Engine Cooling System Maintenance

Your vehicle’s cooling system features a series of parts that move heat away from your engine, preventing it from getting overheated and dying. Today’s vehicles feature liquid coolant and water that circulate throughout the system to carry heat away. Overall, though, there are many parts that play a significant role in keeping the engine cool.

Let’s take a quick look at those parts, which should get special attention from your technician at your next appointment for car maintenance in Chino, CA:

• Coolant: The coolant is the liquid that flows through the cooling system. It has both antifreeze properties and heat transfer properties, which makes it an extremely important fluid in your vehicle in all temperatures and conditions. The coolant takes heat away from the engine to be dissipated in the atmosphere. During the winter, that liquid will not freeze because of its antifreeze properties—plain water, meanwhile, would freeze, expand and break some components in the system.
• Radiator: When the coolant gets hot, it goes through the radiator fins to be cooled by the air that’s passed over the radiator. There are hundreds of small fins that multiply the surface area, allowing for more efficient cooling.
• Thermostat: The thermostat controls the way the coolant flows throughout the system. Inside is a waxy substance that gets soft at a certain temperature level, which opens up the valve and then allows the coolant to flow through.
• Cooling fans: Cooling fans can be either mechanical or electric, and offer force to move air over the radiator when the conditions are hot or while the vehicle is stationary. There are sensors that track coolant temperatures as they rise and then prompt the fan to begin running.
• Engine ports: The engine contains a number of small internal passages and ports through which the coolant travels so it can suck up some of the engine’s heat and carry it away, preventing the engine from overheating. The coolant leaves the engine block through hoses that take the coolant to other parts of the cooling system.
• Heater core: The heater core, like the radiator, has a number of small fins that help to dissipate the heat generated in the system. That heat is then used to heat up the passenger compartment when the cabin heat is turned on, pushing the hot air into the cabin with the use of a blower motor and fan.
• Sensors: There are two sensors found in most cooling systems: a coolant level sensor and a coolant temperature sensor. The level sensor tracks how much coolant is flowing through the system so you know if you need to add more to prevent the vehicle from overheating. The temperature sensor measures how hot the coolant is getting and tells the driver if the engine is getting close to overheating.

For more information about the various parts associated with the cooling system in your vehicle and the steps you should take to maintain those parts, or to schedule an appointment for car maintenance in Chino, CA, we encourage you to contact Gabriel’s Automotive & Towing today.

Categorised in: Car Maintenance

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