Changing the Coolant on Your W212
 

Just finished changing the coolant in my 2010 E350 and it's about the easiest job you can do. The dealer gave me a quote of about $325, my total cost with some sweat equity of about 1 1/2 hours and $25 for the correct MB coolant that I bought from a MB parts seller for $25 for a gallon which is more than enough, oh, plus two gallons of distilled water, another $3. Here we go, firstly, remove the forward most plastic panel that sits underneath the engine between the front bumper and the engine oil pan, you can't screw it up as it's the first panel you can remove underneath the front of the car, the front of this panel sits forward and above the front bumper, the rear of this panel sits above the panel behind it, it takes a little elbow grease to fit it back in once you've removed it but what I did was place a small piece of blue painters tape next to every hole in the panel where the screws hold it onto the small clips on the chassis so you will remember where every screw and washer should be put back. Once you have removed the panel, get yourself a 6 gallon anti-freeze drain basin, I bought mine at Auto Zone for about $12. With the front bottom panel removed on the drivers side of the radiator you should see a petcock drain screw with a yellow line on it as well as another yellow line above and below it, looking at them they form a straight line. Even though MB directions for flushing the radiator says there should be a round red drain plug, it wasn't there. Mine was just a black drain plug with a yellow line on it. Once you have located the drain plug, turn the plug counter clock wise about 1/4 of a turn until the coolant starts to trickle out of it. Remember, remove the coolant cap that is located on the passengers side of the engine compartment from the coolant reservoir and make sure you have your 6 gallon coolant catch basin under the petcock drain plug that has a yellow line on it. Don't try to fully unscrew the drain plug, just a 90 degree turn will do it. My coolant took about 20 minutes to fully drain and held about 5 quarts to fully refill it. Although the system on my model holds about 8 quarts, as with most coolant systems, you won't be able to get every ounce of old coolant out, don't worry about it. Once your coolant is fully drained turn the drain plug back clockwise (from left to right) about 90 degrees. After that mix your coolant with distilled water at a 50/50% mix and start filling the coolant reservoir, use a funnel when refilling it as you don't want the coolant all over the engine compartment and garage floor. You can just pour in a full gallon before you have to start being mindful of how much more she will take. After you've got a gallon it start her up and turn the heater all the way to HI on Auto and let the engine warm up until the thermostat opens up, after that get in and take her for a short ride with the a/c on if you like as what you want to do is get her to operating temperature, than carefully open the coolant reservoir and finish filling with coolant. If your cap is too hot to remove just let her sit overnight and add enough coolant to bring the level to where you see two lines on the back part of the reservoir, that is where you want your coolant to be as you need to leave some space for the expansion of the coolant when the engine reaches operating temperature. Good luck to all!

great thread , I wonder if its gonna be the same on 10 e550...I mean I would think so

Very nice, thanks. Printed for later reference.

WARNING!!!!!!!
 

WARNING!!!! Coolant is a dangerous poison. The odor is especially attractive to dogs and cats and it will KILL THEM.
It has to be disposed of properly and not down a drain or in backyard or in storm sewer catch basins. Any liquid that leaks onto the driveway, ground, etc. must be immediately removed and disposed of properly.
Better to let your dealer or an approved auto maintenance facility do this.

this thread would be a lot more useful if you've opted to break up your sentences and use some paragraphs...

WHY?
 

The coolant interval is 150,000 miles or 15 years. Are you at the 150,000 mile mark with your 2010?, or do you just like spending money for no apparent reason? These cars are expensive enough to maintain ....

+1 :naughty:

we if it was only 25 for coolant and he did the labor himself , indont see anything bad with m
it , flushing out the sustem and putting a new coolant in is nice

When to Change Coolant, Whenever You Want
 

These cars aren't that expensive to maintain if you can do the work yourself. As for waiting 15 years or 150,00 miles to change the coolant, I see no problem to do everything on the exact schedule that MB prints in their manuals, of course there is a good possibility your radiator will be clogged with gunk and debris after 15 years. The reason I do it is that it costs me all of $27 to do it and it's cheap insurance as my vehicle has very low mileage on it and sits in a garage for weeks and sometimes months at a time. I also changed my serpentine belt because it is starting to dry out, that cost me $25 which is a lot better than having it break in the middle of January when I don't want to fuss with it and at that point the dealer gets about $150 just to change your belt. As for the other person that made a comment that anti-freeze is dangerous and it's best to let the dealer do it. Anti-freeze is dangerous but if you handle it carefully and take it to your recycling center for disposal than there's no reason to take it to the dealer and get ripped off for $250-$300 which is what they charge to change it. In any event, you maintain your car as you wish and I'll do the same.

English 101
 

This isn't English class but if you would like, feel free to rewrite it for publication. For all the rest of you out there, if you don't understand what I've written, just take your car to the dealer.:smash:

What you say is partly correct, it can be dangerous if you're dumb enough to leave it laying around where a child or pet can get to it, of course it's very easy to recycle it and that's what should be done and I like to think that people on this site aren't as dumb as you assume them to be. Having said that, feel free to change your own coolant and recycle the anti-freeze, there's no need to go to any dealer as there nothing to be scared of. I am guessing this person has never worked on his own car which is ok too.:)

No one by me will recycle the anti-freeze. They take oil and that is about it. I have 4 gallons of used anti-freeze that I cannot dispose of. This anti-freeze is from my 40-50 year old car collection over the years that require regular anti-freez flushes. I have seriously called every auto store and shop. I have to take it 25 miles away to a special hazardous waste center.

