Posted on 4/20/2025
Your vehicle’s engine runs hot. It should, since it’s a series of little explosions that create the power that gets you going where you want to go. To keep the engine cool, engineers have designed wonderful cooling systems that use liquid coolant, hoses, and a radiator to transfer the heat from the engine to the outside air. In order for the system to work right, it has to have the right amount of that liquid coolant in it. So that you know when the coolant has dipped below the correct amount, there is a sensor that keeps an eye on it. When the coolant gets low, that sensor lights up a signal on the dash to alert you. It may literally say “Check Coolant” or it may have a picture that looks like an old-style bulb thermometer sitting in liquid. Your owner’s manual will usually tell you exactly what the one in your vehicle looks like. If that sensor system isn’t working right, you could wind up driving for a lo ... read more
Posted on 10/6/2024
No matter what the weather is like outside, your internal combustion engine expects to keep its cool all the time, even when it's really cold. That's because engines create the power that moves you to your destination by a series of tiny explosions of a fuel and air mixture. In turn, that generates a lot of heat in a small space. Your vehicle has a complete cooling system with a lot of different parts that work together to keep the temperature at a point where the metal engine parts won't heat up enough to warp. Its lifeblood is coolant, a liquid that circulates through the engine (and, in most vehicles, the transmission, too) through a series of hoses and tubes. In order to get rid of the coolant's heat, your vehicle has a part you probably recognize: the radiator. It does what its name proclaims: radiates heat. The radiator has a series of thin metal fins that coolant goes through, and when outside air passes over them, the heat is dissipated from the ra ... read more