The radiator is the central heat exchanger of your vehicle’s cooling system. As your engine runs, it generates immense heat that could easily melt its own internal components if left unchecked. The radiator solves this by acting as a cooling grid: hot coolant flows from the engine into the radiator’s aluminum or brass tubes, where air—forced in by the cooling fan or the car’s movement—strips the heat away before the liquid is pumped back into the engine.
In the stop-and-go traffic of the M1 or during a scorching Highveld summer, your radiator is the only thing standing between a smooth commute and a plume of steam coming from your bonnet.