Winterize your vehicle 2019 Tip No. 3: Is your car, truck or SUV heater ready for the Johnsburg winter ahead?
With the exception of a couple rainy days, we’ve had some amazingly mild temperatures here in Johnsburg lately. It’s difficult to think of days when you’ll need to turn on the car, truck or SUV’s heater. Today, you’re more likely to use the air conditioning. But those cold days ARE coming.
When the cold arrives, you’ll want to turn the temperature control knob from blue to red – from cool to heat. And when you do that, you want heat to come pouring out of the vents. You want the heat to warm your chilly bones. But, more than that, you want the heat to help clear the frost off your windshield. Yes, FROST!!!
Your car, truck or SUV heater helps to ensure that you can operate your vehicle in comfort, once it warms up a bit. But the heater is also a safety feature. Frost will hinder your view and endanger your drive, whether you’re heading to Stucky’s Bar & Grill for a bite here in Johnsburg, or whether you’re headed out of town.
The heater in your car, truck or SUV operates using the coolant/antifreeze that also protects the engine from the potential damage caused by extremes of hot and cold. You might say that the coolant takes a detour through some hoses that are about 5/8-inch on the inside. Those hoses run through the firewall and under the dashboard where they connect to your heater coil.
The heater coil is like a small radiator. One hose brings warm coolant/antifreeze into the heater core and the other returns the liquid to rejoin the rest of the engine’s cooling system. A fan, which you operate with another knob on the dashboard, blows air across the heater core. That air passes through larger hoses and out the vents into the cabin of your car, truck or SUV.
Over time, a heater core can clog, particularly if you don’t change your coolant/antifreeze from time to time. It can also spring a leak, as can the hoses. But, assuming the heater core isn’t blocked or leaking, as long as the fan works properly, you should feel warm air pouring out of the vents as long as …
Yes, there is another caveat: the cooling system needs to operate correctly, too. If the coolant/antifreeze are old or too weak, they may not carry sufficient heat from the engine through the heater core. If you’re low on coolant/antifreeze, that can also cause problems.
Another potential problem is if the thermostat at the front of the engine, designed to remain closed until the coolant inside the engine reaches a predetermined temperature, is stuck open (if it’s stuck closed, you may get more heat than you want and the engine will probably overheat). But, assuming all these parts and the coolant/antifreeze are in good working order, there’s no reason to assume you wouldn’t have a heater in your car that will defrost your windshield while keeping you and your passengers toasty warm as you roll down Johnsburg Road and beyond this winter.
When the cold arrives, you’ll want to turn the temperature control knob from blue to red – from cool to heat. And when you do that, you want heat to come pouring out of the vents. You want the heat to warm your chilly bones. But, more than that, you want the heat to help clear the frost off your windshield. Yes, FROST!!!
Your car, truck or SUV heater helps to ensure that you can operate your vehicle in comfort, once it warms up a bit. But the heater is also a safety feature. Frost will hinder your view and endanger your drive, whether you’re heading to Stucky’s Bar & Grill for a bite here in Johnsburg, or whether you’re headed out of town.
The heater in your car, truck or SUV operates using the coolant/antifreeze that also protects the engine from the potential damage caused by extremes of hot and cold. You might say that the coolant takes a detour through some hoses that are about 5/8-inch on the inside. Those hoses run through the firewall and under the dashboard where they connect to your heater coil.
The heater coil is like a small radiator. One hose brings warm coolant/antifreeze into the heater core and the other returns the liquid to rejoin the rest of the engine’s cooling system. A fan, which you operate with another knob on the dashboard, blows air across the heater core. That air passes through larger hoses and out the vents into the cabin of your car, truck or SUV.
Over time, a heater core can clog, particularly if you don’t change your coolant/antifreeze from time to time. It can also spring a leak, as can the hoses. But, assuming the heater core isn’t blocked or leaking, as long as the fan works properly, you should feel warm air pouring out of the vents as long as …
Yes, there is another caveat: the cooling system needs to operate correctly, too. If the coolant/antifreeze are old or too weak, they may not carry sufficient heat from the engine through the heater core. If you’re low on coolant/antifreeze, that can also cause problems.
Another potential problem is if the thermostat at the front of the engine, designed to remain closed until the coolant inside the engine reaches a predetermined temperature, is stuck open (if it’s stuck closed, you may get more heat than you want and the engine will probably overheat). But, assuming all these parts and the coolant/antifreeze are in good working order, there’s no reason to assume you wouldn’t have a heater in your car that will defrost your windshield while keeping you and your passengers toasty warm as you roll down Johnsburg Road and beyond this winter.
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