Cooling System Failures

With preventative maintenance and proper car care as indicated by your owner’s manual and your trusted auto repair shop you should be able to limit the majority of system failures in your vehicle. No one wants to hear the words that there was a major failure and now major repairs are needed. Major repairs mean time and time means money. Monitoring your vehicle and getting it checked regularly can save you time and a lot of money down the road. According to AAA, cooling system failures are one of the leading causes of vehicle breakdowns on the highway. Drivers that have no idea the status of their radiator or cooling system components and could be driving with overheated parts, corrosion or other wear-and-tear. A cooling system flush is basically the term for ridding your radiator of rust, dirt, sludge and old antifreeze or “radiator fluid.” The fluid is more accurately known as coolant, which is a 50-50 mix of antifreeze and water.  Although you may find some debate in the automotive world about whether or not this service is necessary, safe or how often to do it, flushing your cooling system is a vital part of your car’s preventive maintenance schedule. Why? Because coolant keeps your engine from overheating – which means you can continue driving it and not sitting in the waiting room of your auto repair shop. Every car manufacturer recommends a different schedule for flushing your coolant. We advise that you follow your owner’s manual as a starting point, but allowing our experienced technicians to look at the condition of your coolant and your cooling system including your radiator  is also perhaps more crucial. It is also important to remember that a drain and fill is not the same service and only a portion of what you would pay for – and many repair shops try to push this on people. This type of flush will not remove all of the dirty fluid that is inside the water hoses, water pump or engine cooling passages. It is important to choose an auto repair shop that has the machine and know-how to completely remove the dirt, contaminants and old coolant from the entire cooling system, not just the radiator. There are several benefits to having your radiator flushed. They include: 1. The removal of rust and deposit which can cause overheating and damage your radiator. 2. The lubrication of your car’s water pump which will lengthen its life. 3. The removal of contaminants and the old additives in the coolant can lose important anti-corrosive properties over time which leads to the buildup of particles. A radiator flush will remove these particles from the system. 4. Inspection of entire system and pressure tests to check for leaks in the system. This is a must-have! 5. Protects against rust and foam in the system which helps it operate efficiently. You deserve the best service when it comes to your coolant system. Contact us today and let’s make sure yours won’t be breaking down anytime soon.  To see what happens when you ignore your coolant, watch this video.