How to Replace Coolant Inlet Tube 2001-10 Dodge Grand Caravan
Created on: 2015-03-16
Watch this video and learn how to replace the coolant inlet tube on your 01-10 Dodge Grand Caravan, Plymouth Voyager, or Chrysler Town and Country.
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step 1 :Draining the Coolant
- Have a drain pan ready
- Insert a tube to the drain
- Turn the valve a quarter turn counterclockwise to remove it
- Let the coolant drain
- Remove the radiator cap to speed up the process
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step 2 :Removing the Wheel
- Loosen the 21mm lug nuts with the vehicle on the ground
- Raise the vehicle with a floor jack
- Secure the vehicle on jack stands
- Remove the lug nuts
- Pull off the wheel
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step 3 :Removing the Inner Wheel Well Panels
- Pull off the four pins in the wheel well with a flat blade screwdriver and a pair of pliers
- Remove the two Phillips screws on the edge of the bumper cover
- Remove the inner wheel well
- Pull down the second panel to remove the pins
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step 4 :Removing the Lower Coolant Tube
- Slide off the hose clamp from the radiator hose with a pair of pliers
- Have a drain pan ready
- Pry off the hose with a flat blade screwdriver
- Let the fluid drain
- Remove the 13mm bolt from the bracket
- Remove the 13mm bolt from the water inlet housing
- Pull the coolant tube down and out
- Clean out any material on the housing and inlet
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step 5 :Installing the New Lower Coolant Tube
- Coat the o-ring with motor oil
- Insert the coolant tube into place
- Preliminarily tighten the 13mm bolt to the inlet housing
- Tighten the 13mm bolt to the bracket most of the way
- Finish tightening the 13mm bolt to the inlet housing
- Finish tightening the 13mm bolt to the bracket
- Slide the hose clamp into place
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step 6 :Installing the Inner Wheel Well Panels
- Push the inside panel into place and replace the clips
- Push the wheel well panel into place and replace the four clips
- Tighten the two Phillip screws to the edge of the bumper cover
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step 7 :Reattaching the Wheel
- Slide the wheel into place
- Start the 21mm lug nuts by hand
- Tighten the lug nuts preliminarily
- Lower the vehicle to the ground
- Tighten the lug nuts to 100 foot-pounds in a crossing or star pattern
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step 8 :Refilling the Coolant
- Push the radiator drain in a quarter of a turn to a vertical position
- Turn the plug 90 degrees with pliers to close the valve
- Refill the radiator with the correct 50/50 mixture until the radiator is topped off
- Tighten the radiator cap
- Refill the coolant reservoir to the max fill line
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step 9 :Testing the Coolant
- Start the vehicle
- Circulate the coolant by turning on the front and rear heat
- Check the coolant level after 10 minutes of driving
- For the first few days of driving, check to make sure the coolant level is between the max/min fill line
Tools needed
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21mm Socket
13mm Socket
Phillips Head Screwdriver
Jack Stands
Drain Pan
Rubber Vacuum Hose
Ratchet
Floor Jack
Needle nose pliers
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Hi, I'm Mike from 1A Auto. I hope this how-to video helps you out, and next time you need parts for your vehicle, think of 1AAuto.com. Thanks!
In this video, we're going to show you how to replace the lower coolant tube on this 2003 Grand Caravan, 3.3-liter, same for most 2001 to 2010 Caravan, Voyager, Town and Country's 3.3-liter and 3.8-liter. The o-rings go, and you'll often get a dripping right around, near your front passenger's side tire. Items you'll need are a new tube or hose from 1AAuto.com, pliers, catch pan, Phillips screwdriver, 13mm and 21mm sockets, and a ratchet and a breaker bar or pipe for extra leverage, jack and jack stands, you do have to remove your tire, and you'll need more coolant, probably about three gallons.
You want to start by draining the radiator fluid or the coolant. Under the driver's side, if you look up under the side of your radiator, you'll see there's a drain here. I'm going to connect a tube to just help direct the coolant. If you can turn it with your fingers, do it. If not, use pliers, and you want to turn - it's like a square, the valve is a square. You turn it just a quarter turn counterclockwise and pull it out. Obviously, you have a safety, not a safety but a drain pan underneath, and let the coolant drain until it stops. Then, once you started the coolant, you can actually open up the radiator cap, and that will allow it to drain even faster.
Remove the passenger side front tire. If you don't have air tools, start with the vehicle on the ground, loosen the lug nuts, then raise and support the vehicle on jack stands and remove the wheel and tire the rest of the way. There are four large push style pins, you grab the inner wheel well and pull out. You can see I'm trying to pull out that top pin there and possibly use a large screwdriver, going underneath and dislodge those pins. There's two a little over to the right, and there's one up above as well. A pair of needle-nosed pliers can be helpful to get these out as well. I remove the two Phillips screws that are right on the outside of the wheel opening. Then pull the inner wheel well over to the side, and then back down and out of your way. This inner shield is held with two pins right up top, I just pull straight down to get those pins out.
