The heater performs the function of a kind of stove, supplying warm air to the interior of the car. And if in the warm season it is practically not used, then in winter you can not do without it. The operation of the stove provides not only the comfort of the driver and passengers, but also blowing the windshield, which is so important in frosty weather. Its failure can be a rather unpleasant surprise, especially in winter.
If you notice that your car’s heater does not provide enough heat for the air supply, the stove radiator may be clogged.
How to rinse its channels, and how to do it at home, we will talk in this article. We will also consider the most popular folk cleaning products used for this purpose by our motorists.
How to determine radiator obstruction
Before washing the radiator of the stove, make sure that it is the cause of insufficient heating of the air supplied to the passenger compartment, and that other elements of the cooling system, such as a thermostat and a liquid pump (pump), are operating normally. To get started, warm the car engine to operating temperature. Raise the hood and locate the pipe from the thermostat to the radiator. If it is hot, then the thermostat is working properly. You can determine the performance of the pump by opening the expansion tank and starting the engine. If the coolant from the hose coming from the cooling radiator enters it, then the pump is working.
After making sure that the cooling system is working, with the engine running, open the heater valve so that the coolant can pass through it. After that, raise the hood and find the inlet and outlet pipes of the stove radiator. They should both be hot. This indicates that the coolant circulates freely in the system. If the outlet pipe is a little warm or cold, the radiator is clogged.
Why the radiator is clogging
The cause of clogging of the heater may be:
- a long period of operation, as a result of which the radiator channels are clogged with oxidation products and dirt;
- the use of low-quality coolants, which may contain substances that accelerate the oxidation of metals;
- the use of water with a high salt content as coolant;
- ingress into the cooling system of working chemically active liquids (fuel, oil) or dirt.
What is the essence of flushing the radiator
The radiator cleaning process consists in flushing the maximum amount of dirt and oxidation products out of it with a stream of water or a special liquid. But before that, it is advisable to dissolve the scale, pouring a liquid cleaner inside.
Flushing methods
You can clean the heater in two ways: by removing it from the car and without removing it. Each of the methods has its advantages and disadvantages. In the first case, the radiator is dismantled along with the tap. This makes it possible to assess the condition of these components of the cooling system, as well as get rid of dust and dirt on the heater lamellas. However, this method is not suitable for everyone, since before washing the radiator of the stove, it will have to be removed for a long time and tedious, and then also installed. Some cars even have to disassemble the dashboard to get to the heater. If there is no particular desire to do this, it can be cleaned without dismantling. With proper cleaning, its effectiveness will be the same in both cases.
Popular means for washing the radiator
If you have decided on the method, it remains only to choose how to wash the radiator of the stove at home. To begin with, you can purchase special fluids for cleaning the cooling system in car dealerships. They cope quite effectively with their task, but than washing the radiator of the stove with incomprehensible chemistry, and even for a lot of money, it’s better to use proven folk remedies, which can be found even in your kitchen. These include:
- milk serum;
- citric acid solution;
- special powders and liquids for cleaning sewer pipes (“Mole”, “Silit”, “Comet”, etc.);
- popular drinks such as Coca-Cola or Fanta;
- caustic soda solution (caustic soda).
Choosing the Right Cleaner
Given that the heaters are made of copper and aluminum, you need to know exactly how you can wash the radiator of the stove from these means, and what can not. The fact is that aluminum very quickly reacts with alkali and instantly oxidizes, so it is better not to use alkaline products to clean products from it.
But then how to rinse the aluminum radiator of the stove so as not to harm? Only acid solutions or whey. The latter, by the way, is the least aggressive, although it requires more time to dissolve scale. But in our case, it is better to spend a little more time and be sure that the heater will still serve us than to rinse the radiator of the car stove quickly, using means that can lead to its failure. For copper, on the contrary, alkali containing agents are more suitable.
Radiator flushing with removal
Having decided how to rinse the radiator of the car stove, we proceed to the process itself. Regardless of the method chosen, the first step is to drain all the coolant from the system. After that, dismantle the radiator along with the tap. We check the operation of the tap and clean the heater from the outside, removing dirt and dust from its lamellas. Before flushing, it is better to disconnect the tap.
Next, we wash the radiator with a stream of water, directing it into one of the nozzles. When the dirt stops coming out, we tightly close any heater pipe, and in the second we pour the previously prepared solution. And it is better if it is hot. Leave the radiator to bite for about an hour.
After the specified time has passed, drain the cleaning agent from the heater and rinse it again with running water. For a greater effect, you can use a hose by putting one end on the radiator pipe and connecting the other to the water supply. We rinse until the dirt stops coming out of the heater. How efficient the cleaning has been can be determined by blowing into the connected hose. If air passes through the radiator channels freely, then we worked for good reason. It remains only to screw the tap and install the heater in place.
How to rinse the radiator of the stove without dismantling it
The principle of flushing the radiator without dismantling is similar. After draining the coolant, disconnect the hoses from the heater pipes. Here we additionally need two hoses of suitable length and diameter. They need to be connected to the radiator pipes. The heater tap must be in the open position.
Rinse, of course, is better with running water. To do this, you can use a water pipe, or some device like a liquid pump. But if you don’t have anything like that, flushing is carried out as follows. We lower one of the hoses connected to the radiator and substitute some container under its end. We insert a regular watering can into the second hose, and begin to pour clean water into it. We spill until the water is clear.
After this, we shut off the outlet pipe (hose), and pour the prepared cleaning solution into the radiator. After waiting an hour, drain the liquid and rinse with water again until it is clean at the outlet.
At the end of the procedure, we connect the system hoses to the heater and fill in the coolant.
Global cleaning
There is another way that will help clean the entire cooling system, along with a radiator. For its implementation, it is necessary to drain the coolant, and instead of it pour in the cleaning agent. Here, of course, neither soda nor citric acid are suitable. It is better to still use professional means or, in extreme cases, whey.
When the system is filled with cleaning agent, you need to start the engine and let it run. The only thing is to monitor the temperature of the engine to prevent it from overheating. When the engine runs for 10-20 minutes, the liquid can be drained, after which the system must be washed with clean water several times according to the same principle.
In some cases, it is better to use just such a cleaning method than rinsing the stove radiator separately. It will allow to expel dirt and scale from the entire cooling system.