How to Drain Fill Bleed Cooling System 2007-11 Honda CR-V

Hi, I’m Mike from 1A Auto. We’ve been selling auto parts for over 30 years!

To drain the coolant out of the radiator on this CR-V, the drain plug is right in the center, right below the license plate up in the center. I just use a little pair of pliers. I reach in there, and I turn it counterclockwise. Once you snap it, you can probably get your hand up in there. I used a lift. You can use a jack or jack stands at home ,or just crawl on your back.

Make sure you have a catch pan to catch your coolant. No need to take the petcock all the way out, just enough to drain, that way you can control the flow. Once the petcock is open and the coolant's draining into the bucket, I release the radiator cap to let the suction inlet come out a little faster and then just set that aside.

So now we're going to add the coolant. And I have installed this clear funnel, it's like a self burping type funnel. You can use a regular funnel if you don't have this but it's easier for you guys to see it in the visual. So I connected the correct fitting on the bottom, on the radiator and this just sits right in there. Now I'm going to fill it up with the coolant. Make sure that the drain valve is tightened before adding new coolant. Check your owners manual for the type of coolant and the mixture. This has been premixed. So now that I have filled the radiator with coolant, and I used my self-burper funnel, I've left it a level that makes me very comfortable so that when I run it, it can suck any fluid down in or burp it up and not make a mess. If you don't have this style funnel, do not fill it all the way to the top. Leave some air so you can visually see down there.

Start your car and run it. We're going to run for about a half hour, 40 minutes, whatever it takes to get the thermostat to open. Make sure your heater hose connector inside your heater vent is on hot so that the heat coolant will go through the heater core and you'll get all the air out of your system. And once that happens, the fans will come on. You hear those fans, watch your coolant level. Top it off at the top of the radiator, put your cap on, and you're ready to go. So now that you've had the car reach full temperature and the thermostat opened, coolant fans came on. I let it sit for about a half hour, let it cool down, and let the coolant get sucked into the system. And now it's going to be at its proper level. Close this off when you have this style filter funnel. And I take it off. You're going to get some spillage, a little bit so make sure your pan is still underneath. So now I'm going to put the radiator cap back on, seal that up. Check my overflow and if it's low now that it's cold, it's going to be marked. You'll see the fluid level, where it is. And on the side here, there's a line and it says cold and hot and this is cold so that's where I like to use this. I can put it right on top and add to it. Check my level and it's right at the cold level which is perfect. Reassemble the cap, make sure that screws down, sealed tight and you are ready to go.

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