clips kind of stayed there, so we can put that back in to hold it. Then get the other barbed one that went here. Now we're going to put those other two push clips, those bigger ones, were up here. Kind of work them into the hole, then you push the center in and it locks them. These can be a bit tricky. Sometimes if you squeeze them tight like that, and then you just push them in, it's locked. Now those two screws. Those had little 7 millimeter heads on them. Just kind of get them started.
Thanks for watching. Visit us at 1AAuto.com for quality auto parts, fast and free shipping, and the best customer service in the industry.
How to Check Brake Fluid 2007-14 Toyota FJ Cruiser
Watch this video to learn how to check and inspect the brake fluid in your 07-14 Toyota FJ Cruiser. 1A Auto shows you how to do it yourself!
