06 Mazda Tribute V6.

I'm a little nervous about replacing the coolant. It has a 120k on the motor and I'm not sure if coolant was ever replaced. It looks fine in color. I have the new coolant ready to go.

I understand how to drain it from the radiator, however I haven't found any good DIYs on how to bleed it, and it seems like it's pretty tricky.

Does anyone have any advice on how to bleed the coolant system once I replace it?

I certainly don't want to run into an overheat condition.

 

Fill it to the full mark, idle the engine until fully warm with the heater on full. Stop if the coolant in the tank disappears as it may as air is purged. Allow to cool, top up, repeat as necessary. If stubborn then find a sloping driveway and drive in circles so the air can make its way up to the coolant tank as the slope effectively rocks the car side to side.

 

Update on this, I had to replace the thermostat on my 2002 2.0 at the weekend, I tried this for bleeding and it worked a treat.

So I started with about 3-4litres of coolant that wouldnt go in due to air, even with running the engine. I followed thos sequence:

Fill the coolant tank and replace the cap.
unbolt the tank (2x 10mm head nuts on the inner wing/fender
lift the tank and, with it still attached to both hoses, rotate it forward, over the radiator until it is inverted, you should here bubbling as coolant flows into the rad and air bubbles into the tank.
when bubbling stops, rotate the tank back to its position on the inner wing, wait until the bubbling subsides and repeat.
when the tank is empty, refill and repeat until either bubbling while inverted stops entirely or the drained coolant is all back in the system.
Bolt the tank back into position, check coolant level, road-test and adjust level as required.

After doing this I had no further airlocks, heater immediately gave heat.

I have yet to try this on a V6 but certainly will.

 

hey guys. I’m going crazy...what I did so far:

I bought a Tribute V6 2004. The tank was dirty af so I bought a new one and replaced the old tank. I flushed the system via the drain screw underneath the radiator. Then I topped it up again with help of YouTube vids and changed the thermostat as well. Now:

i poured like 4 liters of coolant into the tank until it’s not dropping anymore. Did all the heater thing and went for a drive. Temperature was fine so far. Even hot air was coming through the vents inside the car, so no air in the hoses anymore. Good. The hoses were hot af as well. Should be good.

im asking myself two things:
1)
when I flushed the radiator, only 4 liters of coolant came through the drain valve below the radiator. The manual said the system got a capacity of 10liters?!???
2) temperature gauge is working fine. Vents in front of radiator are working fine as well.
3) the trick turning the tank upside down didn’t work. The coolant level in the tank is not getting less. No bubbles.

what about the other 6 liters as mentioned in the manual?!

 

Do you count the "am I going crazy" as one of the questions you are asking yourself? LOL

DIY seem to place to much emphases on measuring the fluids (not just coolant) remove to exchange? LOL

From what I read you did a partial flush and cleaning of the condition of the cooling system. I can pretty much say that you still have a contaminated and dirty cooling system!

STOP reading DIY information how to properly do any service procedure.... IMHO the average forum member DIY gets thing not exactly accurate or for procedure the best to really follow?
Refer to a SERVICE MANUAL for the cooling system and procedure and follow ONLY it !!!!!!! (I have never read any cooling system procedure from an aftermarket Repair Manual or Factory Service Manual/Guide to which part of the procedure was to measure fluids removed from the cooing system? Nor has it ever been on any Certification Test from ASE Automotive Technician or even a Factory Technician training certification test)


Your year engine NEVER had steam pocket issues in the heads or engine short block design(can be confirmed by a little research) . Soooooooo filling the cooling system after a service should be EASY and straight forward!


My suggestion to you is find a shop that can do a COMPLETE COOLING SYSTEM CLEANING AND SERVICE which will include a chemical system cleaning, pressure testing and replacement of questionable or failing parts! Its worth it! In my shop the service is 1.50 hours complete cooling system service and replacement of coolant.