Coolant Change

[cox]

Just did a coolant change today (fitted a new hose). However, When I drained the system only about 3 litres of coolant came out. I had a look at the instruction manual and it said the coolant capacity was 6.3 litres. Gave the car a good rocking to get out as much as possible, but was kind of expecting a bit more! Drained the system from the bottom hose where the hose connects to the bottom thermastat housing.

Just added in another 3 litres, so same went in as came out.

Any ideas why more coolant didn't drain from the system? Or does that sound about right? Only thing I noticed in the Haynes manual was it said to have the heater sliders on the warmest setting, but was on cold when I filled up the system (checked the manual after to check the capacties and noticed this in the guide). Swapped it over to hot when I first started the engine to check for air locks, levels look about right.

Cheers,

Dave.

[theclash]

the rest will be in the engine block take out the thermostat to drain the rest

[rubjonny]

also some will be in your heater matrix, flip the car upside down to drain the rest

[Santiago]

Rather than taking out the thermostat, which is a bit of a fiddle (well, getting it back in anyway); take off the top one of the three hoses that go onto the water pump.  This is the one that comes down from the front coolant flange.

Because this hose is part of the 'thermostat closed' circuit, taking off the bottom end of it will allow almost all of the coolant out of the block.

Edit: This is assuming you've already taken the bottom rad hose off the w/pump, otherwise the rad won't drain.