Safety Tips for Changing Car Thermostat

Video Transcript

"NATHAN MCCULLOUGH: Hi, my name is Nate McCullough on behalf of Expert Village. In these clips, we're going to talk about the proper way to remove and replace your vehicle's thermostat. In this clip, we're going to talk about one safety item involved in your thermostat replacement job. Your coolant system runs under pressure. The pressure is held by the vehicle's radiator cap. This particular engine operates at 16 psi. For one pound of pressure kept on the system, it raises the boiling temperature of your coolant 3 degrees. So, 16 times 3 comes out to a pretty significant number. If your engine was high, if you just park it and you remove the cap, what you're going to get is an extremely rapid boiling of the coolant. It's going to spray over the place and scald you pretty badly. Anytime you're going to open the coolant system, it's a good idea to let the vehicle sit with the hood up for at least an hour if it's been ran long enough that it has good heat. There are ways around it, however, I'm not going to get into those with you just for the safety facts alone. It's good to work on the engine while it's cool."