The Importance of Coolant

The Importance of Coolant

I don’t know how many of you are aware, but coolant, or the other way it is known - antifreeze, has double functionality: it keeps the car from overheating, and it protects it from freezing in times of extremely cold weather. Based on this information you can probably make a solid conclusion as to why coolant is so important to your vehicle.

Nevertheless, let us make it clear what happens when your car is lacking coolant. As a car owner you probably know that when your engine is running, it generated heat, if your vehicle does not have coolant it can overheat and cause damage to the engine (which can be serious damage), and in turn this may lead to some costly repairs (and let us be honest here, no one likes unnecessary bills). Now let us take a look at what happens when it is winter, if you go with water instead of coolant, the water may freeze, when water freezes it expands, the pressure from the expanded water can crack your engine block, cylinder heads, and other components of the vehicle’s engine, and yet again you will need to pay for repairs. Bottom line – use coolant for your vehicle.

It is time to talk about what happens when the coolant stays in your vehicle for long periods of time. When the coolant stays in your car’s system and time passes by it can become subject to electrolysis and begin having an acidic nature, which may lead to the erosion of the vehicle’s engine, or related engine components. But do not fear, this can be prevented. In order to prevent it, you need to flush the system periodically and change the coolant. If you do not know when you should have the system flushed and the coolant changed, you can refer to the manufacturer’s guidelines, or you can do it at about 50 000 miles.

My advice would be to keep checking the level of the coolant and top it off when needed. Also, don’t forget to have it flushed and changed completely when it is due. Following these simple steps will guarantee you to save on some costly repairs in the future.