Start of another McHenry summer – time to have your car, truck or SUV’s coolant checked

Now that the lawn is cut, the garden is planted and ready to start dazzling all your McHenry neighbors, it’s time to relax in your lawn furniture while dinner sizzles on the grill and you enjoy a tropical drink with a little umbrella. Memorial Day is made for this. Of course, you can relax without worry because you have prepared the coolant in your car, truck or SUV for the summer ahead, right?

What?! You haven’t checked the coolant yet? That is not something you want to neglect until your car, truck or SUV tells you it’s too late. If you discover that your coolant isn’t ready for the hot days ahead, it’s certain to be an inconvenience. It’s also liable to be costly.

Having your coolant checked is generally free. If you need to replace it, the cost is minimal. You may need some hoses, which are still fairly inexpensive. Even if you need a water pump, you’re likely to spend considerably less having that replaced on your time rather than when your vehicle and the weather conspire to strand you on a road somewhere.

Often, when a car, truck or SUV overheats, it’s not only on a hot day, but it’s also on a day when traffic is heavy. When a car is moving steadily down the highway, the air is rushing through the radiator, assisted by the fan that pulls it through from the other side. But, when a car is sitting in traffic, the radiator is fully dependent on the fan to pull air across those coils.

The coolant (hopefully) runs inside the radiator coils. Hopefully because, if the coils are blocked and the coolant can’t flow, you’re going to overheat from that, too.

As the coolant moves through the engine, it carries heat away from the components. When that coolant is then moved into the radiator, the air rushing over the coils carries the heat away leaving the coolant cool again and ready to gather more heat from the engine. But if the coolant isn’t up to par, it won’t perform its job as intended.

When in top-top condition, coolant will resist the urge to boil. When boiling, the coolant is expanding. The pressure inside the cooling system builds. At the same time, the engine isn’t transferring heat to the coolant at the rate that it should.

When a car overheats, if you have a weak radiator hose, this is when it will rupture. If there’s a weak spot in the radiator, overheating will often find it. Any potential problem with the cooling system is liable to show itself when the vehicle overheats.

Of course, along with having your coolant checked, it pays to have your cooling system checked, too. A qualified auto repair technician can find that problem and fix it at your convenience and before one problem causes another. For instance, if a radiator hose starts to leak, you’ll lose coolant and the engine can overheat.

Anyhow, if you’re reclining by the grill with family, this is not time to worry about your coolant. But, you might want to make a note to have it checked before another McHenry summer arrives in all its splendor.

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