'03 LS V8 Coolant Bleeding, and bleeding, and...

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jberbrich

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I've seen some posts saying to bleed the system several times to totally get rid of all air in the system. I had the coolant flushed, refilled and bled at the Ford dealer. If bleeding several times is necessary, wouldn't the dealer know this and have done it?

I have never done a bleed myself but saw the post on how to do it. How much fluid do you expect that I will lose each time? And do I top off the system at the engine fill or degas bottle? I was unsure about that.

Thanks LS lovers. I used to be one. On the fence at this point.
 
You only have to do the bleed procedure once if you do it right and you don't have any leaks.
One would assume that the dealer did it right. Note that the bleed procedure has more than one bleeding in it. Do you have any reason to believe that they didn't follow the procedure?
 
I only bled mine once. Didn't take too long. U top of the engine fill, and fill the bottle
 
Any top-off after the bleeding (and normal maintenance) goes into the degas bottle. Don't open the engine fill, as that'll just encourage air to get into the system.

The comments you saw were probably more in reference to the ham-fisted among us (myself included) that never get the job done right the first time.
 
yea, I shoulda wrote when bleeding the system, well at least when I did it after I changed my bottle, top off the engine fill, close it, fill the degas bottle, then bleed it
 
Please correct me if I'm wrong !! But I think that when I replaced my Degas bottle in my 00 v8 not
bleeding the system properly contributed to my blown motor a few months later.
It took me and my dad (who thought I shoulda let my Mech. Do it in the first dang place !)
A week to get it right. He thought I was crazy because he's never heard of bleeding a coolant
system before. I finally gave up and let him replace 2 hoses and the t stat. When that failed we
did it the LVC way and never had a problome ! He did test drive it 3 or 4 times and drove it back hot as
Hadis each time. :(
 
dNyce LS said:
yea, I shoulda wrote when bleeding the system, well at least when I did it after I changed my bottle, top off the engine fill, close it, fill the degas bottle, then bleed it
Click to expand...

thanks guys. I am getting my confidence up to bleed.
 
ShortCircutLS said:
Please correct me if I'm wrong !! But I think that when I replaced my Degas bottle in my 00 v8 not
bleeding the system properly contributed to my blown motor a few months later.
It took me and my dad (who thought I shoulda let my Mech. Do it in the first dang place !)
A week to get it right. He thought I was crazy because he's never heard of bleeding a coolant
system before. I finally gave up and let him replace 2 hoses and the t stat. When that failed we
did it the LVC way and never had a problome ! He did test drive it 3 or 4 times and drove it back hot as
Hadis each time. :(
Click to expand...

I believe my degas bottle cracked today. I want to change this myself but the last time I bleed the system I do not believe I did it correctly and I caught hell getting the engine fill cap off. I took it to a local shop and they replaced the thermostat and flushed the system no more issues until 4 days later coolant is everywhere draining from what appears to be degas bottle. I'll probably take it back to the shop if I can make it but I would really like to try this myself. Your blown motor has me second guessing that idea.
 
LS_Owner, the hardest part, imo, was getting the hose at the bottom of the bottle back on to the metal pipe (I guess) it goes to.
 
YES ! Having that tool does help. It’s probably worth it to do it yourself. I never checked on a price from a shop, I just kinda dug in! As long as you do it right you shouldn’t have a problem. (Just don’t let anyone tell you that your crazy b/c THEY never heard of bleeding a coolant system!) If you print the tech article from the link at the top of the page you'll be fine.
 
Mechanic couldn't get the car to overheat today...go figure. On the way home CEL comes on and I get the P1299 code. Autozone says its the coolant temp sensor which appears to be easy to replace. But I do not know where this is located. I have seen a couple of posts but nothing definitive. Is this on the passenger or driver's side.
 
when it said to fill the degas bottle do they mean to the fill line or to the top of the bottle.
I am trying to bleed my 02 V8 and I fill bottle to the fill line and that not working.
 
I had the same question when I did mine. I jus filled it, not completely, but well passed the max line. Then it went down thru the bleeding, but was still high. Then a few days later I checked the level, its about a half inch to 3/4 above the line when cold
 
That what I did. Bleed several times until I saw a fine line come out of the heat air bleed hose.However car is still overheating. I need to bleed the system after replacing several pieces(thermostat, housing,caps,and inlet tube.I followed the procedure,what am I doing wrong?
 
oldhead, does your fan kick into high speed when the engine approaches normal temp and when the a/c is engaged?
Did you do the bleeding on a slope? If you're facing uphill you will have problems. Ditto if the car is on ramps.
Do you get heat out of the vents?
 
oldhead said:
That what I did. Bleed several times until I saw a fine line come out of the heat air bleed hose.However car is still overheating. I need to bleed the system after replacing several pieces(thermostat, housing,caps,and inlet tube.I followed the procedure,what am I doing wrong?
Click to expand...

I don't know. I replaced most of the plastic parts on my 04 and didn't have any trouble bleeding it.
 
joegr said:
I don't know. I replaced most of the plastic parts on my 04 and didn't have any trouble bleeding it.
Click to expand...
Neither did I twice. I fill it through the bypass housing, close the cap, fill the surge tank, crack the bypass housing cap 'till liquid runs out, run it, let it cool a couple of times, top off the surge tank (last time I added a little coolant twice). If there are any doubts, crack the cap on the bypass housing 'till liquid runs out.
 
Car fixed. My problem turn out to be a failed Aux coolant pump. Pump was leaking and not running. I let the dealer replaced. I was tried of laying on the ground.
 
dNyce LS said:
What's the bypass housing? The cap in the middle of the engine?
Click to expand...

I think he's talking about the thermostat housing.

thermostat_housingf.gif
 
So other then the thermostat housing and recovery tank, what are all the other "plastic" cooling parts that seem to be problematic?
 
TooManyToys said:
So other then the thermostat housing and recovery tank, what are all the other "plastic" cooling parts that seem to be problematic?
Click to expand...

The outlet pipe (it's the back half of the thermostat housing), and the plastic parts in the middle of the two radiator hoses.
 
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