Time to have coolant/antifreeze checked as winter rolls into Richmond

In the midst of a Richmond

summer, you need that fluid in
your car's engine to serve as
a coolant. When winter rolls
around, it needs to serve as an
antifreeze, too.

All summer long, you’ve counted on the coolant in your car, truck or SUV to keep your engine from overheating. As winter comes to Richmond, you still want the coolant to do that job. After all, once you’ve been driving a while, even on the coldest nights of winter, temperatures inside your engine can get extreme. But winter brings another consideration, and another job, for your coolant.

On a cold winter night in Richmond, you’re counting on your coolant to serve as antifreeze for the engine in your car, truck or SUV. This is a duty you’re relying on before you start the engine.

In other words, your vehicle’s coolant has to do double duty.

The problem with coolant/antifreeze is that its capacity to cool the engine when it’s hot, while its ability to avoid freezing when it’s cold, diminishes over time.

The older the coolant/antifreeze, the lower its capacity to perform this jobs. Imagine being stuck on the side of the road somewhere, on a bitterly cold winter night, because your engine is overheating. It can happen.

On the other hand, imagine if, in its capacity as antifreeze, your coolant/antifreeze isn’t up to the job. At a minimum, you may have trouble starting the engine. In the worst case scenario, however, you may have a cracked engine block.

With a cracked engine block, you’re going to have to replace the engine. No one has to point out that this is a timely and expensive situation. It’s not just that your trip, the reason you were starting the vehicle, is canceled. Until that engine is replaced, you’re not going anywhere.

Even if your engine block isn’t cracked, if the coolant/antifreeze isn’t full and up to snuff, you’ll have trouble defogging your windshield and staying warm inside your car, truck or SUV.

The good news is that there’s a simple test to check your coolant/antifreeze and it only takes a minute to perform the test. You can bring your car, truck or SUV into a trusted Richmond area auto repair shop to have your coolant/antifreeze checked, or you can have it checked when bringing your vehicle in for an oil change or any other service. You might even want to have it checked as part of having your vehicle winterized in general.

Comments

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