When I was young, I used to pour mineral water as a coolant in our car. I used to ride this X Corolla, which is pretty famous in my country. You can say it’s a household car. So, I had little knowledge of car coolant.
I had no idea how coolant worked. To make it worse, I used to pour distilled water when I thought the car needed coolant.
I know you’re laughing, but wait there’s more.
It was long I figured out, my car radiator stopped working. So I had the replace the entire radiator. That’s when I was like, nah, I need to figure this coolant thing out.
I’ll share 4 ways you can check whether you need to replace coolant or not.
But first, let’s try to understand, how coolant works.
So, there are basically 3 components in the car, a radiator, a water pump, and the engine area.
The radiator carries the coolant inside, it gets to the engine area through the water pump and cools the engine, and then the hot coolant returns to the radiator.
This cycle repeats on and on.
Now, people, living in cold countries, remember every time you turn on the heater and get warm air inside the car. Well, the hot coolant is responsible for that.
So, coolant is pretty important, and to check it regularly is a must.
So, you might be wondering, what’s coolant made of. It’s mainly a mix of antifreeze and water.
Now that we have enough knowledge on coolant, how do we know when to replace the coolant?
It’s actually pretty easy. There are 4 ways you can check.
Don’t check the coolant when the engine’s hot. If you drove your car, let it sit for a while. When the engines are cold, then you can do your inspection.
Visual Check:
The name says it all. Just open the radiator cap and inspect the cap. If there’s sludge then it’s probably bad coolant. You can check the coolant reservoir as well. If you want more closer look you can take a plastic glass, pull some coolant out of the reservoir, and place it in the cup. Then examine thoroughly.
Coolant mainly comes in 2 colors. Green and orange. If the coolant is muddy then chances are it’s gone bad. Also, check if there’s any debris in the coolant or not.
Your car will tell you which color coolant to put in. Just check the owner’s manual.
Be sure to check the owner’s manual. It will guide you on when to change the coolant. Each car is different from each other.
Hydrometer Check:
For this, you’ll need a hydrometer. It’s not that expensive. This has a scale on both sides of it. One side shows the cooling point and the other side shows the boiling point. This hydrometer will basically tell you, the coolant you have in your car, and how much protection that coolant is giving in both hot and cold conditions.