Well, here we are in the Fall of 2017 already, and Fall, particularly late September and early October, is once again the hottest time of the year!
Temperatures have been well into the 100’s all week, the skies are filled with smoke and ash from the raging brush fires in the surrounding hills and mountains, and sunblock and lots of water to drink are the order of the day.
And how about that faithful mechanical servant of yours that gets you to work every day, keeping you cool with its climate control systems, safe with its Safety Restraint Systems (SRS) and comfortable with its well designed ergonomics and power control systems?
How is your trustworthy partner on the highway, your car or truck, coping with the searing heat of the air and the road?
Even a well maintained vehicle is going to experience a failure once in a while under the extremes of SouthWest driving.
Here’s what you should look for and do to head off problems created by heat.
- Have a maintenance inspection of cooling system components before hot weather season every year. May or early June are the best times, not too early and not too late. The wear and tear items are hoses, belts that drive the water pump, AC compressor, alternator and power steering pump. The coolant liquid itself should be tested for proper mixture of ethylene glycol anti-freeze to water (about 50-50).
- Any change in the NORMAL position of your temperature gauge needle may indicate a problem. The temperature gauge is not an extremely accurate instrument at best, but the fact that it may read ¼ inch above the customary point, or have a “wavering” needle, are very significant and need to be checked professionally as soon as possible.
- TIRES are subject to inflation variations caused by extreme roadbed temperatures. Get yourself a good tire gauge and check them regularly. Check and set the tire pressures when the tires are cold for better accuracy. Most of the so-called tire defect problems that made the news in the past year or two were really “tire neglect” problems.
Driving a fully loaded SUV with big tires of any brand, that are running at only 10-15 psi of air pressure at 60-80 miles per hour on the freeway can lead to blowouts and rollovers. You can’t tell that these tires are properly inflated by looking at them!
If you patronize a repair shop, where you take the family cars for most of the needed maintenance and repair, they will probably be more than happy to check the tires and inflate them properly, inspect for damage, ply separation, nails in the tread, etcetera.
Now back to that mystical fluid that flows through the veins of your engine’s cooling system. Today’s chemical engineers are the greatest ever. So are the automotive design engineers….BUT, I hate to be the bearer of bad news. There have been a few unforeseen developments on the antifreeze frontier.
It seems that in the race to make our cars more maintenance-free, with longer intervals between fluid services such as coolant, a few chemical reactions went undiscovered until repeated cooling system failures revealed them in a very expensive way, for you, the consumer.
Here’s the latest information. Extended life coolants that were designed to be changed at 100K or even 150K intervals, are breaking down very early due to oxidation caused by air in the cooling system. Air can enter any time there is a leak, the overflow system becomes faulty or by simply opening the cap to check the fluid level. A thick red gummy substance forms which rapidly clogs radiator tubes, heater cores and worst of all, thermostats!
A simple fix is to ignore the vehicle manufacturer’s recommended intervals and change the coolant and thermostat every 30K or two years, whichever comes first. Once this oxidation starts it is very hard to stop, even when you flush the system! It erodes away metal parts such as freeze plugs, heater hose fittings on the intake manifold and the vanes on the water pump, leading to repairs that can cost several hundred dollars to repair!
So, be safe and be smart, and pay extra attention to your vehicle in this hot, hot weather. Save yourself the time, expense and inconvenience of a highway breakdown.
October is national car-care month, a great time to have your vehicle checked over.
Look for Car-Care Month promotions sponsored by the Automobile Club of Southern California, and other auto industry organizations, or simply make an inspection appointment at your own preferred local auto repair shop.
Jim O’Neill
Chino Autotech Inc.,
Auto Club of SoCal Approved Auto Repair Facility
Auto Value Certified Service Center
NASTF Service Information/Communications Committees
ASE CMAT-L1, CA. Smog Check Technician
AMI AAM Accredited Automotive Manager
Northwood University-University of the Automotive Aftermarket-Leadership 2.0, Class of 2008-2009