how do you bleed the coolant lines on a 1996 chevy cavalier 2.2L engine?

Question

the antifreze is not circulating. the resivoir is full, but there is no coolant in the hoses on the other side of the engine. The fan does not kick on, and the engine will run for 45 min and not overheat. I replaced the thermostat and the water pump. There are two bleeder valves on a metal tube that runs between the thermostat and the engine block. should i be messing with these? How do i get the antifreze to go through the radiator?

Answer 1

assuming the cooling system is being refilled after service-fill part way and start engine with the heater on and blower fan on low speed-continue to fill with 50/50 mixture of coolant and distilled water until the thermostat opens-generally around 180-195 degrees-besure to leave the cooling system cap off until all the air has purged from the system through the cap opening-its normally through purging soon after the thermostat opens and the cooling fans engage-dont be alarmed if some coolant bubbles out during the process-also....make sure the engine does'nt overheat during the purging process-which can happen if air gets trapped at the thermostat-just switch off the vehicle and allow to cool,then try again.............good luck!

Answer 2

Coolant lines??? You can drain the radiator from the bottom of the radiator and you can remove the radiator hoses, but there are no coolant line. Unless you are talking about air conditioning pressure lines?

Answer 3

I checked Haynes manual #766, I didn't see any procedures for bleeding the coolant system. You can look for this information at this web site:

Good Luck

http://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiBroker?UseCase=RG001&UserAction=beginRepairGuide