flush cooling system?, how to do it properly? Options

[Hanyo]

how do you properly flush the cooling system of a car?

I know the basics like hook up a garden hose and run water through the system as the engine is runing and heater on to help remove all the rust and containaments in there.

But what do you do with all that radiator fluid? You can't just let that drain into the storm drains.


And your not suppose to get hard water into the cooling system, that is why distilled water is needed. And flushing the cooling with gallons and gallons of distilled water will be very costly....

What about those chemicals you can buy?

What is the best way to do it? To be honest i dont trust those jiffy lube shops to flush my car, they probably wont use distilled water...

[GriffGirl]

Not for nothin, but sometimes you do what you gotta do. I ran a hose on my '87 Pathfinder, and it worked just fine. I don't know if my water is hard or not, that will vary from locale to locale. If you're really concerned about hard water deposits, you can buy a water softener, I believe it's actually a salt type of stuff... but it doesn't make the water salty. My mom lives in Vegas where the water is so hard you need a chisel for it... she's got a special tank that takes the salt stuff (maybe it's just in her hot water heater, I don't remember) and the water is used throughout the house. No salty showers or tooth brushing though.