Well, your antifreeze kept your engine block from freezing and cracking last winter. How should you reward it? How about giving it a physical examination and, if it isn’t up to snuff as a coolant, having it replaced. That might not seem entirely appreciative but it’s probably the smart move.

The liquid in your radiator is supposed swing with power from both sides of the plate – in winter and in summer. Where baseball players take the winter off, however, antifreeze/coolant comes to bat year round.

Without that opportunity to recuperate, it can wear down and go into a permanent slump. In other words, you may have no choice but to put your current antifreeze/coolant out to pasture and bring in a fresh player from the bench.

There are inexpensive hydrometers in local auto parts stores that even a rookie can use to determine the ability of a car’s coolant to take on the summer ahead. Will it be a hot summer? Time will tell.

For those who enjoy a little pointless risk in life, waiting to see how their coolant reacts to a day of driving in 98-degree heat is one option. If the coolant fails the test and the car overheats, hopefully, they won’t have any permanent engine damage or find themselves on the side of the road late at night in a tough neighborhood. But, that’s what taking risks is all about, right?

For the rest of us, an ounce of prevention is a worthy idea. Replacing the antifreeze/coolant with a fresh player is far less expensive than the cost of a tow and replacing a radiator, hoses or an engine.

While the sandlot version of an auto-repair technician can replace the coolant in their own car it’s hardly worth the effort. First of all, they can’t replace last winter’s antifreeze with a fresh batch of coolant, but they’ll have to dispose of the old stuff properly.

When bringing a car into a certified auto-repair shop, such as Performance Unlimited in Ringwood, not only will they properly dispose of the old antifreeze, they’ll also make sure your cooling system is working properly for the summer ahead; they’ll inspect the hoses, radiator, radiator cap and thermostat. Any of these parts can also fail on a particularly hot day.

Some people like surprises and some people don’t. Few, however, like surprises when the surprise is their car breaking down on a hot summer day.

For more information about Performance Unlimited, call 815-728-0343 or visit: http://www.4performanceunlimited.com.