"Cool it! The Most Neglected System Under Your Hood"

Well, good morning friends. You're tuned into Car Connection where the coffee's strong,

the stories are real, and the wrenches never stop turning. I'm your host, Niall Motormouth

Jenkins, coming to you from the Car Connection workshop where the smell of fresh oil and

a little elbow grease is all part of a balanced breakfast. That's right. Around here, we

don't just talk cars, we live them. Whether it's a 25-year-old Jeep Wrangler getting a

second chance at life, a Nissan Road getting its brakes back on order, or a mystery leak

that's got everyone scratching in their heads. This is where we roll up our sleeves and we

get her done with a little wit, a little wisdom, and a whole lot of fun. The Car Connection

workshop isn't just about nuts, bolts, and diagnostics, it's about connection. Connection

to the community that keeps Niagara rolling. Because when you fix a car, you're not just

turning a wrench, you're restoring someone's confidence, freedom, and maybe even their

sanity. My hands up on that one. We're here every week and every weekday morning helping

you keep your ride safe, reliable, and ready for the road, whatever lies ahead. So whether

you're a weekend wrencher, a daily commuter, or someone who just wants to understand what

that strange rattle really means, welcome aboard and stick around for shop talk, expert advice,

few good laughs, and maybe a story or two from the garage floor. So welcome my friends

this morning, the morning drive, and I remember having a lot of morning drives. At one time,

the last corporate job I had for a major car manufacturer, I was 90 minutes one way. I

was the first one to arrive, and the last one to leave on the location I was sent to.

And I'll tell you, I had some nasty driving. You betcha. I'll share some of that with you

another time. But right now, let's jump right into the conversation this morning. And we're

looking forward to bringing you guests. I want to introduce you to the business owners

and people I know. And the best way for me to do that is to connect you with our car

connection business network.com website. That's the long version. But I like things short

and sweet. How many, how many of you out there made it through English class because of Cole's

notes? Thank you. I'm nothing shameful about that whatsoever. I never would have passed,

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you get to the homepage, you'll see logos for all the companies that they're like family

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for YouTube, Facebook and iHeart for our podcast. We're on all major platforms, Apple, Spotify,

Amazon music and a ton more. So we're glad to have you with us. Well, I promised in one

of my most recent podcasts, I would follow up and talk about the number one most neglected

area on any automobile period. And during that podcast, I was talking and teaching you

about super silicone solicitate. Any freeze. The cooling system is where a lot of failures

happen. And unfortunately, when the cooling system goes down, it is a major component

that protects the expensive parts, transmissions and the engine. You bet you're Bippy. Either

one of those goes down or there's catastrophic damage. In a lot of cases, depending on how

old and how much mileage is on the vehicle, here's the conversation that would be had

in my own waiting room when we had Jenkins Automotive repairs on the Hamilton Mountain

from about 1991 till 2000 late 2010 was when my body said, Hey, motor mouth, no more 18

hour days, bro. And I blew a couple of discs out in my back. I'll share that story for

another time. But that's what happened. Because people say, Well, why don't you have the shop?

I could hardly walk. In fact, I was almost in a wheelchair and thank goodness to my chiropractor

from Stony Creek area who got me back on my feet, but I had to listen. Do the maintenance.

Dr. David said to me, you're going to have to listen and do the maintenance. And that's

what I'm saying in this particular podcast. The cooling system, you need to do your maintenance.

Because when you don't, catastrophic failure happens. And when that happens, I usually

hear we don't have the money to fix that. And it's sad because, you know, I wish I could

fix everybody's car for free, but I can't. I'm not able to do that. But the purpose of

our YouTube channel at Nile Motor Mouth Jenkins is to build our viewership to the point where

we can take care of widows and orphans, single moms. And those who we find, they just need

to keep their car going a little bit longer and they've hit hard times. How many of us

have been there? So that's the purpose of our YouTube channel. You'll always learn five

things in the podcast. You'll always learn five things from our YouTube channel. And

that is what it is, where it is, how it works, how it breaks, and what could I have done

differently to avoid that expense? I'm here to help you, not hurt you, but to help save

you a few bloody knuckles and a whole lot of money. So let's sit back, get your cup

of Joe, and listen in. Thank you again for listening. It's okay to have some fun, right?

