How to Burp Your Car's Cooling System

This instructable will walk you through the simple process of "burping" or getting all of the trapped air out of your cars cooling system. This works for ALL Vehicles

If you have had any parts replaced on your cars cooling system (radiator, waterpump, new hoses, ect) then there is a chance that your cooling system has air trapped in it and this could make your cars cooling system operate poorly, or in worst cases minic the symptoms of a cracked  head.

So BEFORE you spend thousands of dollars at the mechanics having this done, try this and see if your cooling system operates normal (temp stays within normal , does not get hot or overheat).

Step 1: Things You Will Need

AnitFreeze or Dex cool, I used the 50/50 water dexcool mix

Spill free funnel ($20.00 on Amazon.com)

Rag to wipe area clean

Time and Patience

Step 2:

Make sure that your overflow tank is at the level of coolant where the line marked "COLD" is, make sure that you car is cold, do not try this with a engine that has been running.

Open your radiator cap, insert the angled peice of the spill free funnel into the correct cap for you car, then the main peice of the funnel on that, Make sure that you have all conections on sung so that there are no leaks.

Step 3:

Now fill the funnel a little past half way, the reason for this is when your cars thermostat opens up the level will rise and drop with the opening and closing of it and with the escaping of the trapped air.

YOUR CAR SHOULD BE OFF, DO NOT START YOU CAR YET!!

Step 4:

Go to your car, and set the climate controll settings to the hot or heat setting but make sure that the fan/heater is in the OFF posistion.

NOW you can start you car.

Step 5:

This is where the waiting happens, your car has to get up to temp so that the thermostat opens up to cool your engine, one this happens you will see the coolant level drop in the funnel, and a few to a large amount of air bubbles comming up from the coolant, this is the trapped air escaping your cooling system.

Sit back and watch this happen while enjoying a cold one, cuase in order to fully Burp your system the engine has to go through SEVERAL COOLING CYCLES........

I gave it the standard hour of running, if you still see air bubble comming out after that, check your overflow tank and make sure it has coolant in it. If it does not add some so the level is at the HOT line (becase you have now been running your car for awhile now).

The bubbles should stop and when it does turn your car off.

Step 6:

Now you will use the plug that came with the Funnel and plug the hole in the funnel so you can recycle or put the unused collant back in its container, do this with the plug in the funnel , put the funnel in the opening of your coolant container and lift up to remove the plug.

Take the funnels cap off of your radiator and put your cap back on, use the rag to wipe any coolant off of your car.

Now when you drive your car you should see a big differance in how it cools your engine. If you are still getting high temp readings  you might want to check to make sure that your thermostat is working and replace it if needed.

Comments

[Abhinav_K_Sahai]

I just got the coolant replaced for my Hyundai , now I hear a sloshing sound whenever I accelerate, should I get it burped as there is no overheating ??

[ShineyRedCharger]

I will start with my Charger was wrecked about 1 yr ago. Yes I was the moron that ran it thru a T road and in to a small ditch, which the insurance company totaled and I bought it back. Anyway so when i hit the embankment it bent the Radiator just like the Raccoon did when i first got my charger the first time, to say I dont have good luck is an understatement. my question is the operation of said vehicle, so it is erratically over heating and blowing cold and hot hot air , some days it will over heat 1 time and others like today it wouldn't stop looking like a steam engine from old. today it was blowing ice cold air and usually i have notice that if my heater blows cold air i can step on the brake and the deceleration moves water through the engine and the heater core so it gets warm while braking and cold during acceleration. I did however notice my electric fan is not working or was not today but usually that makes the engine overheat at a stop? my radiator is curved from the impact a year ago but there is very little fin damage and it does not have a leak. only other thing that i discovered is the overfill bottle/reservoir has a crack in it from previous owner but was never a problem since it was sealed with silicone but i think has open spot in crack again. That is all the info I have and a few after thoughts YES I AM GOING TO REPAIR OR REPLACE RADIATOR, RESERVOIR, BOTTLE, AND ELECTRIC FAN WHICH WOULD HELP MOSTLY BUT I DONT THINK THEY ARE THE PROBLEM! I HAVE NOT CHECKED WATER PUMP OR THERMOSTAT. ANY THOUGHTS THAT I HAVEN'T HAD WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED. THANKS IN ADVANCE OWNER OF A SHINEY RED CHARGER

[adamgarrants]

So I only have heat when I’m driving and not when sitting still I burped my car one time I had heat for maybe 3 hours then I didn’t I don’t know what’s going on

[CalebN18]

Its been said that long periods of idling can be bad for an engine on several levels such as oil starvation (oil won't circulate very well at idle unless you have a extended duty oil pump/police version) and also fuel can mix with the oil when more than when the engine is under load which results in big problems eventually. Newer cars come with bleeder valves to let excess air out and the way most people change coolant shouldn't result in a great deal of air in there anyhow (unless you drain the block). Btw there are a lot of people who seem to enjoy touting the wonders of those funnels, just out of curiousity,are you getting paid for advertising it? (They're a little too pricey for me)...

