The radiator is one of the most important hardware of your car to maintain the temperature of the car’s engine. Cleaning the radiator is not necessary too often, but it depends on your car’s age, radiator’s health, and coolant milage. In this article, we will discuss how you can clean your car’s radiator at your home with minimum tools.
When to clean the radiator?
If you are using tap water for your car radiator then your radiator is expected to have rust and muddy particles and you may need to clean the radiator more often, but if you are using branded coolant then you can clean the radiator once the milage of the coolant is completed. Normally milage is provided in the owner’s manual or on the bottle of the coolant.
9 steps to clean car radiator
In this article, we will discuss how to clean a car radiator with minimum tools at your home.
1. Ensure safety
Before starting, make sure that the car temperature is not too hot to handle. Do not open the radiator cap while the engine is started or its temperature is not normalized.
2. Get the required tools
You will need some basic tools to clean your radiator including a Hose clamp piler or plass tools with long arms, safety gloves, a water pipe, a container for water flush, a funnel, and branded coolant.
3. Pull up the car on the jack
You can pull up your car on the jack for your ease and place a container under the radiator drain. Before starting you can also check for any leakages by lying under the car to see if there are any water or coolant drops.
4. Locate and remove the radiator cap
Open the bonnet of your car and place the bonnet stick to keep it open. Now you need to locate the cap of the radiator which is normally at the front of the car. Open that radiator cap by rotating it anti-clockwise.
5. Drain the old coolant or water
After releasing the radiator cap you need to locate the drain plug and loosen it. Make sure you are using safety gloves and have already placed a container for water to drain. Most of the cars do have drain plugs at the bottom, but if your car doesn’t have then do not worry just remove the hose clamp from the bottom pipe using the hose clamp piler and remove the pipe from the radiator. The water will be released and will be collected in the container.
5. Radiator flush
Once the radiator pipes are empty, now you can tighten up the drain plug, add some clean water using a funnel, and start the car engine for 4-5 minutes. After that, you can again remove the drain plug and drain all the water from the radiator pipes.
6. Repeat flush
You can repeat step 5 several times until the color of the water becomes transparent and looks clear.
7. Clean the coolant reservoir
Now locate the coolant reservoir which is normally a plastic bottle located near the radiator top cap and is connected with a pipe. After removing the bottle, clean it with the help of brush and flush it with water several times until the water gets clear. Now again place it in its older position and connect it with the radiator using the pipe.
7. Add coolant
Once the radiator and its pipe get clean you can tighten the drain plug or if your car doesn’t have it then connect the bottom pipe with the radiator bottom as it was initially and tight up the clamp. Now check all the pipes if they are at their exact position and then you can safely add the coolant to the radiator using a funnel. Depending upon your driving conditions, weather, and your car’s age you can choose the right coolant for your car. We will recommend you use branded coolant instead of tap water as it will save your car engine from rust, overheating, and freezing of the fluid in the radiator’s pipe. Also, add the coolant to the reservoir bottle up to the “F” mark. The color of the coolant can vary and it can be red, yellow, green, yellow, or any other color depending on the brand and coolant type.
8. Test the radiator
Once the coolant is added, just tighten up the radiator cap and start the engine. Keep the engine starting for 15-20 minutes or until the automatic cooling fan starts. Now check under the car for any leakages.
9. Topup coolant
After testing the radiator switch off the car and allow it to cool. you can now pull down the car from the jack. Once the car engine is cooled down now open the radiator cap again and add the coolant, the reason for this is once you add a new coolant it takes some time to settle the coolant in every required area of the pipe and radiator which is done once the engine gets heated.
Conclusion
Cleaning your car’s radiator can increase the life of the radiator as well as increase the health of your car engine. Using branded coolant can increase the interval to clean the radiator and also save your engine from overheating, rusting, and freezing in cold temperatures.