Seeing that air in engine coolant is a major culprit in erratic idle and temperature gauge readings, I decided to make a write up on this while replacing my thermostat today. It’s not hard, but slightly messy so be sure you are ready to clean up the engine bay and surface under the vehicle. The steps indicated by an asterisk indicate steps used when fully draining the coolant. You will want to ensure the car is cool when doing this, unless you like getting sprayed with hot coolant when opening the radiator cap
-Set the heater knob to full heat.
-Open the radiator cap.
*Remove the radiator drain bolt and drain the coolant into a container.
*Remove the drain bolt on the rear of the block to the left of the oil filter, and drain the coolant into a container.
*Replace the washer and be sure to put liquid gasket on the threads before reinstalling. Tighten the radiator drain bolt.
*Take out the reservoir, drain it, and fill it to the MAX indication with a 50/50 mix of antifreeze and water.
-Loosen the bleeder bolt on the thermostat housing. Fill the radiator to the bottom of the filler neck with a 50/50 mix. Once the coolant is coming out of the bleeder steadily without bubbles tighten it down (7 lbs-ft)
-Start the car without the radiator cap on, and let it idle until the fan comes on twice.
-Make sure the coolant is up to the bottom of the filler neck, if not add more.
-Replace the cap, and make sure you have no leaks.
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