[mfrontuto]

No, it getting paid to advertise these, bought mine pretty cheap at my local AutoZone. the problem with the bleeders is that it only bleeds ONE side of your cooling system. when your cooling system is closed, you have two sides (inside the engine, and Radiator) of the cooling system. the bleeder valve only bleeds one side of that system, what if the air is on the other closed side of that system? yes you can wait until the T-Stat opens up but this is a cheap sure fire way to make sure all of the air gets out. I also mentioned that if you drill a VERY VERY small hole in your T-Stat (the SMALLEST drill bit you can find) and this allows any air trapped in your system to go through the entire system and not block either side of your T-Stat. I do this on all of my vehicles including that one and I had no air/bleeding problems. its an old Hot Rodders trick.

[candacebaskins2008]

My truck ain't running hot or overheating. But there is water/coolant just sitting in the hose running from the water pump to the radiator. And the coolant isn't leaving tone reservoir to go into the radiator. Its just sitting in the hose and the reservoir. The parts store told me it could be air in the hose. But there are no leaks or anything. What could be wrong

[mfrontuto]

is the water pump working? if the pump has gone bad then no water will move thourgh your system. you can see if it has gone bad when your car is running and you see no movement in your coolant in the radiator, and there is coolant leaking form the weep hole in your water pump (it is a hole towards the bottom of the pum that will leak coolant when the pump is bad). if that is the case I beleive that this car has a two peice water pump, and you should only need the part with the impeller on it.

[B.K.M2]

here is diagram of where mechaic says is now leaking and had nothing you do with thermostat replacement. Is this true?

[mfrontuto]

could be. hoses, especially soft line hoses go bad, get brittle and eventually leak and need to be replaced. I looked at the pic, are those hose clamps on either side of that hose? I remember that those factory crimp style hose clamps need to be put back where they were originally put sometimes or else the hose could leak. you will see an indentation of where they were last if they are not put back in place. but unless it has been leaking for a long time or has completely become undone, and you have not checked your coolant levels in some time that should not cause the temp to go sky high. But I would still replace the hose, better safe than sorry.

[B.K.M2]

I just got my thermostat replaced at shop. Drove it home, 2 miles, and coolant started leaking real bad. Mechanic said is a hose under manifold that had nothing you do with is repair. Is this true? If they didnt properly get the air out and filled it too high would this cause the hose you break elsewhere?

[JennL26]

I would like to see an answer to this. I had the same thing happen.

[mfrontuto]

is this a 3.4L or 3/6L engine? the 3.4L engine has both a hard line hose that is on the back side, and a small soft line hose that is on the driverside, as well as several soft line hoses. best solution is to park you car on level ground, and see if and were the leak is occurring. if you want to see the locations of most of the soft line hoses check out my other Instructable

https://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-replace-Upper-intake-Plus-most-engine-gaske/

[StaceyP37]

We ran our2004 GMC Sierra following these burping instructions for over 30 minutes. The coolant kept bubbling all over the place and the temp got so hot we had to turn off.

What is going on?

[JefferyC16]

I was trying to reply. It wasnt working... i have a failsafe thermostat that was installed about a month ago, water pump new radiator was about 2016 ...

[mfrontuto]

I would try the burping to see if that works if not you might need to do a pressure test, could be a bad head gasket, cracked head...ect, better to do the cheap fixes first and go from there

[JefferyC16]

If my car is overheating and the coolant comes out of the reservoir or the radiator if the cap is off, does that mean there is trapped air?

[mfrontuto]

the coolant level rises when the cars temp goes up, then goes to the overflow res, that is how it normally operates. did you check to see if your water pump is working? when was the last time you replaced your thermostat? since most antifreeze is mixed with water there is bound to be some air in your system. (first check to see if your thermostat is working) I like to use the smallest drill bit I can buy and drill a tiny hole in the thermostat (This hole will let some coolant through when the T-stat is closed, but no where near enough to effect the regular opening and closing like it is supposed to do. the hole allows for the air to escape the engine side and not keep the t-stat closed when it is supposed to be open)

[HimselfE]

Hey i just replaced my thermostat on a 2013 jeep grand cherokee. Now my temp is running a bit higher than normal (gauge closer to middle) and I hear a gurgling noise when I start up and press the gas. Will this process help?

[mfrontuto]

yes, once you open up your system to do work on it for any reason you should burp it.

[blivit]

Earlier, a reader posted this -

"Worked great! I didn't even use the funnel. I took cap off reservoir let it run for 30 minutes and eventually it stopped burping. I put the cap back on..worked like a charm. I really thought it was a blown head gasket or bad thermostat. The temp was high and erratic and did overheat once. However after doing this burping procedure its steady and cool."

I've been thinking about this ! Would the following procedure be a good way to do this ?

With engine cold, fill radiator if needed. Place cold/hot control on hot. Add coolant to reservoir if needed to half full level. Leave cap off of reservoir. Start engine and let it idle. Add coolant to reservoir if needed. When "bubbles" disappear from reservoir, turn off vehicle. Adjust reservoir coolant level as needed.and replace cap.