Why is antifreeze used in cars

All coolant is made up of the base chemical ethylene glycol. Whether it's green, pink or orange, they are all the same at their base. Most fluids your vehicle needs should be drained and replaced at various intervals in order to be effective.

The same goes for your coolant. At least twice a year you should check your coolant levels—before the summer heat and before the winter cold. What good is history, if you never change.

And what good is change, if it doesn't make you better. If you own an older vehicle, your car may not have a coolant reservoir, so in order to check your coolant levels you will have to open the cap on the radiator itself. If you find that you need to add more liquid, wait until the engine has cooled down. This prevents the possibility of being burned or cracking your engine block. Even if you encounter trouble on the side of the road and need to simply add water before reaching a repair shop, wait until your engine cools.

Additionally, do not open the caps on either the coolant reservoir or the radiator while the engine is hot, even just to check levels. If you do, especially in a pressurized system, hot coolant may be ejected. They will need to check for internal head gasket leakage and have specialized tools to perform this check. Skip to Main Content. Search for: Search Now. So, check your manual or ask your dealer.

So, pop the bonnet, locate your coolant bottle and remove the lid. Get the car to a mechanic ASAP. If it feels gritty to the touch, then you should get the cooling system flushed and replace the fluid mix. Sometimes it can be hard to check the coolant in your car because the while the head and neck will be up at the top of the engine bay and easily accessible, the reservoir can sometimes be buried deep down in the engine bay.

And that makes it hard to touch and even get a proper sniff of the stuff. That said, you should at least be able to see whether the coolant level is high or low. Get articles like this and more delivered to you without lifting a finger. First Name:. Email address:. Thanks Richard. Hi, it might be a good idea to investigate wind chill a bit further. No matter how fast you drive the air hitting the radiator, in your example, will still be 0 degrees. But if the vehicle is moving, then windchill does lower the temp.

If there are 2 thermometers outside — one in the wind and one shielded from the wind — they will still read the same temperature. The same idea applies to moving vehicles. I know that.