Suzuki Jimny - How to Change Your Coolant 

Cheers Sue! Glad the video was helpful for you. Hopefully there were no slugs in your system 😁👍

Me to hun he makes it look pm easy ! But can follow instructions as he's described to the tea x good luck and I'll be starting job shortly .purchased new bottle but guess it don't come with new lid extra 30 quid on top of 40 for bottle ? Can't afford garage lol x

Sounds like you guys have had some bad luck. Hopefully this video will help get you sorted 👍

Agreed. This fact of setting the heater control to hot goes back to the days when cars had a valve in the system that when operated-usually by a cable, that would divert water through the heater coil inside the car, I’m truly amazed at the amount of ‘mechanics’ who will post videos advising you to move the control when it does absolutely nothing bar move a plastic flap in the heater box inside the car.

Thanks for the tip. We're always open to hearing where we can improve and learn if we get something wrong. We certainly don't claim to be mechanics, just a couple of guys working on their own stuff in the hopes others might find it helpful. Cheers for the knowledge-nugget 👍

Thanks for the response guys, I own a Jimny myself, it’s 20 years old this year and I’ve had it for 10 of those with myself being the second owner. I know exactly how fiddly things can be to repair/replace on the Jimny (I’ve got to replace the water pump this week-I only did it 8 years ago and it’s gone again 😁. I live in a flat and haven’t the luxury of a drive or garage so all my repairs are done outside in my works car park in chilly Glasgow). Please don’t take my reference to ‘mechanics’ as an inference to yourselves, it wasn’t, I’ve enjoyed your Jimny videos as you guys seem to be the only ones making extended videos on doing repairs to these great little cars.

Ha! No worries. Thanks for watching 🙂

Hi Lizzie. Glad to hear the video was useful. Congrats on completing the job yourself too. Perhaps it's given you more confidence to try other maintenance tasks as well. For a small repair in the plastic I would say the easiest solution would probably be a 2-part epoxy like JB WELD. Another idea, which is slightly more involved, would be to slowly warm the area with a heat gun and then use a soldering iron to carefully move some of the surrounding plastic to cover the hole. Hopefully these suggestions are of use but either way, fingers crossed, it's an easy solution. Merry tinkering 👍

Easiest way is to open the bonnet and look at the plastic expansion tank on the right. There will be a minimum and maximum mark. Add more coolant if its looking low. Hope that helps.

@@MechitBetter Of course it does. Sorry for the dumb question, you're the best.

@@DimitrisSfounis there's no shame in asking a question. Its always better to check than to get it wrong. You're very welcome.

Join to the question

Thanks for the tip John. That will probably make it easier next time. Is it not stopped by the thermostat at any stage? Cheers

@@MechitBetter it is, you need to remove the thermostat in order to do so..the access in the M13A is pretty crap.

@@asypeer1Yeah, i think thats why we went the way we did, so we didnt have to remove the thermo. Probably wasnt much easier by the end of it but we were committed at that point. Thanks again.

Hi Ştefan. Yes, this is an M13A. (Non VVT. with D.O.H.C) Its slightly more work than the earlier single cam version, which gave easy access to water pump/thermostat, but still a DIY job. Good luck with it though. Happy tinkering

Sorry. We haven't done anything with a swift before... And nothing quite as new as 2018 either so I can't advise with any accuracy. If you have already drained it and filled 3 litres then you may need to run the engine to bleed any air out of the system. You might then be able to top up more if needed. Don't forget to check the expansion tank/coolant reservoir is filled to the correct level which might account for the last litre of capacity.

Typically it's not a good idea to mix coolants, especially if they are different colours. They may contain a variation of chemicals or additives that might not agree with each other and create a gel-like substance and mess up the internals. The Prestone stuff that I've used a bunch of times is apparently universal for any combination so I just stick with that. If you're absolutely sure the colour of the products is the only difference then you're probably fine. Just be absolutely sure.

@@MechitBetter Ok thanks, the manual says it should be ethylene glycol and thats also what it says on the container I bought, but upon opening the expansion tank it is pink and my new one is blue.

Unless you know what's already in there it's a bit of a gamble. If someone else put the previous stuff in, who's to say what it is? If you're just topping up (or considering a fluid change in the near future) it's probably worth adding water instead (unless you live somewhere particularly affected by very low temps). The weather is improving so you don't need it to be super concentrated anyway. Not sure if there is a test for determining the type that's already in there but, as I said before, without being certain you may do more harm than good.

@@MechitBetter I'll just add water for now til I can speak to the guy that did the last service on it. Thanks for your help

Probably got in the garden hose while it was lying around outside.

We did figure out the proper name eventually; we just seem to make use of those pliers on almost everything we do so got the new name of "every-job".