When did they quit putting drain plugs in radiators?

[squirrel]

drove wife's 08 silverado today, it complained about being hot and told me it would not let me use the AC. I looked at the temp gage, said cold. I felt the hoses, looked at coolant level, all seems normal. I'm guessing the computer is not getting good temp sensor data...so I figured I'd throw a part at it. I went to drain the coolant a bit, there's no drain plug! there's a place for it, but the hole is not drilled or threaded.

new cars

[TC]

We asked a member of the Edmunds Data Team, and he reports...

"As silly as it may sound, it has been indicated on several forums that drain petcocks were excluded from the radiators on several GM trucks as a cost-cutting measure. In a cooling system where there is no radiator drain, the lower radiator hose can be pulled off -- a bit messier, but it gets the job done."

Hope that helps!

Yap just yank the lower hose...........

[squirrel]

I haven't dove under yet to see if they put drain plugs on the block. Her 99 doesn't have them, but it's an LS, this new truck has the old 4.3

[Stich496]

with dexacol they saw no need to ever drain it.. HA

[squirrel]

I guess not, you'll be replacing the radiator when it's time to change the coolant!

anyways, I plugged the new temp sensor into the wire, it still says the engine is hot in the message center and the temp gage still says cold (which it should). I guess there's a more serious computer problem going on.

[TC]

Check the wiring and connectors, you never know one of those pesky little rodents could have gone up in the engine compartment and had a little feast.......It's happened to my dad like 3 times now up in Show Low.......

[Mater]

services manual says the drain cock is on the driver side of the radiator. for a 2008 silverado 4x4 with any gas engine

[squirrel]

maybe the 2 wheel drives don't get that luxury...

[SuperBuickGuy]

make sure there aren't 2 sensors - one for the dash gauge, and one for the computer

[Mater]

2wd said the same thing so idk maybe it is hidden under a peice of plastic

[SpiderGearsMan]

silverados have not had drain plugs since 2001
mess , big mess
change the hose clamps too , they crack

[squirrel]

so what's making the temp gage not work, and the computer think the engine is hot?

[TheSilverBuick]

Separate sender for the dash gauge. iirc, the TechII (and perhaps the actron stuff?) will read the actual temperatures reported by the sensors. If you replaced one, see if there is a different one?

[squirrel]

I only see one, and the symptoms indicate that both the computer and the gage are not happy. I'm pretty sure the modern stuff runs all the gages off the engine computer's data. It's not like the old days.

[TC]

When you plugged the new sensor into the wire, did you make sure to ground the body of the sensor to the block??

You can also try two things, one disconnect the battery for 15 minutes and do a reboot or two remove the ECM wiring harness connector from the ECM and put it back on........