What Are the Differences Between Antifreeze and Coolant?

While the names may sound similar, antifreeze and coolant aren’t the same thing, although they have the same overall goal: to protect your vehicle’s engine.  

Coolant has two functions. It prevents freezing and raises the boiling point of liquid in your coolant system/engine. This helps prevent your engine from overheating by moving heat away from the engine to the radiator, where it can dissipate. 

Antifreeze prevents freezing in cold temperatures. It lowers water's natural freezing point, so the liquid in your vehicle’s engine stays unfrozen in the winter. Frozen liquid expands and risks cracking parts of your engine and radiator. 

Coolant and antifreeze are important parts of how your vehicle functions. Understanding each aspect of how your car’s engine works makes you a more knowledgeable driver and can help extend the life of your vehicle. The owner’s manual for your vehicle will let you know what type/brand of coolant and antifreeze to use in your car. 

There is also an important safety consideration when interacting with antifreeze. Antifreeze must be handled with care and disposed of properly to keep yourself and the animals in your environment safe. 

Checking your vehicle’s coolant and antifreeze levels is essential to ensuring that your car has enough to function properly. Too little of either can risk damage to the engine when the temperature gets too hot, causing the engine to overheat, or too cold, causing the liquid inside the engine to freeze. 

Routine maintenance for your vehicle will include checks for your vehicle’s coolant and antifreeze levels, as well as other services, such as a coolant flush, to ensure that your car has the levels it needs to function properly. A technician can also inspect both the coolant and antifreeze systems to check that everything is in good condition and there is no unexpected damage. If there is, and it’s caught early, this can prevent long-term and expensive damage to your engine.