Summer's the Time for Antifreeze, Too

There's only one problem for you: traffic suddenly stops as if someone has stuffed a cork in a bottle and you can't even make that last 80 yards to the offramp.

Now, watching the temperature gauge begin to spike you begin to fight another, silent, yet more serious battle as the temperature heats for the red (as in "I'm going to seize unless I'm cooled down" -- Engine!!!) Sure, your car's cooling system is meant to move this heat away from the engine, but, if you're stuck, not moving and there's not a breath of air, you could be heading for trouble.

Heat, the enemy of all engines, will build up underneath the hood and can cause your antifreeze/coolant to flush backward into the overflow tank. Your car could easily suffer from hot soak where you have to cool things down in a hurry to just plain overheating.

In either case, you must be sure that if you loose any antifreeze/coolant, you replace it. It's true that in a pinch you can use water to get the temperature of your vehicle where it belongs (below the red zone or without the engine light flashing), but you have to temperize this statement by saying that as soon as you can, the water has to go and a mix of 50/50 antifreeze/coolant has to be placed back into the block.

How do you get it back into the block? That part's easy. Remember the overflow tank that was mentioned earlier? Well, that's where you replace your antifreeze/coolant so that the proper mix is between the two lines (usually a warrning line that shouts "hey, it's time to get some coolant into me!!" and a top line saying "I'm okay now!!") You must be between the lines and it must be a 50/50 mix.

This mix will give you protection to about 30 below in the winter and about 125 degrees Farenheit. It is made from ethylene glycol and water, the two important pieces in the heat problem every car faces at this of year.

And, it's a must to use this proportion because the heating/cooling system of your vehicle is actually under pressure and is made to work with these proportions and devices like the overflow tank.

Finally, if you are caught in traffic and find yourself not moving anywhere. You might try pulling over to the shoulder and waiting until the car cools down enough to drive and for the traffic to break. To speed things a bit, you might try bleeding some of the heat from the system by pulling the hot air into the cab. This may just give you enough time to either get off the roadway or to the shoulder where you can open the hood and wait for the cool down.