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Can you recommend a coolant bleeder tool?

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by Krall, Nov 9, 2022.

  1. Georgina Rudkus

    Georgina Rudkus Senior Member

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    No need to open any bleed valve with the UView tool.
     
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  2. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    No doubt there'll be no need to do anything with that tool I mean that's pretty cool setup I wonder if I could make my air conditioner vacuum tool it's a Venturi that hooks up to my air compressor I could make that happen with that probably once I drain the system use a tapered plug put a hole in it with a fitting to connect my air conditioning compressor vacuum pump that runs off my air compressor run that for about 4 minutes that should pull the system down to suck down hoses and all and then have a little titty coming out of the same cork if you will with a cap on it and a little valve that I'll use to suck the coolant through. Basically same process with available stuff in the shop It is a good idea but I've never had any trouble even with the toughest vehicles to bleed the air out of in their cooling systems and power sports equipment with some of that can be a real p i t a
     
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  3. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    This is going in circles: you were making exactly those points in multiple older posts from back before we knew whether the later Repair Manual editions made any change to the procedure (such as saying to remove any hose) to go along with the deletion of the extra valve.

    It was, in fact, because you'd been making those points earlier that back in August, when Elektroingenieur was looking at a later edition Repair Manual, I specifically asked whether any new step had been added to go with the deletion of that valve, and Elektroingenieur found that there was no other step added. The step involving the extra valve simply was removed. You participated in that thread.

    The simplest explanation for Toyota deleting that valve from their degas-bottle cooling system, and not adding some other instruction in its place, would involve them gaining experience that the degas-bottle design did its job without the valve anyway and that no additional step was needed. They have a lot of these cars on the road, and they don't have a motive to publish an ineffective procedure that would keep their techs from successfully refilling them.

    I haven't disputed that the OP thinks that, but I am not sure what procedure got the OP to that point. The OP described taking some steps that aren't in the recommended procedure, and has been given various pieces of advice that aren't the recommended procedure, and it strikes me as worth having the recommended procedure also represented here, on the chance it hasn't been tried yet.
     
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  4. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    The resolution of the issue will likely proceed the din of debate, lol.
     
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  5. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    Maybe he will drain again ? Fluids new so catch it . Re apply fluid to B and proceed to milk big lower hoses . See if it makes B . And get on with it . Would make most sense at this point and quickly have answers. Toyoda world don't generally delete parts for nada.
     
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  6. Krall

    Krall Member

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    I wish the sound of flowing water/air was in my head lol

    It’s really annoying and I’m wondering if it’s the cause of heat loss. Well sometimes there’s a bit of heat.

    I wonder if I don’t have that valve because I had the whole EGR circuit replaced? I believe the replacement wasn’t from a 2010.

    I did read about the fill lines on the overflow tank before, but I also don’t see those marks.

    I did set the car in maintenance mode with the cap off. I also took the probably not so recommended approach of driving it 20 mins with the cap off. None of that helped the air problem much.

    The initial scenario was I replaced my water pump. In retrospect now I may know why I have so much trapped air. I opened the drain valve on the bottom of the radiator and ran the garden hose through the overflow tank. Drained the system (gravity) again and filled the system with anti-freeze. Edit and no I didn’t get any antifreeze on the ground, I captured it before flushing.
     
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  7. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    The procedure in the repair manual has you fill to the B line (those lines really are there, see if you can't find them), and then put the cap fully on, before running the engine up to operating temp and for several minutes more.

    At operating temperature with the cap on, the system pressure squeezes any bubbles to around half their atmospheric-pressure size, which may make it easier for the coolant flow to carry them back to the bottle where they belong. With the cap left off, no pressure develops, so that can't happen.

    It's not necessary to let the air escape from the bottle; in a degas-bottle design, the bottle is made with enough headspace for the air to be brought back to the bottle and just stay there. The liquid level should drop from B to F (once everything is fully cool again) when that has happened.

    I find the F line to be the hardest of the three lines to find, because it's pretty much right at the joint between the bottom and top of the bottle.
     