Good, because I need a hot cup of Joe myself and I got one sitting, staring right at me.

Do you mind if I have a swiggy? Maybe we can have a swiggy together. Let's do it on three,

two, one. Three, two, one. Keep your eyes on the road if you're driving though, okay?

That is so good. You know, all the years I drank cold coffee with a skin on top. My

customers were fabulous on the Hamilton Mountain, especially around this time of year. The winter

seasons upon us, and we know where we're heading. They would bring me coffees and hot chocolate

and snacks and goodies for myself and the guys in the office. It was absolutely wonderful.

Okay, let's dive in. The cooling system on any automobile, it's not complicated. It really

isn't. From checking and testing and verifying the condition of the vehicle's antifreeze,

that's step one, but that's not all of it. That is just a minuscule part of what we need

to do to make sure that your vehicle's cooling system is in top drawer condition, not the

bottom drawers. That's where the odd socks go in, underwear that just doesn't fit right.

You know what I'm saying? Yeah, someday I'll lose 400 pounds and those gotchies will fit.

Probably not. That's the bottom drawer. We want to get you in the top drawer condition

when it comes to your cooling system. In fact, I'll tell you this, go into our YouTube channel.

We've been working on this little cute 1997 Jeep TJ Wrangler Sport that was given to us

from a wrecking yard in Niagara in the lake to bring it back to life. Not restore it, just

go through it and fix all the mechanicals. When we got right down to why did this little

Jeep end up in a great big truck trailer, motor coach, highway coach, wrecking yard?

How did it get there? What happened to put it there? Well, if you go into our YouTube

channel and go all the way back to the beginning, you'll watch all the episodes showing you

everything that I fixed was all maintenance. But the number one area that was the most

neglected on that little red Jeep TJ Wrangler was the cooling system. That was the day that

death blow. And I can tell you exactly what happened. There were other problems. The brakes

were done, it needed brake lines, emergency cables weren't working, tires, suspension,

steering components, all that. That's normal wear and tear. But the cooling system is and

has to be a mindset of maintenance practices. So what happened to this little cute little

Jeep? You got to get a chance to see this thing come back together and alive. And again,

it's not a restoration. It is a rescue. We have rescued it from the crusher and the frame

and everything underneath is good. Got a hole in the floor, but that's because the windshield

was leaking. But you have to watch all the episodes on how we bring that ugly duckling.

Turn it back into a white swan, a beautiful swan. So what happened? Well, I'll tell you,

the cooling system was overheating. Definitely overheating. Why? There was an internal problem

on the engine. What was the internal problem? Head gasket. It was a serious head gasket blow.

It's just a little four cylinder engine, 2.5 power tech engine. That was created by General

Motors at the time. It was a collaboration between General Motors and AMC, American Motor

Company and Chrysler. It was all a package deal. But anyways, that's how they came up

with the 2.5 power tech. Its predecessor was the four cylinder, what they called the iron

horse. This is not the iron horse. But anyways, here's what happened. So the head gasket's

going. So Buddy, the fella that owned it, he must have been putting anti-freeze, filling

up the cooling system with something because it would have been pushing it out. The hot

exhaust gases getting into the cooling system through a blown head gasket is not a good

plan. But he pushed it. And he pushed it. And he pushed it to the point where the engine

overheated so bad. Well, first of all, the engine overheated so bad that it melted and

broke the filler, not the, yeah, the upper radiator hose gooseneck, we call it. The

plastic piece, the rubber hose goes on. When you open the hood, you see a hose going to

the top of the radiator. It was gone. Like there was just a nub left. But what happened

just before that is what is and was the little 97 Jeep TJ Wrangler Sport death blow. The

head gasket completely failed, filled two of the cylinders right up with coolant or

water, whatever they put in the cooling system. The engine did what we call liquid lock because

you technically cannot compress a liquid and it blew two pistons apart. It blew holes in

them, the top of the pistons. And you can see this video. I did a video on cooling system.

It's on our YouTube channel. You'll get to see those pistons. I saved them out of the

motor and that did it. That was the end of that TJ that 97 TJ into the boneyard it went.

