There’s a lot of confusion about coolant and antifreeze, both terms for a liquid that’s mixed with water to keep an engine from overheating. When it comes to selecting the right coolant or antifreeze for your vehicle, understanding the differences between these two liquids is crucial.
Coolant is a liquid that circulates through your engine to keep it cool. The coolant also prevents overheating and freezing in cold weather. Your car’s radiator uses the water-based liquid to create steam, which expels heat from the engine and prevents it from overheating.
If you overheat your engine, you may need to add more coolant or antifreeze to your system before driving again–but what exactly are these two terms? Are they one and the same? And how do they differ?
Coolant is a liquid that protects your engine from overheating. It does this by circulating through the engine and absorbing heat when it gets hot, then circulating to the radiator where it’s cooled down again.
When you turn on your car, coolant starts flowing through your radiator as soon as it gets hot enough to boil into vapor form. The coolant then gets sent back into other parts of your engine so that there’s always some circulating around at all times, taking away excess heat from wherever there might be too much at any given moment during operation (like when you’ve been driving for a while).
Coolant prevents corrosion and rusting in the cooling system. Coolant also contains inhibitors that prevent corrosion of aluminum engine parts, especially during long periods of storage when an engine is not used. Rusting can lead to expensive repairs and even more costly replacements if it causes leaks or a loss of coolant through rusted hoses or gaskets, which could result in overheating.
Coolant should be replaced once every two years as part of your annual tune-up (if you do them), regardless of whether you’re using antifreeze or not; this will help ensure that any corrosion has time to develop before it gets bad enough to cause problems with your car’s performance or safety systems later down the line
Coolant is a mixture of water and antifreeze, which raises the boiling point of water. This helps prevent overheating in your engine by raising its temperature at which it boils away from 212 degrees F to around 250 or 300 degrees F.
Antifreeze is made of ethylene glycol or propylene glycol. Ethylene glycol is toxic, can cause severe illness or death if swallowed, and should be handled with care. It’s not to be confused with antifreeze that contains other additives like ammonia and methanol (which we will talk about later).
While both antifreezes are made to prevent freezing, the types of chemicals used can be different. Propylene glycol is considered safer than ethylene glycol and is commonly used in newer engines.
Antifreeze made with propylene glycol is less toxic than ethylene glycol antifreeze, which means it’s less likely to cause skin irritation or eye damage if you get some on your hands or eyes while working on an engine.
Coolant is a mixture of water and antifreeze (also known as coolant). It’s the liquid that circulates through your engine to absorb heat and keep it from overheating. The main difference between coolant and antifreeze is that coolants are designed to operate under normal operation conditions, while antifreezes are designed for extreme cold temperatures and below freezing temperatures.
Although most people think of their car’s radiator when they hear the word “coolant,” there are other parts of your vehicle that also use this mixture:
Coolant prevents overheating and freezing, protects against corrosion and rusting, as well as maintains the coolant’s effectiveness over time. It also prevents any deposits from forming in your cooling system so that it functions properly for longer periods of time.
No, it won’t harm your engine. However, if you use too much coolant or antifreeze in your car, you will have to drain some out to prevent overflowing when you turn off the engine. It’s best to use a measuring cup for this purpose and follow the instructions on the bottle of fluid.
Coolant is a mixture of antifreeze and water. It’s what keeps your engine from overheating, protects against corrosion and rusting in the cooling system, raises the boiling point of water so it doesn’t boil as easily (and therefore cools better), and more. “Antifreeze” refers specifically to ethylene glycol (EG) or propylene glycol (PG). Most modern cars use EG because it’s less toxic than PG–it won’t kill you if you drink it!
There are a few important differences between these two fluids. The first is that antifreeze contains an additive called ethylene glycol, which can be toxic if swallowed and harmful to humans. Additionally, it’s important to know that coolant is often mixed with water to create a solution that has a higher boiling point than pure water and a lower freezing point than pure antifreeze.