Flushing radiator

[RAYMAN]

My car heater is not working I dont want to go to all the bother of removing hoses to clear the water,in this cold and miserable weather,is it OK just to pour in a radiator flush in the hope that it will re-sture any blockage,and will it do any harm if I leave it in there until the weather warms up.

[simonruss]

no you cant and yes it will.

[TWR]

Hi Ray, If you want the job to be done properly undo the bottom hose & flush out the sysyem & dont forget the antifreez , You say the heater is not working! has it just started doing that or has it not been working for a while? when you say it's not working do you mean the motor is not working? if the latter it could be a number of things.

[simonruss]

back flushing helps too, forcing water upwards instead of down, however if its the car heater then perhaps just flushing that instead of the entire system may be more useful and less time consuming. disconnect the pipes from the engine block and flush one way then the other. make sure to bleed the system afterwards to avoid trapped air.

[RAYMAN]

Thanks guys as you can see I was just being lazy,but as you have more or less kicked my butt,I will just have too get down and under.But when the weather better hey.

[chas2008]

depending on age of the vehicle i wouldnt rely on any flushing addative to cure the problem. In reality on modern vehicles this is rarely a problem, the chances are its something else..what is the the vehicle ???...it may be a common problem on your particular model.

[RAYMAN]

Hi chas,Rover 400 1998 hatchback,looked at the hot cold control under the bonnet and the wire control moves the lever backwards & forwards on an open and close control, hot water reaches this point I have sqeezed and bent the hose at the entry point and it appears that some h/w gets past this point but does not keep flowing past it.

[RAYMAN]

For those who might be following this,I,ve poured a rad flush in and it has warmed up already.I will be doing the obllgatory 50 mls then undo the lower rad hose then release the top one and give a back flush.

[BertiWooster]

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