Having your car’s cooling system serviced may save you a tonne of cash.

The cooling system of a vehicle is often overlooked, yet it plays a crucial role in maintaining optimal engine performance and preventing breakdowns. With a maintenance schedule, you can prevent breakdowns and catastrophic engine failure.

At Davids Mechanical Repairs, we make it simple to care for and fix your cooling system. Call the local Davids Mechanical Repairs team if you notice a coolant leak, your engine is overheating, or it’s time for your car’s yearly cooling system checkup.

Why not just give us a call? We can diagnose your cooling system issues and make sure you are scheduled at a time when our cooling systems specialists are available to carry out a comprehensive, professional examination if you call your trusted local mechanics for an over-the-phone diagnostic before dropping in your car. This will result in less downtime and a quicker resolution. We value your time and encourage you to contact us immediately.

What are the signs your car might have a radiator or cooling system issue?

Not all cooling system failures are explosive; in most situations, it’s a long process that begins with you finding puddles under the vehicle or trying to top off the coolant level on a frequent basis. The temperature gauge can show a high coolant temperature in slow traffic but returns to normal while driving at high speeds. In certain instances, you can detect a sweetish, “hot water” odour emanating from the engine, or even real steam coming from under the hood. These are all serious signs that can not be overlooked.

What exactly is the cooling system?

In layman’s words, a vehicle’s cooling system is made up of components that control and maintain the temperature of the engine independent of variables like atmospheric temperature and driving conditions like road speed.

Significant variations from an engine’s ideal operating temperature will result in significant engine harm. Many automakers have introduced engine technology that depend heavily on engine temperature to minimise emissions in modern cars, so it is now possible to see engines in late-model vehicles that run 20 or more degrees hotter than what is considered standard in older engines.

Regardless of what you drive, it is important that your cooling system is in top shape to help protect your vehicle from costly breakdowns.

Understanding your cooling system

The cooling system in your vehicle is made up of more than just a radiator and coolant. Learn more about the typical cooling system components mentioned below.

Radiator

The radiator, also known as a heat exchanger, is made up of two reservoirs on either side of a hub of small-diameter tubes that are all intertwined with a fine network of aluminium foil that significantly enhances the radiator’s surface area that is in contact with the atmosphere. The heat contained in the coolant is shed or “radiated” away to the atmosphere as the heated coolant passes through the narrow tubes, hence the term radiator.

Radiator Cap

Radiator caps on modern cooling systems are located on the expansion tank, a device which enables the coolant to expand and contract. While modern radiator caps are mainly made of plastic, they are built to have a pressure relief function to both absorb the pressure created by coolant expansion and alleviate excess pressure in order to keep the cooling system’s design pressure.

Radiator hoses

Radiator hoses carry coolant from the engine to the radiator and from the radiator to the engine. As a result, it is essential that the hoses are in pristine working order.

Water pump

The water pump in many ways can be considered as the cooling system’s heart because it circulates coolant throughout the system. Until recent years, all water pumps were driven by the engine via a drive belt, but electrically powered water pumps are becoming much more common.

Coolant

If the water pump is the heart of the cooling system, the engine coolant is the system’s lifeblood. The coolant absorbs heat from the engine as it circulates through the engine and is made up of clean water and a specialised additive that keeps the coolant from freezing or boiling. This heat is released into the atmosphere when the hot coolant flows into the radiator, which is the primary method for controlling the temperature of the engines.
It should be mentioned that all antifreeze/antiboiling additives have limited service lives due to the degradation of the active ingredients over time. To get the most out of these chemicals, the whole coolant mixture should be changed at least once every two years, or according to the vehicle’s recommended maintenance plan.

Thermostat

The thermostat’s purpose is to control the circulation of the engine coolant by using the temperature of the coolant as a signal to open or close the valve. The thermostat regulates the amount of time the coolant spends in the radiator based on whether it is open or closed. For example, if it is trapped open, the coolant will flow too quickly, causing the engine to overheat. If the thermostat is locked closed, the coolant cannot circulate, causing the engine to overheat fatally in a matter of moments.

Antifreeze/antiboiling additive

This additive’s primary functions are to increase the coolant’s boiling point above the boiling point of pure water at sea level and to lower the freezing point of pure water below the freezing point of pure water at sea level, all while inhibiting internal rust and corrosion. Since various additive formulations/concentrations produce different outcomes in different applications, each automotive maker demands that a particular formulation of additive be used in a given concentration relative to clean water.

Radiator fan

The radiator fan’s aim is to pull air through the radiator centre, increasing the rate at which heat is transferred between the coolant and the atmosphere.
Fan switch/sensor
The coolant temperature, as determined by a dedicated switch/sensor, activates electric radiator fans. This switch could have two circuits, one of which triggers a circuit that causes the fan to operate at a predetermined speed. For the cooling mechanism to work properly, all circuits must be completely operational.

Engine coolant sensor

Many important engine control functions rely on the presumption that the engine coolant is right, as determined by one or more engine coolant temperature sensors. If one or more of these sensors fails, the ECU (Engine Control Unit) receives inaccurate, implausible, erratic, or no input data at all, which may result in engine overheating and low fuel economy as a result of the coolant temperature sensors failing.

Coolant level sensor

Some vehicles are outfitted with a dedicated sensor on the expansion tank that monitors the coolant level in the system. While a malfunction of this sensor would not cause the engine to overheat or have an impact on the overall function of the cooling system, warning signals from this sensor can NEVER be overlooked, as the warning signal could be alerting the driver to a severe and possibly disastrous coolant loss.
While a malfunction of this sensor would not cause the engine to overheat or have an impact on the overall function of the cooling system, warning signals from this sensor can NEVER be overlooked, as the warning signal could be alerting the driver to a severe and possibly disastrous coolant loss.

What about a new car? There is no need to be concerned.

Davids Mechanical Repairs is fully qualified to service the vehicle whilst it is already under warranty and to keep up with the log book maintenance plan. You’ll get the value for money and friendly support you’d expect from a small and reputable independent service centre, plus the reassurance of Davids Mechanical Repairs’ warranty backing.