QUESTION: cooling system

Hi there.

My 11 years old car recently started to experience cooling system
problems. It does not overheat. The problem is, once it gets at nominal
temperature, there 'seems' to be too much pressure building up in the
system. As a result, the hoses are leaking. I have tightened the metal
clamps (holding the hoses on the other parts) as much as possible but it
is not good enough.

One amateur mechanic told me there may be too much obstruction in the
system due to limestone accumulation in the radiator and other locations.

Is this possible?

Furthermore, he told be that a quick fix for that is to put 2 spoonful
of sodium bicarbonate (aka baking soda) in the coolant tank, run the
engine for a while and then flush the system.

Does that make sense? Is it safe?

To get rid of limestone, wouldn't a product such as CLR (rust/limestone
remover) do better? Or is there a product available specifically for
this kind of cooling system maintenance?

Thanks

Christian Langis > wrote in message >...
> Hi there.
>
> My 11 years old car recently started to experience cooling system
> problems. It does not overheat. The problem is, once it gets at nominal
> temperature, there 'seems' to be too much pressure building up in the
> system. As a result, the hoses are leaking.

Replace the hoses. Could be they've hardened and thus not sealing
well.
Replace the radiator cap. That is the device that controls the amount
of pressure in the system.
Replace the coolant and add distilled water at normal maintenance
intervals.
If the car is not overheating, then mineral accumulation, if any, is
not yet a problem.