Before we get into the why's and wherefore's of maintaining your vehicle's cooling system, let's spend some time reviewing what the system does and how it's designed. Then we can explore ways to care for and maintain it. Internal combustion engines create friction. Even with the best motor oils, which help to reduce the friction by making everything slippery so that the internal components slide past one another with a minimum amount of resistance, the engine still produces a vast amount of friction.
Friction creates heat, the enemy of engines far and wide.
It is the job of your engine's cooling system to get rid of that heat as quickly and efficiently as possible. The basic components of your car's cooling system include a radiator, fan, water pump, thermostat, a sensor or two, an overflow tank, water, coolant, and a series of belts, clamps and hoses to connect it all together and make it run. Then the whole process begins again. Before we get into each component, here's a short seminar on coolant. The fluid within your car's cooling system contains both water and coolant.