Most coolant is good for 3 years and some long life coolant is good for 5 years. You need to find out what you have in your vehicle and have a coolant flushed accordingly. If your car is over 5 years old and you haven’t had a coolant flush yet, you could be severely damaging your engine and cooling system. Many of the additives in your coolant are corrosion inhibitors. Your coolant additives lose their ability to work in 3-5 years. When glycol (the main ingredient in most coolants) comes in contact with oxygen at 80-110 ºC (the operating temperature of most engines) it generates glycollic acid. This acid can eat away at the inside of your cooling system and can cause many costly problems. All of this corrosion circulates throughout your cooling system plugging it up. For example: If the small passages in your rad become plugged, it will reduce its ability to cool your engine. If the small passages in your heater core become plugged, you will lose heat in your passenger compartment. In the past this was not as much of a problem because most engines were made of cast iron. But, late-model engines are aluminium or a mixture of cast and aluminium which are much more susceptible and will corrode at a much higher rate.
What is Involved
- Coolant is removed from cooling system and replaced with new fluid
What Can Happen if I Don’t Do a Coolant Flush
- Your coolant can become acidic and eat away at the inside of your engine causing major internal engine damage and costly repairs
- Your coolant can turn to sludge and plug internal passages causing you to loose heat in the passenger compartment and /or inefficient cooling system performance
Notice
Due to the wide range of vehicles makes and models, this is general information and should not be taken as specific to any vehicle. Please consult manufacturer specifications for the correct specifications and repair procedures for your vehicle. This information is meant to be used as a guideline only.