Changing cooling fluid.

[whiteshepherd]

My dealer just replaced my 2017 Premier battery and replaced the fluid in the cooling chamber. He offered to flush the coolant in the other two cooling systems for $599 EACH if I wanted it done while he had the battery down. That seems awfully high. In the past on my gas cars I always changed the coolant myself. I used a valve on the radiator and drained. Then I added distilled water and antifreeze or 50/50 of high grade coolant. I got on Youtube and there is NOTHING on changing your own coolant on a Bolt. Is there any place where I can get information on doing this myself? I know dealers are jacking up the prices for everything. But paying over $1k+ for flushing two cooling systems seems beyond the pale excessive to me. Am I wrong?

[JimFallstonMd1]

Not due till 150,000 miles.

[pjwasho]

I feel your pain with this issue! We are at the 5 year maintenance point (though not quite at 150,000 miles) with our 2017 Bolt EV, and we've shopped between dealers' service departments for what seems like crazy costs for this routine maintenance work. And we've been given the run-around with price quotes - $275, $345, $550. C'mon now, which is it!!! We're scheduled for a THREE reservoir flush and fill this Friday 7/22/2022 at a Chevy dealership in Wilmington, DE while en route to start our vacation. After some hems and haws, we finally got a price quote of $345. Getting the Service Department to commit to starting and completing our work in timely fashion so we can continue our travel is the most recent challenge. Ugh!

[summit]

I think it's a total money grab. The one challenge with DIY coolant change is the procedure to purge all air bubbles. My plan is simply drain the reservoir, add new coolant, drive a few days; repeat a few more time. The idea is to slowly dilute the old coolant with newer coolant without ever introducing any air.

[summit]

In fact, the battery pack cooling system should have been drained, replaced, and purged as the coolant lines were disconnected in order to put in the new battery pack.

I believe the Bolt has 2 other coolant loops: the electric drive motor system and the cabin heating/cooling system