Coolant change every 60,000 miles.....

 

Tiptronic has made a very good point, the coolant should last for many miles/years without being changed or tampered with.

There should be no need to change coolant unless you have developed problems such as a leak. Maybe it is best just left alone.

You know that saying "if it aint broke dont fix it"

 

I think you just have to pull the lower radiator hose to drain it. I've noticed more and more OEM radiators don't have a drain plug. I guess it's a cost savings thing. My wife's GMC has the drain plug bung, but it has a plastic plug glued into it, flush, no handles or anything.

 

There is a drain plug, I used it to drain the rad for installing the oil cooler kit. It is on the far passenger side of the rad (left side), and not readily accessible. I removed the bumper cover in order to access it. Maybe it can be done without removing the bumper cover, but it is really not difficult to remove, and after that emptying the rad is a breeze...

 

There is a drain plug, I used it to drain the rad for installing the oil cooler kit. It is on the far passenger side of the rad (left side), and not hid headlights readily accessible. I removed the bumper cover in order to access it. Maybe it can be done without removing the bumper cover, but it is really not difficult to remove, and after that emptying the rad is a breeze...

Still a paint to have to remove that to get to it though =P

 

Your coolant fluid might retain it's antifreeze properties for a long time, but the anti-corrosive properties only last 2-3 years. So your coolant might not freeze, but you might end up losing the heater core or the radiator due to rust. So even if you have it tested, and it's still good to -50 F, you still might want to change it to prevent the parts in the system from rusting.

 

Jiffy Lube person inadvertently mixed green into ours, did have to remove the entire bumper cover to access the drain plug. Total pain. Also, be careful with petcock as made of plastic.

Quarter turn, then pull out very gently.

 

Do you only have to remove the portion of the cover over the bumper or do you have to remove the entire bumper grill assembly?

 

I removed the entire bumper. It's really not that difficult.

 

OK, just finished the required five year drain and refill of the radiator. After spending hours underneath it - removed plastic "skid plate" and all lower fasteners from the bumper cover, I came to the conclusion that this is truly a stupid design.

I could get the drain plug turned through about 30 degrees, but not enough to get flow. Knowing how these Chrysler plugs love to break the guide ears off, I decided to take another tack.

Remove battery and battery tray. Remove lower hose and then radiator cap. Remove heater supply hose from back of engine block. Using air regulated to 40#, carefully blow all coolant onto your garage floor. Using rag and air pressure, blow out the remaining coolant through the radiator cap connection. Reconnect all hoses. Use turkey baster to remove all coolant from overflow tank. Refill using 50/50 mix of G05 and distilled water. While Patriot is warming up out on the garage apron, use hose to dilute/spread spilled coolant into yard. Top off coolant once the thermostat opens. While floor is drying, consume yet another cold beer. Replace Patriot in second bay of garage, install radiator cap, then bring your truck into first bay for A/C blower removal/replacement. When wife is getting into her car (3rd bay) and asks what all of the water is from, explain that the garage floor was "dirty" and "needed to be hosed off". Enjoy more beer.

 

Yep

Yep, that's how I would do it!

 

Not a long time ago I could read in other forum that the drain plug can be accesed removing the passenger wheelhouse splash shield. In three or four month I'll try it and I'll tell you if I got it.

Have anybody tried in this way?

Regards.

 

I have tried to change de coolant opening the drain plug in my CRD 2.0 4x4 and I couldn't. There is no space to do it, even getting out the fascia. Soon I'll try to do it with a manual pump and getting out the lower hose. I'll tell you how it goes. Regards.

 

My 14 pat states i have 10 year 150,000 mile antifreeze

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My 2014 manual also says 10yrs or 150,000 miles I had to add some when I installed the engine oil cooler because I lost some when I had too drain radiator by lower radiator hose.

 

What type of coolant your pat 2014 pat use? could you look at the service manual? this is very interesting, 10 years...

 

Its what the user manual says. Mopar antifreeze/coolant 10 year/150,000 mile formula OAT organic additive technology, i posted a picture of manual but don't know if its gonna load


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2011 Patriot:
Service Manual
"
MOPAR Antifreeze/
Coolant 5 Year/100,000 Mile Formula HOAT (Hybrid
Organic Additive Technology), or equivalent, in water
should be used
"

This is big difference from your 14 pat coolant, intresting.

 

Ah yours is hybrid organic additive

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Here's an article on MOPAR's new 10 year coolant"

http://www.sae.org/mags/aei/11284

 

2009 Patriot with only 11,000 miles. What is the recommended mileage and/or years for flushing the cooling system?

 

It's in your owner's manual. Should be 5 years/100K.

 

I just finished this task yesterday and I can confirm that removing the front fascia is not difficult (three 7mm head screws and three plastic rivet retainers in each wheel well, a fourth hidden 7mm screw right behind the splash shield where the plastic bumper meets the fender, several torx head screws along the top and two squeeze clips at the bottom) and makes the flush fairly easy to do. I had the front end pointing downhill slightly and once I got the petcock opened, it would only drain about a little over a gallon out of the system.

I had originally bought a gallon of new antifreeze (full strength) and 2 gallons of distilled water. Once I realized the engine design holds about 3/4 of a gallon in the block and heater core after draining I knew this was going to be a time intensive change. So here's what I did.

