Radiator Repair In Addison TX
Did you know that the vehicle heating and cooling system is the most common cause of mechanical breakdowns on the road? The cause – overheating. And that overheating will then lead to severe damage to the engine and transmission!
Coolant (also termed anti-freeze) protects your engine from overheating and from freezing. The coolant’s effectiveness can diminish over time and it loses many of its protective properties, even causing your radiator to rust and corrode. The cooling system itself can get clogged with built-up deposits from oil, grease, scale, hose decomposition, and other materials.
Most drivers know it’s recommended that a vehicle’s oil should be changed about every 3,000 miles. Drivers typically know less, however, about proper intervals for their vehicle’s other vital fluids. For the cooling system, the coolant/antifreeze manufacturers recommend changing the coolant once a year and some service manuals stipulate flushing and refilling the radiator every 24 months, regardless of mileage. Check your car’s owner manual to see the recommended interval for changing the coolant in your vehicle, but you’ll want to get it changed at minimum every 24 months or if you have any of the following symptoms:
- Your vehicle overheats
- Your coolant or temperature light comes on
- Your dash boards’ temperature gauge reads higher or lower than normal
- Your heater does not work
The Boil Over
Most cars today have a pressurized cooling system that increases the boiling temperature of water by about 45 F (25 C) and allows the engine to run at a high temperature of 268 F. Any leak within the car’s cooling system will remove this pressure, causing the water to boil at 212 F (100 C), far below the running temperature of any engine. This causes the boil over.
The Cause
Today’s cars operate in a wide variety of temperatures, from well below freezing to well over 100 F so whatever fluid that is used in the car’s cooling system has to have a very low freezing point and also a very high boiling point.
No Antifreeze + No Pressure = Boil Over
Although water is one of the most effective fluids for holding heat, water freezes at too high a temperature to be used in car engines. Therefore the fluid that most cars use is a mixture of water and ethylene glycol also known as antifreeze. By adding ethylene glycol to water, the boiling and freezing points are improved significantly.
The engine’s operating temperature of coolant will reach 250 F to 275 F after 5 minutes of driving. Even with ethylene glycol added, these temperatures would boil the coolant, so something additional must be done to raise its boiling point and this is adding pressure to the radiator cooling system.
The Radiator Cooling System
The radiator cooling system in your car has a lot of plumbing and many locations or parts from where it can leak. It functions by having the water pump draw radiator fluid from the radiator and sends it into the car’s engine block, where it makes its way through passages in the engine. It returns through the engine’s cylinder head to the radiator for cooling. The car’s thermostat is located where the fluid leaves the engine and the plumbing (hoses) around the thermostat sends the fluid back to the pump directly if the thermostat is closed. If the thermostat is open, the fluid goes through the radiator first and then back to the pump.
There is also a separate plumbing for the car’s interior heating system where it takes fluid from the cylinder head, passes it through a heater core under the dash board of the car and then returns it back to the water pump.
Radiator, Thermostat and Heater Services
The certified technicians at T&K have years of experience in working with radiators, thermostats and the complete cooling system. Any of the following signs could indicate your vehicle needs service or repairs to the cooling system:
- The vehicle is running hot or overheating
- Leaking of a green or red fluid
- Belts or hoses that have not been replaced during the past 4 years.
The following are major areas or components to check:
- Engine Head Cooling – Head Gasket
- Engine Block Cooling – Freeze Plugs
- Thermostat
- Water Pump
- Cooling Fan
- Radiator Cap
- Radiator Hoses
- Radiator Core
- Overflow Tank
- Transmission Cooler
- Car Interior Heater Valve
- Car Interior Heater Core
- Car Interior Heater Fan
Visit your local Addison T & K Radiator Repair Shop for your Cooling System Service needs and get a complete 36-point Protect Check Inspection performed on your vehicle at no additional cost. Your local T&K Radiator Repair Addison can repair or replace any of the components of the cooling system.
