Cooling systems in your car or truck do more than just give you heat in the winter and keep your windshield clean with your interior car heater and windshield defroster. Your radiator and cooling systems keep your engine cool and extend its operating and mileage lifetimes. Yet your rad and cooling system should be handled with care and respected.

First of all never remove the cap from a radiator when the engine is hot. If your car, truck or SUV does overheat on the freeway or highway, get to the side of the road and shut off the engine. Then as hard as it may seem sit there for 20 to 30 minutes until things cool down. In this day and age of 2011 you can use your cell phone to call for help to motor league or perhaps just to chat with friends. You can open and lift the hood (or in British terms the bonnet) to help let the heat escape, but leave the radiator cap perfectly alone. This cannot be stressed and driven home enough. Since, it is automotive suicide to add cold water to a hot engine, there is no need to get that cap of until the motor cools down. Keep your cool until your car, truck or SUV regains its own.

For non-emergencies, just do what the garage attendants do routinely. First lift the lever on the safety cap to allow pressure to escape. Then turn the cap counterclockwise to remove it. It is generally a good idea to place a cloth over the cap after you have raised the lever, to keep the cap from burning or scalding your hand when it is hot.

If you don’t have a safety cap, place a cloth over the cap and turn it counterclockwise to its first stop. This will allow the pressure to escape. If you see liquid or a great deal of steam escaping, re tighten the cap and wait more for things to cool down. If not, continue to turn the cap counterclockwise to remove it.

When you remove the cap, tilt it as you remove it, so that the opening is away from you (and anyone else around). In this way, there is still enough heat and pressure to spray hot stuff around, it will land on the engine, or inside the hood where it can do no or little harm.

Of course, if the car is completely cold, there is no risk what so ever, so try to do routine peeking into your radiator in the morning time before you warm up the car or truck.

Lastly never add water to a hot engine. Adding cold water to an engine that is hot can actually crack the engine block, since the hot metal contracts sharply when the cold water hits it. If you must add water to an engine that is still warm, always do it with the engine running. This allows the cold water to join the stream of hot water that is circulating through the system rather than falling all at once into the system when the engine is started again.

Author Bio: Samuel Samuels Edmonton Used Cars Auto Sales Vancouver Canada Truck Sales Vancouver BC