New EGR Cooler Coolant Tip - milk jugs and plastic bottles

The good news: I found a simple Prius-dogma way to drain the coolant without going down to the radiator spigot or spilling everything into the engine.

The bad news: I dropped a 12mm socket and the metal gasket w/ clip between the EGR cooler / engine. I can't see them and have no idea how to retrieve them from the bottom of the engine bay. I'm pretty sure they dropped to the bottom...this is disaster.

EGR coolant tip:
1. Get yourself an empty milk jug (or 2L soda bottle) and a few plastic water bottles.
2. Cut the tops off of each bottle
3. Find the small coolant tube coming out of the throttle bottle to the EGR cooler
4. Hold the large bottle with cutoff top next to it
5. Disconnect the tube and swing it ontop of the large bottle...let it drain
6. Use the small plastic water bottles in the same fashion for the other lines (these bottles are smaller and fit in the tighter spaces). Most of the coolant has been drained already so there won't be much left in the other lines.
7. Empty the large jug and any small bottles into a stock water bottle for storage so you can pour it back later.

This worked out really well for me and didn't leave any spills. You can also see how much coolant was stored in the EGR coolant area - about 15oz. I've got my cooler sitting in Mendel's suggested oxyclean solution in a bucket and hope to blast it out tomorrow with a pressure washer.

 

Yeah, next step is to remove the entire panel. It was the actual socket from the wrench that fell down into the bay...hoping it doesn't hit any of the electric motor moving parts if I can't find it.

Might as well change coolant, invert coolant, and transaxle while I’m down there.

 

You got me @Mendel Leisk , too rich for my blood! Cake too...now you're just showing off - I'm trying not burst a blood vessel during this tedious operation.

Finally got things back together but haven't turned it on yet. I thought I caught most of the coolant but I guess the small amount I spilled was wayy more than I thought..not sure how:


I'm going to replace spark plugs while I have the cowl off and then test it. Do you think it's okay to test the engine on this amount of coolant at idle and maybe a short drive? /forgot to leave the top EGR hose disconnected when refilling but will let is sit overnight and hopefully it makes its way through ...we really need to a make sticky with all the small steps

Also, I just read about someone taking their car to the stealership to upgrade the cooling pump logic in the ECU via a TSB after doing the EGR circuit? I'm lost, is that required for this too?

 

I’ve got 2 gallons of coolant, ready to go to do the flush on the inverter and the engine. Along with transmission fluid. I just thought I’d try to start the car up and make sure no codes start flying if I did something wrong with the EGR circuit and spark plugs.

Still confused why that coolant is so low (it was already at the low mark when I started the circuit) as I thought I caught nearly all of it .

 

Yup, I drained the 2 quarts in the new method I described in my OP (I used a fuel line clamp on the hose running from the EGR cooler to the throttle body after moving it out of the way from the intake manifold....same method as going for the radiator spigot but without having to get under the vehicle). There was some slight spillage when one of the clamped coolant lines I had tied up high fell below the cooler, but it was a small puddle...or so I thought.

Also, if anyone is interested...this is what my spark plugs looked like after 110,00k miles and a clogged EGR (new one on bottom for comparison):

 

I'm going to do a coolant change but want to startup the car to make sure the engine with the new plugs and EGR works ok so that I can use maintenance mode to get out the air bubbles. Am I ok at the this sub-low level of coolant?

Seems like a waste to pour new coolant in only to drain it again.

 

Finished the full engine coolant flush (without removing the under panel) - thanks to everyone that helped out.

I ended up running maintenance mode for 45 minutes, the fans went on a bunch of times and I also ran the heater on high like NutzandBoltz's video. The coolant did not go down from the B-line very much even after that duration, so I took it for a spirited drive on a country road with the pedal down, attempted to drift around corners but I guess my tires have too good of traction. Now the coolant sits slightly above the Full line:


Even though I'm going to do a transmission fluid change, I did the coolant without taking off the under panel. I haven't seen any pictures in the threads regarding where to stick your arm os this is view of the radiator spigot from the pan below that it drains into:


This is the view from the hole just behind the drain hole (it's about 3-5x the size), where I twisted my arm up into while lying on the ground next to the driver's side wheel and used a crescent wrench for added leverage since the knob was stuck and its at a really awkward angle:

 

Nice! That's crazy how it got wedged in there.

Funny you brought that up, mine flew out on the spirited test drive I mentioned in my last post and sounded like baseball being hit at 100mph, which is about what I was driving....luckily nobody was behind or oncoming. I got out and traced the raced on foot....found it dead smack in the dividing lane about 300 yards back. Sometimes the universe provides

 

Very cool. You're using some kind of right angle power tool for these drivers?