And this is why for stuff like this I just go to the dealer. Less headaches, no chance of hurting myself, and if they do it wrong it's on them. I think you'll be ok, probably just an allergic reaction. Next time wear gloves, whenever I work on my wife's car I wear the thin surgical gloves just in case.

 

True. I'm not going to flush coolant by myself again. This is my first time and my last time.

 

Prestone sells a flush kit that hooks a hose adapter into a heater hose and supposedly flushed out the whole system. I used one many years ago and it seemed to do the job. That would make the job easier next time.

Re the irritation: I have never had any kind of irritation from antifreeze. Maybe you are sensitive or allergic? Anyway, manly men wait until the affected part falls off or turns black before going to the doctor.

The kit:
http://amzn.com/B000CCFY5W

 

Prestone sells a flush kit that hooks a hose adapter into a heater hose and supposedly flushed out the whole system. I used one many years ago and it seemed to do the job. That would make the job easier next time.

Re the irritation: I have never had any kind of irritation from antifreeze. Maybe you are sensitive or allergic? Anyway, manly men wait until the affected part falls off or turns black before going to the doctor.

The kit:
Prestone AF-KIT Flush 'N Fill Kit : Amazon.com : Automotive

Thanks! I've thought about that before. But I live in apartment(just got my first job in Atlanta after college) and there is no water hose available here. Now, the skin peels off like snake. Hope it will get better after all the old skin fall off.

 

Also, it's a pain to find places to dispose used coolant. The closest auto place to my apartment is Lexus dealership. When I brought 5 buckets of green liquid to the dealership lobby, the salesman was like what the heck are you doing here, take the nasty things out. They obviously don't do recycling. Then, I went to Advance Auto Parts, AutoZone and O'Railley. All of them sell coolant but NONE of them recycle them. What the heck? Finally, found jiffy lube that takes used coolant for free.

 

-- Lexus dealership.
Ok

When I brought 5 buckets of green liquid to the dealership lobby,
You took 25 gallon of waste ethylene glycol into a LEXUS new car showroom ?

the salesman was like what the heck are you doing here, take the nasty things out.
Uhh, yea, shop waste product in their nice uppity clean new car show room.. take the stuff to the service dept

They obviously don't do recycling.
Check with service people there ? Around here, we find containers full of stuff left by the door, we just dump it in with the waste oil as everyday, it go into large storage container, then fella in big truck come by and suck out all the lquid and they take care of it.

Then, I went to Advance Auto Parts, AutoZone and O'Railley. All of them sell coolant but NONE of them recycle them. What the heck?
Could be zoning issue with storage of used liquids, some of the places around here will accept used fluids for disposal

Finally, found jiffy lube that takes used coolant for free.

Good day

 

Call your local dump, as they would rather you bring it in than dump it out. Thank you for being responsible in that respect. I think I mentioned, in the previous thread about the coolant, to please know what you are doing, or it can end bad. You proved my point. Hopefully the car will survive. Just stay frosty on the coolant temp gauge and say something if it ever creeps up.

as far as your fingers, you will be fine. Some people are more sensitive to certain chemicals than others. Just a bit of dermatitis. As long as you rinsed it off, just keep it lotioned up ( no Vaseline ) and it will eventually clear up. Do not pop the bumps. That can cause infection. If they pop on their own, then it's ok, just don't do it yourself. If they pop, wash up with soap, do not use hand sanitizer.

 

1) Don't use tap water. Use distilled water.
2) Call first to get disposal site. Mine takes up to 10 gallons of "mixed" coolant and water as long as its in old milk jugs or similar. Bring in an open container and they will laugh at you.
3) You did it the long and hard way.

I doubt you had a coolant reaction. Sounds like you almost got into some Poison Ivy, Oak given the limited description given. If you had a reaction to it it would most likely been more than two fingers. However I am no doctor either.

Does anybody know the full cooling capacity of the Sonata? Radiator and block and hoses and such?

 

The Sonata coolant capacity is about 6.8 quarts. I checked owner's manual. I bought 6 bottles of distilled water for flush and stored the used coolant back to these water bottles.

 

Almost 7 quarts.

 

Then with some preplanning, you could do the trick I do which is fill with distilled water/drain until absolutely clear and then put in 50% coolant in the radiator (roughly 3.5 quarts) and wah lah! I did this with my Maxima and my Rav with great success.

 

You're doing it right in using distilled water multiple flushes and not tap water and then only putting in about 1/2 of the capacity of concentrated coolant. If you don't used distilled water you won't get the full life of the coolant and almost all car/truck manuals assume you will use tap water and I guarantee you the dealer doesn't do a proper flush with distilled water.

I thoughts after doing all my work/maintenance for the last almost 50 years and reading the numerous horror stories is that if there is a way to mess up a maintenance procedure, the dealership is often at the head of the class.

Dealerships almost to a fault have absolutely no incentive to do things the best way since that would result in less business ($$$$) for them ... that's just the way it is.

Larry

 

I also checked the price at dealership for the cooling system service. They charge $35 for coolant drain and refill and over $100 for coolant flush.

Here is my DIY cost:

$12 for prestone extended life coolant
$6 for 6 gallons of distilled water
$3.5 for coolant tester
$1 for big bucket from dollar tree to collect the coolant under the car
$3.7 for about 1 gallon of gas for air bleeding(keep car idle for about 1 hour).

So, total cost is about $25 + 8 hours. Is it worth it for the money saving? Not sure. But the Prestone extended life coolant can last 5 years/150K miles. So, I don't need to worry about it for next 5 years at least.

 

I bought OEM coolant for 22. I change mine out every two years. However it usually takes me 8-12 gallons of distilled to get a clean system (totally clear drain). Maybe the Sonata is a bit different?

 

It wasn't totally clear drain but I think it's good enough. I drained and flushed 5 times and the remaining old coolant in the engine should be about 1% if my math is correct. Since every time I flushed out half of the fluid. So for first time, the coolant was flushed from 50% to 25%, second time 25% to 12%, third time 12% to 6%, fourth time 6%-3%, fifth time 3% to 1%. 1% old coolant is negligible and shouldn't cause any damage even though the drain fluid still looks slightly green. Plus, it was getting late and I wanted to finish the job before it got dark.

 

So you flushed with distilled and then filled with pure coolant at the end?

 

That's correct. Since the coolant capacity is 6.8 quarts, I filled 3.4 quarts of pure coolant. Then, top off the reservoir with distilled water.

 

oh boy.

 

Uhmm it takes me no more than 1hr to flush the entire coolant system, mix the green coolant with water and add it into the radiator and reservoir tank...

8hrs???

 

I doubt you cleaned it out all the way unless you have a machine or you are using hose water.