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The cooling system in your car is what allows your engine to cool off while creating large amounts of heat. It’s composed of the radiator, water pump, radiator cap, cooling fan, heater core, overflow tank, thermostat, hoses, and freeze plug. The water pump forces coolant through the coolant hoses to passages in the engine block. From there, the coolant hoses send coolant into the radiator and be cooled off before being cycled back through the engine. The thermostat is between your engine and radiator, opening a valve for the coolant to be sent to the radiator if it’s hot, and sending it back through the engine if it’s still cool. Occasionally, the radiator receives additional cooling help from the cooling fan/fans, also activated by the thermostat or an electrical system that can detect coolant heat levels. Hot coolant from the engine is also sent by coolant hoses to the heater core where it can use the heat from the now hot coolant to keep you warm in a cold morning drive.
Since the engine gets extremely hot, it needs a liquid that has a high boiling point to be there to cool it off, that way once it cools off the engine it won’t begin boiling and potentially damaging something in your engine. So, along with pressurizing the engine, they created coolant as a means to prevent the engine from overheating. While this helps, pressure can still build up inside the engine, and heat up the coolant, which could blow one of the gaskets or hoses. To reduce the likelihood of that, cars have a radiator cap that can release that pressure and coolant into an overflow tank to cool off.
Coolant also needs to have a low freezing point, otherwise the liquid could freeze in the engine and damage it. However, if your coolant should ever freeze, there are what’re known as coolant plugs that’ll pop out of the engine to prevent the engine block from cracking. During manufacturing, coolant plugs were used to fill in holes that allowed sand to be emptied from the engine, and therefore, prevent coolant from leaking out.
Coolant Management During the Summer
The summer months are finally rolling in, and for Sacramento that means it’s going to become a lot hotter. During these times people are going out and finding different ways to stay cool, but you also need to watch over your own car. Your car experiences that summer heat times 5 almost every day from your drives to work, school, or wherever you need to be. However, with that, your car is going to be experiencing even more heat than usual, which means you should be monitoring not only your coolant hoses, but your coolant system in general. The easiest way to do that is give your coolant hoses a squeeze to check for any cracking noises that could signal corrosion in the hoses. The other thing you can do is check your coolant reservoir levels every so often to make sure it's not low, which will help prevent overheating in your engine.
Regular Check Up
With constant exposure to extreme temperatures, your coolant hoses will eventually begin deteriorating. Along with that, some acids in your coolant can begin to damage your coolant hoses over time, and with that ruin their integrity. Damaged coolant hoses can be a dangerous thing, and lead to coolant leaks, and reduce its ability to cool the engine. Replacing coolant hoses can be a little costly, but not when compared to replacing your entire engine.
Your coolant hoses need to be changed around every 93,000 miles, or every 6 years. We at Paul’s Automotive recommend changing your coolant hoses every 100,000 miles or every 5 years. You can head to Paul’s Automotive to get your coolant hoses changed and for any other car related issues you may have.
If you have any questions regarding your coolant hoses, call (916) 444-7216 or schedule an appointment, and then head on over to Paul’s Automotive on 1922 O St. Sacramento, CA 95811.