Coolant won't go in

[Moparman440]

I drained the coolant on my daughter's 05 PT GT Convertible this morning, and I opened the little vent dealie by the thermostat to allow the coolant to drain. I tried to follow the service manual's directions on refilling, but no coolant would go in. I have the little vent screw open, and I tried squeezing and releasing the upper radiator hose, but I am still unable to add anything to where the radiator cap goes. It will only suck coolant in from the recovery tank as it cools down.
I remember having trouble with this on my car, it took a long time but I was eventually able to get most of it in. Then I topped off the coolant recovery tank every day or three until all the air had been expelled from the system.

What can you suggest?

[quicksilverdon]

Are you filling it with engine running? That's what I did on other cars I've had to fill coolant on. (haven't done it on a PT).

[ptcruisersteve]

Originally Posted by quicksilverdon

Are you filling it with engine running? That's what I did on other cars I've had to fill coolant on. (haven't done it on a PT).

I believe what Quicksilverdon met was to start the engine cold with the radiator cap off, run the engine until the temperature gets up to normal engine temperature, then when you see the coolant circulating fill up the radiator up to the top and put the radiator cap on. What this does is when the engine temperature gets up to the normal engine temperature the thermostat opens up and the engine coolant circulates through the coolant system removing most of the air in the coolant system with the radiator cap off.

Most of the time you don't need to bleed the air out. The coolant system automatically bleeds out a little air that might still be trapped in the coolant system.

If you feel you still have air in the coolant system jack up the front of the PT Cruiser, take off the radiator cap and let it sit overnight.

Make sure your hose from the radiator cap to the coolant reservoir is not cracked or leaking. This will allow air to get into the coolant system.

Any time you do a coolant change always measure how much coolant comes out so you have an idea how much coolant needs to go back into the coolant system.