And so I was in there harvesting some parts when I found it amongst all these big riggers

that are there getting in the boneyard getting picked over. I call it buzzard row. You go

in and harvest. So we were harvesting some parts for a trailer, a hauler that was being turned

into a kitchen to do outdoor events. And that's when I found it. And my friend Chris was somewhere

else in there in the wrecking yard. So it was early spring. The ground was muddy where it was

parked. And I crawled underneath to check the frame because they rot really, really bad.

And it was pretty decent like there was no the frame was solid front to back and I go on this.

Well, you know, there's a hole in the floor on the driver's side, but there's water sitting there.

That's probably what did it passenger side look good. And I'm going, yeah, we could bring this

thing back to life. So long story short, did all the mechanicals pull the fuel tank out,

got the fuel system fully functional, cleaned and serviced, brakes, brake lines,

emergency brake cables, pads and rotors and brake drums and wheel cylinders, etc, etc.

Went through the whole thing, then got the engine running and it's running on two cylinders,

really, really bad. And that's when I discovered when I pulled the cylinder head off, there's the

answer to the final blow. Engine completely destroyed. So I talked to one of my friends

who's in the machining, mean shop business in Niagara Falls. And my friend says, not only

goes, you got to find a used one, hunt around, take your time. You're looking at $67,000 and

upwards to fix that. So why did I tell you all that in the first place?

That was all that damage was caused by not maintaining the vehicle's cooling system.

It is not maintenance free. There is no maintenance free anything for your vehicle's cooling system.

Even if the sales guy sings a song, taps a great dance and tells you this antifreeze is

lifelong antifreeze that's alive from the pit of hell and smells like smoke. Not true.

If you follow the maintenance pattern of flushing your cooling system every 24 months,

you will not experience failures like head gaskets, intake manifold gaskets,

because the coolant loses its chemical balance. And when that happens, again, if you listen into

the podcast on super silicone solicitate antifreeze, I pull over and park and drill down on all the

aspects of antifreeze. I highly recommend you catch that podcast. It's titled and listen to it.

You can also follow up and actually watch a YouTube video where I'm testing antifreeze and

you actually get to see how I do that and all the different types of antifreeze I have on my

talk table and I'm testing. So that's available for you as well, which will educate you greatly

because you will hear from some service technicians and from dealerships and service

departments. Oh no, ma'am, you don't need to change your antifreeze. It's long life antifreeze.

No, it's not. Here's the problem. The antifreeze is not monitored by any kind of computer or sensor

to tell you when it's defunct, when it's no good, debris, all kinds of materials from the inside

of the engine block because it's made of iron or aluminum, things corrode inside the motor.

So what are we checking for when we're testing the antifreeze? We're checking for freeze point,

boil point, acid, corrosion level, pH balance and alkalinity. There's no one on the face of the

planet that can tell me that they can verify 100% that that coolant doesn't have any debris in it.

There's no filtration system on your cooling system. There isn't. So what happens? Well,

that's how radiators get plugged up. The little tubes inside, they get plugged up. A radiator

plugs from the bottom up. So if you open, if it has a closed system where you have a reservoir that

you check the fluid level, that's called a closed system, you can't see the tubes inside the radiator.

You can't. If you have a, what we call an open system, it has a radiator cap right on top of

the radiator. So you can take that off and actually see the coolant tubes. But here's the kicker.

You can look through there and the top tubes look really, really clean and you can go, oh,

goody, goody. It looks good. We're good to go, honey. Not true. The tubes that you need to see

are the ones at the bottom because there's rows and rows of little tubes like straws.

The coolant comes in from the left and goes out to the right. So the hot coolant comes in from the

left, returns through the bottom of the radiator back into the engine and it gets sucked up by

the water pump, right? So we got it cycling through the water pump. That's another component we need

to pay attention to. So how do you know when that radiator is plugged up? You don't really.

That's where maintenance comes in. The mileage is going to tell me that I need to make a suggestion

as a technician. I am a licensed automotive service tech for 44 years. I have my 310T and my 310S.

The T is for highway truck, diesels, motor coaches and equipment. The 310S is in SAM is for

light truck and passenger vehicles and I am current. Just so you know, I'm not a has-been tech.

I'm still very hands-on. I love what I do and I love sharing what I know with you for free.

Help you out. Because when you understand something more, then your mindset changes.