The Easy Solution for Coolant Recycling
 

I see you live somewhere in the Chicago area, and you're saying there are no places for you to recycle your coolant. Here are two answers, first take them coolant to any marina, they use tons of the stuff and they have theirs picked up and recycled, also if you hand the guy a $20 bill while you're asking I promise you'll get the answer you want, if that doesn't work just go to your local gas station that has some service bays. The key to getting them to take the stuff is the $20 bill, it sounds like if you don't grease the palm you're SOL (sure out of luck).
Here in the NYC metro area there are loads of places to recycle coolant that are run by the County, I'm really surprised that Chicago is way far behind the times when it comes to recycling, oh well. Try the coin of the realm, it always works.

Okay well you found me some nice places in Indiana. There are 3 places that I know of that take Anti freeze with the nearest 25 miles from my house. They have limited hours as well. Google search finds "recycling" centers that take oil. When you call them they tell you no anti freeze. I just need to find the time to get mine to one of these.

OMG I have always poured my down the sewer in my street. Maybe this is why I don't eat fish from the Lake!

Not just the fish
 

I hope you are joking as that is very illegal and dangerous.
Regardless, your drinking/cooking water probably comes from the lake as well. If not, somebody else's does. Lots of bottled water also starts off coming from lakes and streams that are polluted.
One of the major costs for water systems is removing or counteracting the pollutants that people dump into storm sewers and sewer systems. Pretty much losing the battle on counteracting all the drugs being dumped in toilets and sinks.
And that cost is passed on to the consumers.

Do any of these positively contribute to this thread, or do you all have nothing better to do than belittle and criticize someone who is trying to contribute something useful and helpful to the forum? I hope you all feel better about yourselves now that you had an opportunity to put someone down.

To the OP - i realize it's an old thread, but thank you for posting. It helped me out. I was trying to turn the drain and it kept getting stuck at 45 degrees with nothing coming out. I realized I could turn it further with a little pressure and it would start draining.

Well... I have my own septic tank :D
Years ago a friend was using my yard for car work. He drained coolant from the car (it wasn't MB, so green stuff) and left it in the pan under carport.
Later that day 2 neighbor's dogs jump the fence and drunk it all. No ill effect and couple years later we adopted German Shepard from the neighbor, having the dog reaching 14 years, what is not bad for GS.

Hello everyone. Here is FINALY something useful for you : Be EXTREMELLY carefull when doing this simple DIY task so you won'https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...da61348551.jpg

W212 E350CDI 4MATIC,Valeo radiator -temporary coolant drainplug sarcophagus
t end up like me...
1) 90° turn of the knob was not possible-stucked plastic drain plug
2) I aplied WD oil, waited 15minutes
3) then I easily turned it 90° but no coolant flow from the drain tube or the little drain plug.nothing.
4) very sensitively I pulled the drain plug outwards just like on W211 -COOLANT STARTS TO FLOW!!!
5) but as I pushed it backwards after the 20minutes drainnig it CRACKED !!! Like a glass.
6)The plastic drain knob bayonet lock got totally cavitated due to the 8years of coolant exposure...
7) Bravo Valeo !!!!
Here is the end of the story.The rest of it is volountary :-)
Since I was sort of in the middle of nowhere on Suturday evening (which is indeed stupid I agree) I have put the broken plug back and stucked it there as best as I could.Then I aplyed epoxy- LIQUID steel we call it. So I created a solid rock steady chemical plug. Next week I will remove this NASTY sarcophagus and replace it with nice stainless estetical and practical Fitting with a TAP and little plastic CAP. I have done this job many times on different cars and the resoult is : NEVER UNDERSTIMATE SIMPLE JOBS AROUND CAR like I had.btw. I wonder whether there is Valeo drain plug availible on the market... Wheather ther is or isn't I don't care,cause I don t want it anyway...

strange , it did require some effort to move that plastic cap for coolant to start coming out , but not to the point where you can crack it. And the cap looked pretty good without any visible defects , even though i didnt fully remove it.

i hope u will be able to remove that liquid steel easily without anymore damage. Good luck.

The promissed resoult...
 

Hello.
After my drain plug broke into pieces I created nasty temporary chemical layer from silicone-epoxy material... Last week I had scraped the silicone down and established a final solution - nice stainless tap with fitting for the hose... Everything bonded with Liquid steel. (US epoxy product) Easy job worth it... This speeds up the procedure and turnes it into a 2 minute drainning time as opose of the original 25 ValeoMINUTES. One thing made me still angry---> I couldn't find enywhere around a nice little plastic cap...
GL
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...dca514e8e9.jpg

However the tap may seem to be oversized, it is just the with the radiator...
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...b17a4912f3.jpg

The old cheap plastic radiator drainplug sitting there and boiling for 8years, turned into a fragille sponge and broke.... No aftermarket equivalent out there as far as i know...

Lol is that a valve?

Isn't the service interval 15 years or 150k? I think I'm going to wait til 150k. I already change some of it when I changed the thermostat, about half of it came out. Zerex G-05 at Advance auto.

And this is why I don't buy used cars..