Hot days can bring your car’s cooling system to its knees, and what do you do once it reaches its boiling point? Day in and day out, your radiator keeps your engine running in tip-top condition, but sometimes bad things happen. What do you do when you find yourself in these circumstances where your car parts are malfunctioning? Visiting your local mechanic to identify the problems with specific auto parts helps you to figure out if it is an issue with the radiator of your vehicle.
Why Your Cooling System May Need a Replacement
No matter what you do, you want to keep your cooling hoses in check to avoid a breakdown. If you know you have a car parts problem, you should take precautionary measures to keep it at a minimum. As the hoses grow older, they may start to soften, or they may even become brittle and hard. Whichever way it goes, the damage to your auto parts can be exponential, and you want to squish this auto parts problem before it gets out of hand.
How Does It Work?
What does engine coolant even do for a vehicle? Obviously, it keeps the vehicle’s engine cooler so that the car parts will continue running. To expand a little in detail on that, it transfers the hot and cold coolant over from the radiator into the engine to keep everything running. An Essex mechanic might pressure test your system to discover if everything is working well. They might also change the radiator cap or take care of the coolant. To mitigate issues with your radiator, you should occasionally inspect them.
The Myth
For a lot of people, they believe that all they have to do is keep their radiator topped off with engine coolant, and the engine will continue to work properly. That’s not always the case, however. Sometimes the coolant temperatures can reach as high as 250 to 275 degrees Fahrenheit, even with engine coolant. In order to stop boiling, the the radiator raises the boiling point by pressurizing the motor. The radiator of your vehicle plays a role where it has to mitigate the heat in the vehicle. In other words, you want to lower the amount of pressure burdening the engine. The heat gets produced as the chemical energy from the fuel converts itself over into energy that will drive the mechanical parts forward. It powers the car so that it moves forward.
You want to stop a breakdown from happening by keeping the hoses in check. Do your best to keep them working. If you think the tough summer heat can wreak havoc on your body, imagine what it does to the vehicle when trying to keep everything in check. Every day the hoses play a major role in transferring the hot and the cold coolant over to the engine block. This will maintain a consistent temperature within the engine, which is critical. If you ever notice how one hose has run its course, chances are some of the others will need replacement as well because the radiator works in harmony with everything else. In fact, it may even be a more economical choice to change all the hoses at the same time because it will cost less than replacing them one by one.
Testing at the Mechanics
An Essex mechanic will pressure test your system to see if it is working properly, and they will try to find out the level of risk for a breakdown. It might be worth investing in having it checked from time to time because you don’t want to be left stranded in the middle of nowhere. Worse yet, you don’t want to be seen losing your temper at the peak of heavy rush hour traffic because of a faulty coolant system.
What Should You Watch For?
On average of once a month, you should check the coolant to make sure everything is in working order. Also, you should use 50/50 solution with antifreeze and water. The water quality will play a big role in how much protection you receive with protecting the cooling system of your vehicle. You have to be aware of the mineral content because water high in mineral content can cause corrosion or scaling to the hoses. Distilled water or deionized water is the best choice for the 50/50 solution.
As a pre-warning, never, ever open the radiator pressure cap when the engine is hot. The contents will be under pressure, and it can cause a serious injury. You should inspect the car belts on a monthly basis, and you will want to replace them if they look frayed, worn or glazed. Whenever the belts are over 1/2 inch, you should depress them between the pulleys. Belts will sometimes have a spring-loaded tensioner, and they will not require a manual adjustment. You can replace the rotten, bulging or the brittle hoses, and you will want to have the hose clamps tightened. If the hose looks hard or soft, you may want to replace it before further damage occurs.
The Belts
With most of the older cars, the water pumps move forward with a serpentine belt or a V belt, which works near the front of the car parts. This also drives the alternator, the air conditioner or power steering pump. You can easily inspect and replace these pumps if they show themselves as worn. Check the engine for dry cracking, which you will find close to the inside surface of the car’s belt.
In general, most mechanics will recommend that you perform a seven-point preventative maintenance check at least every two years on your auto parts. When you look at the owner’s manual of your vehicle, you will see how it has a specific guideline for how you can proceed with specific auto parts like the radiator. The inspection of the vehicle has been designed so that you can identify highly specific areas that need the most attention. With the right maintenance of your vehicle, you can make sure that your car always stays in good condition.
