The coolant/antifreeze that flows through the veins and arteries of your car’s engine and radiator are essential to the vitality, endurance and efficient operation of your car. As a coolant, it carries away heat caused by friction between moving engine parts. As antifreeze, it avoids the risk of freezing so it can’t flow when you start the car.

It’s amazing that something as vital as coolant/antifreeze depends on something so simple as rubber hoses to transfer the coolant/antifreeze from engine block to radiator, as well as the heater core.

If, in its coolant function, it was not able to literally take the heat, your coolant/antifreeze would let your car down. At the minimum, your car will overheat. Far worse is the possibility that you could do serious damage to your engine. If, in its antifreeze role, it froze at low temperatures, your coolant/antifreeze would also let your car down.

What if you don’t have enough coolant/antifreeze in your car? Coolant that isn’t there can’t carry heat away. Once again, overheating, or worse, are likely outcomes. Even if you have enough coolant/antifreeze but a hose springs a leak, you won’t have enough coolant/antifreeze for long.

So, those simple rubber hoses play an essential role in the operation of your car. In the summer and winter, they keep your car from overheating. In the winter, when the car isn’t running, the keep the coolant from freezing.

The symbiotic relationship of coolant, that is also an antifreeze, means that one liquid can operate effectively on both ends of the spectrum. But, it can’t do any of that if the rubber hoses don’t maintain their sealed integrity.

The problem is that, if you don’t check your hoses, you’ll never know they’re about to lose that integrity until they do. You’ll find out you had a bad hose at the worst time – when you’re driving somewhere and, possibly, when it’s dangerously cold outside. The key is simple – inspect your hoses, or have them checked.