radiator/coolant flushing advice

[s2driveruk]

noticed that the car is not as efficient at cooling as it has been in the past and wondered whether there is actually a load of crud in the circuit and therefore reducing the efficiency of the radiator.

What would you suggest for cleaning the coolant circuit out with and is this generally a good idea? Radiator appears to be in reasonably good shape externally and is a BERU unit so decent quality but its 10yrs+ old now.

Thoughts on a postcard pls

Cheers
David

[Jamo]

You could have a blockage in the radiator for years of crud build up, to be honest though if you use the correct coolant the VAG cars don't really have that much crap in them.

[veneto rs2]

David go for a proper cleaning/flushing of the whole circuit.

Means a good radiator cleaner product (several available) and a good rinse introducing clean tapwater on the expansion tank and the bottom little hose of the beru rad open with running engine.
Important it's to take out your thermostat before the process otherwise when you put cold water in you'll get the radiator bypassed and the crude will not come out from the rad...
I've done this recently and the improvement on the cooling circuit it's relevant.

Stefano

[vertigone]

just change main radiator last week and need to clean the whole system too (some king of mud inside circuit)
I used only pure water for cleaning
Filled with only water, lets 2-3 times fan starts, flush all, do this 3 times and finally full refill with G12+
all is now clean and expansion tank has good pink color
T° are lower now too

[s2driveruk]

thanks guys, any flush recommendations - which product is best. I think that I have a fair bit of scale in mine rather than any sludge....due to hard water in this area and now always using distilled water. It's always used the audi blue then pink fluids so hence why i think its more a scaling issue than anything else.

Thanks
David

[S2central.net]

I used something called 'radflush' from memory a long time ago on something gunjed up - it worked well... had to purge it with lots of fresh water too until it looked better before topping up with fresh coolant.