Just because the key goes in or you click the fob or whatever method your car takes to get it running,

everything is okay, right? No. There are systems that are not monitored. The cooling system is

monitored by the ECM for temperature. So it's watching the engine temperature and we'll report

back if the coolant temperature is at a range. So all engines run at 195 degrees Fahrenheit,

no matter what the wind chill is, no matter how strong the wind is against the front of your car,

the job of the thermostat, there you go, another component that is not maintenance free.

That little valve opens and closes constantly while you're driving to hold the coolant back

to get the engine and remain, get the engine to remain at 195 degrees Fahrenheit and that's the

temperature of what we call normal operating temperature. We'll talk about cooling fans in

just a few moments. So hang in there. I'm going to land this thing pretty soon. I'm trying to keep

it simple and not complicate it. So we need to know that every 24 months we test and change

the antifreeze. Don't fall into this long life, extended life. It's not true. You know, that's

what our ears want to hear. That's what our pocketbook wants to hear. But you know what,

that's why that little Jeep, the engine blew up. Because that person probably thought, oh, it's

you know, it starts and it goes, we're good. No, there's maintenance required.

If your vehicle's cooling system is not in top drawer condition and it's running too cold,

you're using more fuel. If it's running too hot, if you have an automatic transmission,

you're cooking the transmission oil. So you can have french fries on the side of the road.

Yeah. Homer Mades. That's right. Fresh cut. Right there. You're cooking your automatic

transmission all at the same time. Most automatic transmissions start at about six to 13,000 dollars

and up. Yeah. How long do you want to cook that baby? You don't. So if your vehicle's cooling

system isn't working right, A, if it's running too cool, you're burning up too much gas.

Computer says, oh, we're not at normal operating temperature.

Pour more gas in. The engine's still trying to warm up. You're spending tons of money in

lost fuel economy on that one. Number two, if it's running too hot, you're causing engine damage.

You're causing automatic transmission damage because you're overheating. You're not overheating

to where you're on the side of the road and the steam's coming out of the grill. No. But you're

getting there. You're going to get there because here's the problem. The thermostat has to keep

the cooling system at 195 degrees no matter what. The cooling fans, when you get into traffic,

they're there to save you from going into an overheat situation. If that's the problem,

is airflow. You're stuck in traffic. The engine is getting hot. The cooling fans come on.

Okay, so I told you, normal engine operating temperature, the cooling system and the engines,

195 degrees Fahrenheit. The cooling fans don't come on until 212 to 225 Fahrenheit. Keep in mind,

water boils at that temperature. Check it out next time in the kitchen with a thermometer.

Between 212 Fahrenheit and 225 Fahrenheit, water boils. So that's why boiling point is

very important when we're mixing antifreeze to go into your car. We need to make sure the boiling

point is exactly where it needs to be because if those fans don't come on between 212 Fahrenheit

and 225, guess what, ladies? You're going to be calling somebody because you're overheating

and it doesn't take long. It takes just a couple of minutes and the vehicle is in a super overheat

situation. That's when catastrophic mechanical failure happens. That's when that little red

Jeep T97 Jeep TJ Wrangler met its roadside death instantly. It went into a super heat

situation. Then the coolant went into the cylinders on the engine because the gasket

completely failed. Bam. Engine exploded. Done. Game over. So I'm going to list all the areas that

24 months need attention. Coolant, flush and fill every 24 months. Thermostat, replace it even though

it's working. They don't let you know when they're going to close and slam and overheat the engine.

They don't. The thermostat and the computer does not let you know when the thermostat is stuck

wide open. Happened to my neighbor down the road on a 2018 Jeep Wrangler JK. It was starting to

overheat. She was paying attention to the gauge. She noticed the gauge was much higher than normal,

needed a thermostat, just over 100,000 kilometers. 3.6 liter Pentastar was the engine. So avoid the

overheat situation. Do not wait until the car overheats. That's when catastrophic damage is going

to put that car in the wrecking yard. You're cooking your automatic transmission oil, which is

damaging your automatic transmission, clutches and bands and servos. There's more electronics today

in an automatic transmission than what powers up the space shuttle. And I'm not exaggerating that.

That is fact. So radiator, my recommendation, you want to keep your car long term. I've got a

vehicle in the driveway heading for 400,000 kilometers. It's on its second radiator. I change it out

every 150 to 200. In fact, this year, I will be swapping it out and putting a brand new one in.