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  8. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    When you refilled was it with the 50/50 pre-mixed Toyota Super Long Life Coolant? Drain amount tends to be a lot less than complete system capacity, meaning you would have over-diluted coolant, maybe 30~40 percent.

    Not sure that could be a factor, but still something you should rectify. There is a link in my signature, just my thoughts on how to deal with residual water in the engine coolant system: "flushing out stop-leak...".
     
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  9. Krall

    Krall Member

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    Ok thanks, I’ll check again or pull the bottle to find them. So what’s that valve looking thing at the top back of the recovery tank with a black cap that unscrews for?
     
  10. Krall

    Krall Member

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    Well with almost 300k I opted for aftermarket 50/50 Asian premix. That’s a great point! I’ll have to find my coolant tester to try.
     
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  11. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Not sure what you mean ... photo?
     
  12. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Here's the "B" (mentioned in attached) and "FULL" lines. I went over them with a sharpie; otherwise they're pretty hard to make out. And full line is about a mm above the crimped seam.

    3C6B60F9-60C5-44A1-891F-43F83DB9A423.jpeg
     
  13. CR94

    CR94 Senior Member

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    Crimped? To form a water-tight seal In plastic?! Maybe sonic welded or glued.

    Until your Sharpie found that line, I'd always assumed the joint WAS the Full mark. Which is annoyingly vague, because there's a range in which the exact level sorta hides behind the joint.
     
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  14. jzchen

    jzchen Newbie!

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    I did a coolant drain and fill at 10 years. I can remember that filling to B line, and I came here and posted my concern that I set the engine to a mode but the engine would turn on and off. I had set some emissions test mode, while the instructions had called for inspection mode, in which the engine runs constantly. (I forget if the heater needs to be set to a certain setting that may be for another car). Instructions also say to squeeze specifically the large hoses going into and out of the radiator. These are inaccessible by hand, maybe by one of those “grabber” devices you squeeze the handle at one end and it pinches whatever you want to reach at the other. (I did not think to try this).

    Important notes:

    1. I did not do any hose squeezing.
    2. I incorrectly set the engine to emissions test mode vs constantly running inspection mode.
    3. The coolant level dropped from B to Full.
    4. The coolant level did not drop further until I stopped checking a few days later.

    Does anyone know if Toyota changed the engine in such a way they did not need the bleeder valve in later models, or did they just realize the bleeder isn’t necessary in the first place among Gen 3s.

    I used Peak Global Lifetime premixed to refill. It is a light yellow color. Eventually the coolant color turned pinkish….


    iPhone ?
     
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  15. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    As far as I can tell, they did not even give a new part number to that hose tee for the version without the valve. So if you need to replace that tee in a 2010 and you go buy the part they sell you, it's going to be without the valve. That suggests to me that there wasn't some design change to the engine that would require one style or the other.
     
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  16. CR94

    CR94 Senior Member

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    That's the way it seems to me (without removing obstructing parts), but ChapmanF accessed them, if I understood correctly. If I ever change the coolant myself, I'll try harder to find a way to reach through the maze.
     
  17. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    It's been a while, maybe I shouldn't stake everything on it. I think I reached them. Might even be remembering a different car. Got the system burped without incident though.
     
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  18. jzchen

    jzchen Newbie!

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    The thing is, no matter how I goofed and failed to squeeze, I meticulously set the level to B, and it dropped perfectly to Full. (There is no mention of where it should drop to in a fully bled engine in the service literature, but I find it no coincidence that it is perfectly at full). Bleed was successful without touching the hoses. If you really insist though I suggest a grabber tool. Too close to the fans for my comfort….. image-2022-12-04-07:48:21-031.jpg
     
  19. Paladain55

    Paladain55 Active Member

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    When i drained my heat exchanger i just used the bleed port and filled from there when resevoir got like halfway full. Was easy. It all bled out on the initial start without having to drive around. Just get the care warm in maintenance mode and turn the heat on. Then turn it back off and go drive around in normal mode to verify.
     
    #39 Paladain55, Dec 5, 2022
    Last edited: Dec 5, 2022
  20. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    It's been my experience that the procedure in the repair manual works so easily and consistently and well that I haven't even been tempted to invent others.
     
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