Coolant Flush

Do it exactly like dom mentioned - if you plan on flushing it with distilled water.

After it is flushed with distilled, drain it one more time (~4 quarts of so of water will drain from the radiator), refill with 3.5 quarts of Toyota Red, top the rest off with distilled. You only have to make sure that you put in 3.5 quarts of coolant, the rest of the system will be filled with distilled water. After you add coolant, top off with water.

You have a 50/50 mix of coolant in the system. Coolant will rapidly mix with the distilled water via diffusion, once it cycles though the engine once - it will be completely mixed.

Make sure you mix up the remaining 0.5 quart of coolant with 0.5 quarts of distilled water to top off the reservoir (assumed at this point, you remembered to flush the reservoir as well). Excess coolant and air bubbles will be expelled into the reservoir when the engine is hot, when it cools, it will draw in coolant it needs to completely fill the system. Make sure you keep an eye on the reservoir to make sure it stays full.

You can use it to siphon out the reservoir - though it might take a while. Easier to remove it, if you can, drain it out that way. That Blackstone siphon pump may work without the bottle attached to it - not sure though. Try it and find out. I know on my Mityvac pump, it will not work without the container attached to the assembly, no vacuum produced, so it won't siphon anything.

Water pump is on the pulley side of the engine, sort of below the alternator - nestled in the middle of the other pulleys. Usually don't have to worry about this until it starts to leak from the weep hole. Once you see the pump, you'll understand.

Not a bad idea to check on the hoses as well - visually inspect for obvious signs of damage, squeeze them as well, see if there are any soft spots along their length (can be tough to check, some have reinforcement material inside).

Also how would I use the vacuum from black stone lab to pump out coolant from coolant reservoir. Do I have to put a empty container under.

Where is water pump located. Since I am doing a coolant flush I thought it would be a good time to check whole coolant system for leaks.

If you do a drain and refill - just add what was drained out with exact amount of 50/50 mix (doesn't matter if it is Red + distilled, or Pink premixed).

Ideally, Red and Pink coolant "shouldn't" be mixed, but many have done so during the transition phase where Red was being replaced with Pink for newer Toyotas.

ZEREX coolant is another equivalent coolant - same league as the Turbo Power stuff. Never used it, so I can't give a review on it.

As for the reservoir - I take the one out of the Corolla every time. Only two bolts hold it on - pops right off. Though mine is an 8th gen model, your 9th gen might be different.

Yup, there is an o-ring between the pump and the block. Pretty rare for it to leak there, it could leak from the shaft seal - but again, pretty rare. With this mileage and on your second pump - I chalk that up to a defective part sneaking its way past QC.

Dealership mechanic knows that these can weep some fluid (crusty deposits) - but that doesn't mean it is bad, right? Since it was replaced under warranty - I wouldn't worry about it. Could have been part of the water pump recall on some Corolla / Camry models. I think they recalled a couple of million cars, but don't remember any details beyond that.

For the Blackstone Labs pump - use those sample containers. Ask for me kits and they'll send them to you for free, Could probably buy those from a plastic container reseller, like US Plastics or similar, but you'll need the specs on the containers. Other pumps would use their own containers.

I guess you could cobble something else to work, find something that matches the threads, extend any lengths of hose, etc. I know I could do it with my Mityvac, but for something like this (1/2 gallon or so of fluid - I wouldn't want to, way too much fluid to move around. Be faster to use a fluid transfer pump.

You can find those pretty much any place that sells automotive supplies, online would likely be less expensive. Make them for moving fluids from one container to another - designed to move a fair amount of fluid is a short period of time. Like siphoning gasoline out of the gas tank into a gas can, transferring oil from a drum to easier to handle containers, etc.

Or you can just remove the reservoir and dump it out - that would be on the top of my list if it was my car and I could get at the reservoir easily.

Electric and manual versions are out there. I was referring more to a manual pump, electric ones would be overkill for this application. Siphon pump might work as well - depends on what you used that pump for previously and how easy/hard it is to clean out.

Just look up a manual fluid transfer pump online and see what they look like, once you see them, you'll understand what I'm talking about - basically comparing your sample pump to something like a bike air pump. Lots of them online, some are very inexpensive - I have one I picked up at Advance Auto generic pump for around $9, Works plenty fine for what I want to use it for. Name brands, like Mityvac are a couple bucks more - usually come with more fittings.

As far as design, both use positive displacement to draw in air or fluid. So in a sense, they both use vacuum to move fluid. The difference is the scale of fluid you can move, and how quickly. Most manual transfer pumps use a piston to draw in and expel fluid, the amount of fluid moved in one cycle is dependent on the length of the transfer pump body. A typical vacuum sampling pump might only move a couple of ounces at most - a transfer pump can move 10s of ounces at a time. With piston transfer pump, you could move 8-10 ounces every other stroke (one to draw in, one to push out) - no container to exchange, just two tubes to deal with. Sample pumps move enough to fill their sampling jars, many need that jar in place to generate enough vacuum to draw in fluid. You have to remove the jar, drain out, and replace to continue siphoning fluids.

I'm sort of trying to draw you away from using your oil sampling pump, as I don't want to contaminate your UOA samples down the road. Even if you clean it, some traces of coolant will be stuck in there, could spike a UOA. But its your pump, you can decide how you want to use it.

Yup - has a pulley on it, as noted by dom. Heater core is inside the dash - just trace back the heater hoses (little thinner than the radiator hoses, comes off the block or head, don't remember) - hoses runs into the firewall (back part of the engine bay).

Only way to know if the heater core is leaking is if you notice the carpet on the passenger wheel well is wet with coolant, notice a sweet odor in the car, and/or the windshield fogs up immediately.

We don't mind the questions - but given that type of information you are asking for, be worthwhile to get a Haynes Repair Manual for the car, if you haven't already done so. More than 90% of the questions you asked here will be answered in there. These sort of manuals are good for any owner, even if they are not interested in DIY maintenance, just to know where components are located on the car, what components are on the car. If anything, to protect you from potentially unscrupulous mechanics.

Came in real handy with my wife, when see took in my car when I was away on travel. They wanted to replace the fuel pump, said they said they could see it leaking - she wanted the tech to show her exactly where, he opened the hood and pointed to something on the firewall. She knew right away that it was bogus, because she knows the pump is inside the gas tank. Saved herself from a potentially harmful $800 bill.