Done. On Chrysler's, here's what a Chrysler engineer told me. You want to keep your minivan

going, your Chrysler going for a long time, every 100,000 kilometers put a brand new radiator in it.

That was from a Chrysler engineer. He said, don't even hesitate. 100,000 K, change the radiator

every single time on your Chrysler. What a great piece of information, friends. Huge. That is

absolutely huge to know that. Thermostat, get it out of there every 100 K. Done. Don't wait till

it overheats the motor or you're using additional fuel because the cooling system's running a little

bit too cool. Number three, water pump. 100,000 K, if you want to avoid being on the side of the road,

I would say push it no further than 150,000 kilometers, change out the water pump. Ford's

got some problems with one of their F-150s. I saw an email come through on Facebook.

The cost to change the water pump was like $5,200 because the water pump's inside the motor.

That's bizarre. We saw that back in the early 90s with when they were running Pontiac Grand Ams with a quad-4.

The water pump was inside the engine. It was bizarre, the most stupidest thing I've ever seen.

So when the water pump fails, fill up your oil pan with coolant. Bad idea.

So a water pump, 100 to 150 K, get it out of there. Don't wait for it to fail, get it out of there.

If your antifreeze is determined to be acid, the pH balance acid and corrosion levels off the

chart, change the water pump. Chances are the little metal impeller that creates the flow

is rotting off. I've seen that a million times. Where else we go? Belt and hoses.

They're good for four years. Get them out. Yeah, actually some articles I've read

from Gates, Canada, which is one of the companies I really enjoy getting those parts from for all

these years. They're one of my favorites. They used to put out a newsletter. It was fabulous.

Great nuggets in there. Every two years, belts and hoses, but I think you could go more.

But again, your technician needs to really check them. Really, really, really check them because

hoses rot from the inside, not the outside. If there's damage on the outside of holes because

something's touched it and rubbed on it, change it. Also, the belts. We need to check them on a

regular basis because they're serpentine drive belt. They drive everything. One belt on many

vehicles drives everything. Power steering, air conditioning and the water pump and alternator.

That belt breaks. It's about 16 feet long and it causes a ton of damage under the hood. I've seen

thousands of dollars of damage because it snaps and it's like a whip in there on their hood.

Anything plastic gets completely destroyed. These are the things we need to pay attention to

that will save us money, not cost us money in the end. I hope you enjoyed this podcast as much as

I enjoyed bringing it to you. Thank you to our program sponsors and our show sponsors that

are at carconnectionbusinessnetwork.com, Rainbow Motors, City Auto Sales and Leasing,

Tony Miele, Larry Tietro with IG Wealth Management, Certified Financial Planners, 50 years experience,

two of the best in all of Canada. We also have Niagara Block, 5000 Montrose Road, Niagara Falls,

building Niagara and building Canada since 1931. And to Crystal Ridge Dream Center, changing the

lives of children, single moms, elderly in the Niagara region, serving them with encouragement,

with love and also making sure that they feed them. There's lots of programs going on there,

so they're all available to you and more at carconnectionbusinessnetwork.com. Don't forget

to like and share and subscribe and ring the notification bell on our YouTube channel,

Niall Motormouth Jenkins, and also sign up for our iHeart podcast. Go into any platform

in the search bar, type in carconnectionworkshop. You'll also find us at Stevensville

on the web.ca, click on the businesses tab and you'll find us there. You can email me there and

find great local businesses you can connect with. Am I forgetting anything? Car Connection Merch,

get some from our website store and show it off. Send us a selfie and give us permission to use it

and we'll plug in somewhere on everything that we do. So until next time, have fun, keep it under

100, put that coffee on. We're going to come to your house.

"Cool it! The Most Neglected System Under Your Hood"

About this episode

Jeep Wrangler

Nissan Rogue

cooling system

antifreeze

normal wear and tear

head gasket

four-cylinder engine

General Motors

overheating

liquid lock

pistons

boneyard

frame rot

fuel system

brakes

emergency brake

cylinders

radiator

closed system

water pump

ECM

thermostat

normal operating temperature

automatic transmission

cooling fans

boiling point

Ford F150S

Pontiac Grand

Pontiac Grand Ams

Gates

serpentine drive belt

belts

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