after driving for a couple days my engine coolant level ended up at the "min" line so I topped it off

 

Nice write up and thanks for posting images. I ordered myself a gallon of Volvo concentrate and will attempt this sometime soon.

Even though the coolant may look and smell fine, my understanding of it is that over time the coolant additives and chemical composition may lose its ability to protect against dissimilar metals forming deposits/electrolysis?

I would imagine it’s fairly complex and each engine would be differently impacted by this process, but what the heck - it’s a cheap fluid to diy.

I don’t yet have a vacuum filler. I should probably invest in one but I wonder if it’s truly necessary or just a nice-to-have.

 

I purchased the Harbor Freight/Maddox vacuum kit and while it has a 40 mm that appears to block off the vent hole
, it never makes a vacuum. Don't think the kit I have is working right and the Mishimoto kit is arriving tomorrow in time for "day four of the coolant pipe replacement."

 

Few more tips while I'm waiting for coolant to drain out -

Loosen the brace held with a 10 mm bolt and push it down to give yourself more space with the radiator drain.

I was able to get it rotated it a bit with a small set of pliers. Rotated 180 degrees counter-clockwise to loosen it.

Then I remembered that many years ago, my wife bought me this. It took a while to find it in the 'miscellaneous tool and cable drawer,' but it made quick work of the plastic petcock.

 

I believe the last time I needed to do a fill on my P3, I had to use the universal cone style adapter that you shove in the surge tank.

 

The universal one is a bit too small so it doesn't quite seal up. Plus the vent opening in the cap area doesn't get sealed up.

I don't think it's sealed up even with the regular 40 mm cap since I have this going on when I try to make a vacuum - sounds like it's pulling air somewhere in the reservoir

 

I have the kit from ECS Tuning

 

Try pressurizing the coolant system and look for leaks/see if it will hold pressure.

 

That will be the next step once I get the Mishimoto kit from the original post as it has a pressure tester with it and we know cap #15 should make a good seal.

 

That planned two day job of replacing the coolant pipe took nearly a week thanks to not having the right tools. The Mishimoto kit finally arrived so then I popped on cap #15 and did a pressure test - no drop in pressure, no sounds of air leaking. "Pressure test cooling system" documentation says 1.5 bar for 5 minutes but I did a bit less pressure and several times since I'm not sure what this kit is rated to handle.

A warning for anyone else attempting a vacuum coolant fill - get a kit that has a compatible cap. The Harbor Freight "Maddox Cooling System Test & Refill Kit MH-1B" does not have a compatible cap. A 22 piece rental pressure tester from Advanced Auto Parts also does not have a compatible cap. Save yourself a lot of time and get a kit that does work such as this Mishimoto one.

If anyone can confirm a different kit that is compatible, please share to help others with options in the future. There are lots of identical looking kits to the Mishimoto one for about the same price so there should be plenty to list.

I also tried a 1/4 inch drive plastic petcock socket from Amazon (Thexton THE485) and it was not suited for this job. It did not connect at all with my wrench and it's sitting at the bottom in the front bumper somewhere.

 

You can buy the Volvo tool from this site here Volvo Special Tools

And I found that the universal conical adapter on some vacuum kits was too large diameter for it to fit and seal the coolant reservoir. I trimmed mine with a razor and it was able to go down below the lip of the reservoir and seal the vent tube.

 

Really good info here in this thread if anyone is looking to do this job themselves. I have a couple of additions that might be helpful for others - mostly I followed the great walkthrough put together by the OP @z0r

1- I decided after looking, to do this from below. Especially if you have the car up on ramps for an oil change anyway, it's really easy to remove the narrow black panel in front of the belly pan, which you will find is caked with road debris, dirty dump bees and probably blocking the drain holes Volvo put along the panel anyways.

After removing this panel, you have a nice little arm-sized access hole there directly to the draincock. I used a couple feet of vacuum hose I had laying around to perfectly route the coolant into a bucket.

As z0r mentions, the draincock has to rotate 180 degrees - nothing happens at 90, but mine felt like it was bottoming out at 90. I had to re-read the thread to confirm that 180 was right.

2- The mishimoto kit has a handheld pump that you can use to pressurize the coolant reservoir on draining. This greatly speeds up the drain process and helps to ensure you get more out of the system.

Because this was available, I took some distilled water and put about 1.5L of coolant (half a gallon) and flushed out the hoses a bit after doing the initial drain.

