draining coolant system

[studyolic]

I want to drain my coolant system; I have found the blue drain plug at the bottom of the radiator, but I can't find the drain plug on the engine block for the core. Can anyone describe its location, in words of one syllable, for a dummy like me? Remember my car is right-hand-drive, so if you say something is "on the driver's side", I'll be looking on the right side of the engine, looking forwards.
Thanks.

[CirrusSR22]

It's on the exhaust side of the engine, just below the exhaust ports. So, when you're under your car, you have to reach up a fair amount. Also, I think it's on the back half of the block too, lined up with cyclinder 3 or 4. EDIT: oh, I see you have a 316. That's where it is on my 318, but yours may be the same.

[studyolic]

Thanks for that; I have the 1.9 litre M43TU engine, but I will follow your directions and see what I can find.

[aceyx]

If you check the parts diagrams on realoem, it will show an exploded view of the block and drain plug.

[studyolic]

I spent a couple of hours underneath my car today, also trying to change the gearbox oil and the front brake pads. I could not loosen the drain plug for the gearbox, I found out that I did not have a 7mm allen key for the pads, and I could not find the drain plug for the block for the coolant. I just could not find ANY hex-head bolt under the manifold anywhere on that side of the block. I DID find a sort of plug, but with an internal hex, which none of my tools would fit. Bad Words. Finally got the tranny plug loose after using a steel tube over the handle of the torque wrench to increase the leverage, and changed the oil. One out of three. Finally got the pads out after a mate helped me out, but then could not force the caliper back enough to fit the new pads. Put the old ones back in and gave up. I'll get a mechanic to look at the brakes and the coolant.

[Bender]

Um.... be sure and bleed.

[studyolic]

My hands were bleeding quite a lot, actually.

Oh, you mean the radiator?

Gonna farm that one out to somebody who knows something about cars. I like to think that I'm not exactly dumb, but something about cars has me beat. I mean, who on earth designed the microfilter housing on the Compact? Must have been a german with a sense of humour. My knuckles were down to bone before I got that job finished.