Drain one gallon out and pour in one gallon of distilled water, run the engine until full hot to mix up remaining 50/50 mix of old with 1 gallon of water. Repeat above procedure for as many times as you can stand. I ran two gallons of distilled through it (I had no way to get back to the store to get 2 more gallons of distilled water with the front end removed), better would be to do it 4 times.

When finally done you'll have a very diluted mix of distilled water with traces of old antifreeze (mostly water if you did it 4 times). Pour in the new full strength antifreeze gallon (the whole bottle will fit, but I half filled the reservoir bottle as well), then run the engine until it's full hot and carefully squeeze the upper radiator hose several times (you should see air bubbles burping up through the reservoir bottle, hose will be very hot so use a rag or glove). If you used full strength in the reservoir, top it off to full hot with just distilled water.

So very time intensive, but very easy from a difficulty/mechanical ability perspective.

 

Can you mix zerex gold g05 with mopar hoat???



Is there no engine drain plug on the patriot? So that you don't have to run the car with water? With my other truck, an F150, it has the plastic peacock against the grill which drains a couple gallons, then it also has a steel plug on the bottom of the engine that gets a lot more of the coolant out. The problem with running the water method, is that you'll end up having to test the mixture with a refractometer a week or so later after its all mixed up, and either top off with more water or drain and add antifreeze to get the freeze protection correct.

Does anyone know if you can mix Zerez gold (g05) with the red mopar hoat antifreeze? Zerez gold is also HOAT engine coolant, so it would seem they're the same? But the mopar stuff is red, not gold???

I plan on installing a mopar engine oil cooler next weekend which requires draining the antifreeze not being held in the block, and since my car is 4 years old next month - I have a 2010 patriot - so I want to know, can I refill with zerex gold (which is half the price of the mopar stuff, and which I already have sitting in my garage from when I did the ford last month)?

And now I have to pull the bumper fascia off again, i just had it off last week when i put in the front tow hooks and even then it took forever navigating the rear bolt around the tiny space between the frame and the lower radiator hose that I almost pulled off the hosef, and here now I find out it's coming off anyway since I just bought the mopar oil cooler today!

 

Removal of front bumper for easy petcock access. DIY

Ok, maybe my only post because this isn't my own Patriot but rather the fiance's.
First post because this section was SERIOUSLY lacking photo support of said radiator flush, lol.

I did end up taking the bumper off and removing the bottom splash guard. Sorry, no pics of the splash guard since that one is pretty self explanatory, but here are the bumper ones and where in fact the petcock is located.

I did in fact use the Zerex G-05 since it was recommended by multiple sources. Comes in 50/50 pre-diluted or concentrate. FYI, the Patriot takes 1.8 gallons, more or less.

Chrysler seriously didn't make it easy for us to do our own coolant flush and fill
Here it goes:

Front bumper is off in this pic and the splash guard is lowered:

(please note that it is definitely necessary to remove the front bumper as there is little to no room to access the actual petcock without removal)

2 clips on the underside:

Several screws on top of the grill location:

2 push pins on each (bottom) side:

3 7mm screws on each side of the splash guard:

1 more screw behind the splash guard holding the bumper on:

UNPLUG the lights/side markers:

Petcock location:

Side view of the petcock:

(note that you will have to turn this petcock counter-clockwise a couple of times as well as almost pulling it out while turning. This ensures that the petcock opens all the way. Terribly tight in here as well!)

I also replaced all 4 spark plugs, air filter and the ESIM which had a leak(threw engine code). Will also need an oil change, new brakes and a brake fluid exchange soon. *yippee* haha! (94k)

 

Good pics there, sir!

Thanks.

 

I just replaced the coolant and dropped one side of the bumper instead of taking it all the way off to access the drain plug. This might have saved a little time, but the drain was still a little tough to get at. I used long bent needle nose pliers to turn it. What a great design .

 

Mopar H.O.A.T. Coolant is what you need.

Mopar Part #68163848=AA

Can be found on eBay and your local Jeep dealership. I should have bought mine online and saved a few bucks. A gallon cost me $40 USD at the dealership.

 

I dunno, I do all my maint myself. Oil, trans, ptu,diff,xfer cases,belts,spark plugs,brakes,filters etc. Coolant change is one thing I take to my trusted mechanic for. About 85$ for labor and I supply the fluid. They flush the system, and its a messy job. I did swap radiator out on my 2007 xterra but still went and had the system flushed afterwards. Flushing will get stuff out of block etc etc. Next time, I will flush first then change radiator. I only changed it due to the potential of the smod. Google smod xterra and u will see what that's about. Thankfully my patriot is a manual!!! By my choosing!

 

So for best protection of water pump and radiator life, when should I change coolant on my 2013? I have the new purple coolant that's good for 10/150000. Is it really protecting against rust that long? I just hit 2 years and 36000 miles.

 

I wouldn't worry about changing the coolant for AT LEAST another 5 years, unless the system was topped off with the wrong coolant, or hard water.
By the time that coolant hits 10 years old, you'll probably have had to drain it to replace thermostats or a water pump anyway.
Reading this thread reminds me, I should replace the coolant in our Escape as it just turned 11 years old!