If you wanted to be super thorough, you could refill with water, run the car and then do a second drain, but based on the cleanliness I was observing I didn't bother.

3- Special radiator drain plug tool - I just took a piece of 2x4, set my skilsaw to about 1/2" depth and ran a slot in my little square of 2x4. This gave me a hand-held tool that was soft enough to avoid marring up the drainplug. after I got a quarter turn done, I was able to get a small adjustable wrench on it to finish loosening it past 90 degrees.
Closing the drainplug was much easier.

5- After drain, rinse and refill, she looks beautiful, blue-raspberry jolly rancher flavor:

 

Great reference thread here. I am buying the Mishimoto kit and a plastic petcock socket tool, if it doesn't work I'll just return it. Always a good idea to drain and refill coolant every so often (50K miles maybe?) especially on a car that has no damned temperature gauge!!!!

 

Wow the Mishimoto kit worked great to refill the coolant system on my 4 cylinder 2017 xc60. So easy and no air in the system. Wish I would’ve had one of these years ago when refilling cooling systems. And number 15 adapter In the kit worked great.

 

Sweet news here, I will probably do this in the spring once it stops being so cold just to do a good flush.

 

What is the coolant capacity for D4 V90?

 

volvo coolant, diluted with distilled water, about 1 gal total. my xc90 2016's capacity was a little less than 1 gallon (diluted) using a plain drain+fill method. I bought a gallon of "Volvo Coolant/Antifreeze - Genuine Volvo 32339856" at FCP euro and diluted with distilled water 50/50
steps

So, is the entire cooling system capacity or volume 2 gallons?
2 US liquid gallons = ~7,6 litres?

 

Im just interested if you can do this by just simply filling the coolant tank and letting the air out by circulating it or do you need to vacuum fill it?

 

Vacuum is required.

 

Im just interested if you can do this by just simply filling the coolant tank and letting the air out by circulating it or do you need to vacuum fill it?

No vacuuming is needed!
I did the same thing myself by flushing the old coolant out with water.
So drain the old coolant and replace it with tap water.
Drive the car until it warms up for an hour or two, then drain the coolant and replace it with tap water. Repeat this 3-5 times to get everything out of system! 👍👍

 

Probably not an issue if you just drain the radiator and refill. But if any component in the system is replaced like the waterpump or thermostat, good luck getting the air out without a vacuum fill.

 

Naaah just drive and it will automatically air it self! 👍👍

 

Hi everyone Got 2019 xc60 d4 in Australia I have changed the coolant on my car with unique approach. I didn't had vacuum kit. I started with draining old coolant out and at the same time filled the coolant tank with demineralised water ( didn't let the tank run empty so it didn't took any air in ) After all the coolant ran out, demineralised water started to come out and then i started pouring new coolant without letting the tank go empty, and when the new coolant started draining i closed the drain plug. So far no problems running the car, let me know if I did anything wrong. Thanks

 

Maybe I'm being a rule follower, but I would really recommend the vacuum pump approach for these cars - I think that approach could work but it also could still introduce air into the system if it's not done perfectly - and running between the bottom of the car and top of car is a chore. The vacuum pumps are cheaper and cheaper now on Amazon. I would probably go that route unless I was like stranded on the side of the road.

 

Im in a never ending struggle with this air lock. 2013 xc90 3.2
Replaced radiator, thermo, all hoses and water pump. Have done 2 coolant flushes. and both times Im having air pocket issues. I thought it was a head gasket at first, but according to a mech he said it was fine. I tried with the vacuum but must have done it wrong, i guess. If I go for a drive, my coolant light comes on. then goes off after a 1/2 mile then comes back on after then off. If I shut the car off the coolant comes rushing back in, then gone again after a drive, then light on.

 

I'd like to do this on my 2018 XC90 as I suspect it has a very very small coolant leak. I used some UV dye to try and find the leak but still haven't seen anything.

I don't have an air compressor, is it totally necessary for the vacuum kit?

 

for the mishimoto kit I bought yeah the vacuum pump it comes with is powered by compressed air. with the right fittings you could hook up a different vacuum pump like a small electric one used for hvac work, the cheap ones like harbor freight sells start at about $100

as far as finding the leak, every time I've needed to find one all I needed to do was pressurize the system with the hand pump in the kit and I found the leak within seconds by listening for it