I need to put coolant in my MR2 spyder, and like to use the Toyota coolant because it seems to hold up really well. The coolant I drained out of my 93k mile parts car was really clean looking and still the nice translucent red that the Toyota coolant starts out as. Is there any reason not to put it back in the car? I have run it through a filter (three layers of paper towel sandwiched between wire mesh) and it looks nice. What would you guys do?? Am I insane? But it is $30/gallon, so ...
I frequently reuse coolant as long as it's clean. I will drain it into a bucket, repair whatever is needed and dump the old stuff back in the top.
Same here, but I test the freeze / boiling points first. IMHO it's wasteful to throw it away without reason.
I do this occasionally if I know the coolant is relatively new (usually after I'm hunting down a leak after doing a timing belt). I make sure the container I put it in is very clean and sealed and will run it through an automotive paint strainer prior to refilling.
Ok thanks for the advice. I put the old coolant in and fired the mr2 up. Upon reaching full temp it found a small pinhole in one of the coolant lines. I was quite glad that wasn’t $30/gallon coolant dripping out at that point!! I’ll replace the coolant line and re bleed the system tomorrow. Everything else held and I managed to even get heat after massaging the heater core rubber lines. (Why does that feel dirty to say?)
I run fluids through a paint strainer. It takes out a lot more muck than you'd expect.
I've reused coolant before when hunting leaks or what have you.
Drained in to clean bucket, use funnel and coffee strainer and pour in to coolant jug and reuse.
The coffee strainer is probably overkill, but I have a Keurig now and need to use them for something.
You guys are geniuses about the filters. I have never been able to reuse coolant because of the crap I invariably get in it.
I will try now.
I reuse coolant all the time and usually put a rag in the funnel as a filter.
The local wrecking yard sells used coolant so if I'm working on a beater and need some I'll buy it there.
Yup. I re-use. I will often not go crazy with a filter unless I have something good laying around to use. I have a nice funnel with a very fine screen in the bottom that works well. I have been known to use a microfiber towel on a 5-gallon bucket. As long as it gets the big chunks I'm happy
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