Cooling System inspection, repair & replacement made easy

Read our short guide with information on symptoms and more.

ClickMechanic offers inspections, repairs, and replacements to solve problems with your car's cooling system.

The cooling system is designed to maintain a certain temperature in your vehicle. Running hot will eventually start to warp the metals inside your engine, which is an expensive repair. Running cold will reduce the efficiency of your engine and other components that work best in high heat conditions, such as the catalytic converter.

Coolant
A mix of distilled water and coolant. The water provides cooling while the coolant protects from corrosion and lubricates the system.

Thermostat
The thermostat controls the flow of coolant by identifying how hot the engine is running.

Water Pump
The water pump pushes coolant through the system. It is driven by the timing chain, belt, or can have its own electric motor.

Radiator
The radiator dissipates heat to the surrounding air from the coolant. The many fins increase the surface area to maximise the cooling properties of the radiator.

Radiator fan
The radiator fan pushes the coolant through the radiator. This is usually activated at low speeds where the coolant has lower momentum.

Cooling pressure cap
The cooling pressure cap holds pressure inside the cooling system. This prevents the coolant from boiling until much higher temperatures. This means the system can be more efficient.

• When you can see smoke coming from your engine
• When you smell the vapour of the coolant fluid
• When you hear cranking sounds
• When you feel the engine heating up
• When the check engine light comes on

Here are the common problems with a cooling system:

••Low coolant**
A leak in the system will drip away reserves of coolant. Less coolant means the cooling system will be working harder and the engine will eventually overheat.

*Failed thermostat
A faulty thermostat will block the flow of coolant to your engine. The lack of coolant will suddenly overheat your engine.

Worn Water pump
A worn water pump or an issue with the motor system will mean the coolant isn’t properly flowing through the engine. Your pump will be less efficient or broken altogether which will lead to your engine overheating.

Clogged radiator
A radiator can become clogged by poor quality coolant, which doesn’t lubricate the system properly. It will mean there is less coolant and that coolant will have a harder time getting through the system. It will have a gradual noticeable effect on your MPG but otherwise, be hard to diagnose.

Faulty radiator fan
A faulty radiator fan means that air can’t flow along the fins of a radiator, taking heat away from the coolant as it passes through the radiator. This means that both the air and coolant become increasingly hot.

Fault cooling system pressure cap
A broken pressure cap will not retain the pressure on the entire cooling system. This means that steam can vent out and will rapidly reduce the efficiency of the cooling system leading to an engine overheat.