Is your car ready to keep you warm in the winter? If not, now is a good time to have it checked

Winter can reach bitterly cold temperatures here in McHenry County. With wind chills, winter carries potentially fatal consequences across the barren landscape. Traveling on such days is a challenge – a challenge to safe and warm even in your car. But, when you turn on the heat in your car the heated air pours out of the vents and warms you to the bone, right?

It all depends on whether your car’s heater works. The heat in the inside of the car is provided, ironically enough, by the car’s cooling system. We call the fluid inside that system coolant in the summer and anti-freeze in the winter. But, whatever season, it still fulfills a crucial role in an automobile.

Coolant keeps the engine from overheating. Even in the coldest weather, without adequate coolant, your car will quickly overheat. On the other hand, in the winter, when the car isn’t running, the anti-freeze has the capacity to remain in a liquid, non-frozen state even when temperatures are terribly cold.

When the cooling system is working properly, the coolant/anti-freeze runs back and forth between the engine and the radiator. In the radiator, air passes by the coils and fins carrying the heat away. The heat is then dispersed out the bottom of the engine compartment to fall behind you as you drive.

The cooling system, however, makes one detour between the radiator and the engine; it also runs to the heater core behind the dashboard. The heater core is, essentially, a small radiator also made of coils and metal fins. When you turn the fan on inside the car, it draws air through the heater coil. Heat moving from warm to cool areas, the heat is transferred from the heater coil to the passing air.

On the one hand, the heater coil plays an important role by providing a reasonable temperature inside the car. On the other hand, it plays a vital role in terms of defrosting the windshield. With the prior, it’s the difference between a bitter-cold drive and a ride in comfort. With the latter, it’s the difference between a blocked, unsafe view through a frosted windshield and a clear view.

If you haven’t had your cooling system checked, this is a good time to do so. While they’re at it, you can have your trusted auto repair technician check the heating system inside the car. They can make sure the heating coil isn’t clogged or leaking. They can also check to make sure your heater is working at its maximum potential.

Comments

Is your antifreeze safe from freezing this Richmond winter

You still have time to have it checked Well, there’s no denying it – winter tends to get chilly here in Richmond. We have to deal with snow and ice on the roads, scraping the same off our windows and windshield, and staying warm while we drive. Of course, you had your antifreeze checked before winter rolled into town. What?! You didn’t have your antifreeze checked before winter clamped down on Richmond? So, how’s your antifreeze doing? If you haven’t had it checked, there’s really no way of knowing, is there? This car has overheated in the middle of a Richmond winter. But, on the other end of the spectrum, the antifreeze can also freeze if it's not up to its job. Hopefully, you haven’t had a serious problem with your antifreeze already. If you did, you’d probably know. When antifreeze fails, it’s a potentially catastrophic condition for your vehicle’s engine. You could have hoses that have burst because of freezing antifreeze. Worse than that, your engine block may have crac...

Blocks of ice falling from cars in McHenry could cause accidents or damage

We’ve all seen those blocks of snow falling from behind the rear tires of a car when the snow rolls into McHenry . Fortunately, they’re just packed snow that will disintegrate under your vehicle’s tires as you simply drive right through them, right? Don’t count on it. Those blocks of snow are often packed so tight, condensed by the thaw-and-freeze cycle, that they’re anything but oversized snowballs . They’re often more like boulders. Hit one of those blocks and the collision between the block and one of your tires could send you careening off the road or into oncoming traffic. In some cases, they’re so solid you could pound them with a sledgehammer with little effect. They truly can represent a serious road hazard. The problem is that it’s difficult to tell how solidly they’re packed when you see them on the road, left their unwittingly by another driver. Either way, your best bet is to try to avoid them. But you want to be careful dodging blocks of ice in the road, too. You need...

Timely maintenance is even more important with your Johnsburg Electric Vehicle

Even if you have an electric vehicle in your Johnsburg driveway, maintenance is still critical. You pull out of your Johnsburg driveway and you watch the gas stations go by as you smile from behind the wheel of your EV – Electric Vehicle. Of course, at some point, you will have to stop and charge the battery but you still take some comfort that you’re not standing next to your car as the fuel pumps into your tank. One of the true comforts you take with your EV is that the mechanics of your vehicle are simplified. You don’t have to worry about the engine breaking down anymore, and we all know how costly that can be. But there’s more to your EV vehicle than you may have considered when you first parked it in your Johnsburg driveway. Many of the parts found on gasoline-driven vehicles are also present on your EV. These require the same maintenance as your gasoline-powered vehicle. For instance, you EV still has: Tires and Wheels Brakes Steering and Suspension Windshield Wipers and So...

Performance Unlimited Blog

Search This Blog