The first frost of the year in McHenry was October 9. The low temperature in the area has been at or below freezing since October 24. And yet, if the weatherman is right, we can expect some unseasonably comfortable temperatures this week and through the weekend. But that doesn’t change one immutable fact: winter is coming.

If the Old Farmers Almanac is to be believed, we’ll have a winter with temperatures above normal. But the Almanac isn’t always right. And even ‘above normal temperatures’ can get darn cold in the McHenry area. It’s best to be prepared.

Preparation for a McHenry winter includes preparing the house – taking in the lawn furniture, rolling up the hoses and draining the faucets, putting away the screens and pulling down the storm windows. Preparing for winter also includes preparing your car, truck or SUV. 

Over the course of the next several weeks, this blog will be dedicated to helping you prepare your vehicle for winter. Appropriately, the first step in preparing your car, truck or SUV for winter is to consider your cooling/heating system. This is the system that conducts and controls the antifreeze-coolant that runs through your engine and out to the radiator and heating coil.

Antifreeze-coolant is a liquid specifically designed to avoid freezing while also conducting heat out of the engine so it can be dispersed through the radiator, or used to heat the interior of your car, truck or SUV when you want some warmth.

If the antifreeze-coolant is in good condition, it will work efficiently to an extremely high temperature while not freezing at extreme lows. Those extremes are generally from 34-degrees-below zero to 265-degrees-above.

The problem is that, as antifreeze-coolant ages it loses its … flexibility, shall we say. The lowest temperature before it freezes begins to rise. The highest temperature before it boils begins to fall. This means that, on a particularly frigid McHenry night, the temperature may fall below what your car, truck or SUV’s antifreeze-coolant can handle. 

At the same time, the high temperature where it remains effective in removing heat from the engine may fall. The result is dangerous for your engine on either side of the spectrum. It’s important, therefore, to have your antifreeze-coolant checked. 

While checking the fluid in the system, a check of the system should also include looking for leaks, checking the condition of all hoses and ensuring that the thermostat is operating properly (a valve that opens and closes depending on whether the temperature inside the engine calls for antifreeze-coolant from the radiator or not.