On the front side, a hose clamp secures the hose, squeeze the teeth of the hose clamp with pliers, and move it back down the hose. Have a drip pan ready underneath, and, hypothetically, you could drain your whole system this way, but use a screwdriver and that just starts to break the hose loose from the metal a little bit. Just try and wedge a screwdriver in there, you can see I can twist the hose and that breaks it free, and then slowly pull it out, even if you drained your system you're still going to get quite a bit of coolant that comes out of here. We'll fast-forward as I let that drain, and then take the hose off. A 13mm bolt goes into the front of the engine, and you'll see a bracket pretty easily that goes up from the tube. Remove that, and then another 13mm bolt goes up into the water inlet housing, and we'll remove that.
Then, once those are out, just move the two around, up and down, until you can get it down. It might actually help to grab it from the bottom. For ours, it turns out somebody had put some gasket stuff in there, so it made it extra sticky, but you should be able to turn it a quarter of turn and pull it down and out. Now you want to clean out the water inlet housing as best you can. Actually, first I'm just reaching up in there with my fingers and fingernails and just trying to pull any of the stuff out like I said there was some gasket material used. Now, I'm just using a wire brush and cleaning that out as best I can. Here's a look at the water inlet all nice and cleaned out.
New tube on top from 1A Auto; the old one is on the bottom. A lot of times those o-rings go bad and start leaking from up there. This tube will fix that issue, and it will bolt right in place. You want to coat the O-ring with just a little bit of motor oil or even penetrating oil will work just to get it to go in easier.
To install, put it in, and then twist it and push it up and in. Then you can work it underneath the belt, and then you want to make sure you hold it up in place while you thread in that bolt that goes into the water inlet. Then just tighten it up kind of preliminarily, don't tighten it up all the way. I'll leave that first bolt loose so you can move the tube a little bit to line up for the other bolt, and then insert this bolt, and then you'll tighten them both up. I tightened this one most of the way, and then I finished tightening the one that goes up into the water inlet, and then I tighten the bracket the rest of the way.
You want to put the radiator hose back onto the end of the tube and then reset the clamp on there. The clamps on these, once you squeeze them, sometimes they'll lock in the open position, so just take a screwdriver, pry up one side, and it will pop and it will get tight, and then just make sure it's set on there well. Fast-forward a little bit, put that lower cover back in place, and it has the two pins and they're up in there, you just got to feel your way in there, set those pins, and get that in place. Now flip the inner fender back in, set it in place, and then put those three pins in place to hold it. Then reinsert the two screws that hold the wheel well to the fender or the bumper cover.
Reinstall your wheel and tire, and if you put the two lug nuts on that are opposite the fill valve, then you can pop your hub cap on if you have hub caps and then put on all the rest of the lug nuts. Then you can let your vehicle down, and you want to make sure you torque your lug nuts to 100 foot-pounds.
Now you want to make sure that you reset your radiator drain, make sure you push it in. It should push in, and then turn a quarter of a turn from the horizontal position to the straight up and down position. We pushed it in, and then we needed pliers to turn it the 90 degrees to get it to close. Now you've drained your cooling system totally, so you want to refill it with the correct 50/50 mixture, and you're going to fill the radiator directly. You fill it, you'll see it come up to the top, and then it will go down some and fill it again until you top off the radiator and then replace and secure your radiator cap.
Then you're going to want to fill the coolant reservoir, and it's over near the battery. You basically want to fill it to the max fill line, and then you're going to want to start your vehicle up and check for any leaks, get it to idle, get the thing up to temperature, and make sure there's no coolant dripping anywhere. You see just in a second as I finish up, we'll draw a little line for you. There is a mark on the bottle, but I also drew a little line for you there digitally, that's basically the max fill line. You start your vehicle up, get the coolant circulating, these vehicles have rear air, you want to make sure you turn on your front heat and your rear heat as well, that will help get coolant circulated to those portions of the heating system.
Start it up, monitor your coolant and your coolant tank, drive for about 10 minutes, and you'll notice that probably the heat doesn't work right away. It'll take a little while for the heat to work, but just check your coolant after the first 10 minutes of driving. Drive it again for another 10 minutes, and just for the first few days that you drive the car just check that coolant tank and make sure that you're always between the minimum and the maximum.
Thanks for tuning in. We hope this video helped you out. Next time you need parts for your car, please visit 1AAuto.com. Also check out our other helpful how-to and diagnosis videos.
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