Flush the engine coolant

I once had a customer boast that he never had to change a water pump.  I knew his secret, but asked him anyway.  He had his engine coolant flushed at the expected lifespan of the antifreeze lubricants.

The antifreeze in your engine can last a very long time and keep your engine from overheating and from freezing.  However, the additives in the antifreeze that keep the water pump inside seal, lubricated and soft, so that antifreeze does not get by the seal and leak into the water pump bearing, break down over time.

Therefore, flush your engine cooling system at the recommended intervals to keep the water pump seal conditioned.  For regular green antifreeze, that would be every two years.  For the orange antifreeze it would be every five years.

Yes, it costs more to flush the engine cooling system than it does to have the antifreeze replaced with a coolant replacement machine.  But it is much healthier for your engine and your water pump seal, to have it flushed.  In the next post I will explain flushing vs. replacing, in more detail, and why flushing is better.