Cooling and Air Conditioning
Your car’s cooling system keeps your car’s engine from overheating, which helps to maintain the integrity of your head gasket and many other vital engine components. Similarly, your car’s air conditioning helps keep you comfortable and alert in hot weather, making you a more effective driver. Both systems are important and can affect your ability to drive, especially in summer weather.
Signs You Need Vehicle Cooling System Repair
It’s pretty easy to tell when your car’s cooling system is failing; put simply, your car will start to overheat. Your engine’s temperature gauge should rest just below the halfway mark on most car models. Check your car’s owner manual to make sure that your car is operating at the ideal temperature, since just because it’s been at a certain temperature for a long time doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the right temperature.
Other signs include:
- Your engine is making ticking or thumping sounds
- Steam is coming from under the hood
- Your vehicle is leaking coolant (usually a thick green fluid)
- Your engine is losing power unexpectedly on longer drives
- Your air conditioner blows warm air when set to cold
If you’re experiencing any of these, you should schedule an appointment for a courtesy inspection and ensure that your vehicle is in good working order.
Car Cooling System Repair Services
Coolant and Antifreeze
Keeping your vehicle’s cooling system topped off with antifreeze is one of the most important and simplest ways you can prevent overheating in your vehicle. Making sure you have a good quality antifreeze that’s right for your engine is the foundation of having a cool and content engine. Even if every other part of your cooling system is fine, having too little (or too much) coolant in the system creates problems of system pressure, inefficient or inadequate cooling, or even catastrophic damage to your engine. Our cooling system services can help keep your engine running efficiently and effectivly.
Water Pump
A water pump is an essential component of your vehicle’s cooling system. It continuously circulates coolant between the radiator and the vehicle’s engine to prevent overheating that can cause damage. Though it’s called a water pump, these days, water pumps always circulate antifreeze or coolant, which can be toxic and dangerous to an unprotected individual. For this reason, it’s essential to go to an expert able to properly dispose of this toxic waste and repair this system.
Radiator Service
Your car’s radiator helps exhaust excess heat from the engine in conjunction with the water pump. It is the most iconic part of your engine’s cooling system and is typically situated at the front of the engine to take advantage of cool air entering the engine compartment during transit. With the help of a fan, a thermostat that monitors coolant temperature, and computerized regulators, your radiator keeps your vehicle operating efficiently without dangerous overheating.
Air Conditioning
The air conditioner in your car works much like any other air conditioner. Your engine powers the compressor, which compresses your refrigerant to create and make use of a pressure-based temperature spike that gets cooled off, and as pressure reduces, the temperature drops quickly. With a fairly complex machine like this, there are various potential points of failure, from loss of refrigerant due to a failed seal to compressor failure, and even simply clogged ductwork can cause significant failures in your air conditioning.
Cabin Air Filters
Unsurprisingly, your cabin air filter is used to filter the air in your vehicle’s cabin. This keeps you and your passengers safer by reducing the contaminants in the air you’re breathing. Have you ever gotten a windshield blast of exhaust from a truck and gotten that nasty air into your cabin? It’s terrible, but after circulating the air for a minute or two, it’s fine. This is because your cabin air filter is combing the air circulating through your cabin every time it passes through. It’s essential to change out your cabin air filter regularly to keep the air you’re breathing clean and fresh.
No auto repair job is too large or too small for our car repair shops in Biddeford and Hollis, serving Dayton, Saco, Arundel, Standish, Waterboro, Gorham, and beyond in Southern Maine. Stop by for a free courtesy inspection, or give us a call today at 207-929-4131!