Hey guys,


All my previous repairs have gone swimmingly. Thank you for all your help so far!

I want to drain and refill the coolant on my girlfriend'* 1995 Buick Regal.

Car Details:
1. 1995 Buick Regal Custom
2. GM 3800 Series 1
3. 3.8L L27 V6


My question is, is this a simple and straightforward procedure? I cannot find 95 Buick specific directions online, only generic catch-all instructions. Is there anything I could easily **** up?


I only have hesitation due to the "Your engine has a specific radiator fill procedure. Failure to follow this procedure could cause your engine to overheat and be severely damage." warning labeled under the hood and in the Owner'* Manual.


Could someone be so kind as to link to some solid instructions, or give me a quick play-by-play on what i'll need to do?


Also, I read somewhere online that some people suggest filling it with coolant, running that coolant through for 10-20 minutes, then re-drain and refill the coolant. Is this something I need to worry about doing? If it helps the car keep-on-keeping-on, I have no problem buying some extra coolant to do this.


Thanks so much for your help!

The 3800 can be somewhat difficult to "burp" when refilling with coolant. Some have jacked up one side of the car to help with it. Others just massage the lower radiator hose while the engine is running to help burp it, but that'* kinda dangerous. So your best, safest option is replacing the thermostat with a new one, but get the kind that has the check ball built into it. This will allow air to escape past the thermostat while filling, but as soon as coolant hits the ball, it closes the little hole stopping the coolant. Or the other option is to remove the thermostat and drill a 1/16th" hole in the flange to make an air hole. Reinstall and all done.

They should pay me for this....

Get one of these....works like a charm.....on ALL ENGINES....

Thanks! Luckily (and unfortunately at the same time) I paid for our mechanic to replace the thermostat before I began doing my own DIY (although i'm still unsure if they saw me coming, or genuinely thought my LIM issues were due to the thermostat.) This replacement had the check ball built in. Thank you so much for your help!

I just did this on my 1996 Buick Park Avenue. I didn't know about the "burping" thing, but I had to drain and refill because I am a noob to Buicks (and any American car, really...especially GM'*) and I accidentally put the green coolant in it instead of DexCool. I read a bunch of horrible things online and panicked, so I drained it all out. I just bought this Buick because I crashed my Honda.

Anyways, long story short, it went easily and smoothly but yeah...a lot of squeezing the lower radiator hose and running the car until the coolant level went down, then refilling, etc etc. Not sure if I executed that successfully, but the car is running fine and there'* no overheating or weird idling, so I guess I did okay? Haha. Also, hello! I'm new here.