Why Is My Car Engine Overheating?
If your car engine starts overheating, it could result in serious and expensive damage to the engine and your car needs to be serviced immediately. There are several reasons that your car may be overheating.
If your car is low in coolant, it may be overheating. A car engine's cooling system depends on coolant to circulate and remove heat from the engine. If there is not enough coolant to circulate, heat will build up and the engine will overheat. You should check your coolant level. You should always check the coolant with the car is cold. This can be done by looking to the right of the radiator for the overflow tank. It is white plastic but you should be able to see inside to decide if there is enough coolant. There are markings on the side that indicate the low and high levels. The engine takes a 50/50 mixture of coolant and water. You can now purchase a premixed coolant that is ready to pour, from an auto parts store. Unscrew or pop off the cap of the plastic overflow reservoir and add the mixture until it reaches the full mark. Once you put the cap back on tightly, if that was the reason your car was overheating, the problem should be solved. This is probably the most inexpensive and easiest way to to check the reasons for engine overheating.
If you refill the coolant and your car is still overheating, it may be an electric cooling fan failure. If the fan fails to come on, it can cause the engine to overheat. The cooling fan draws cooler air through your radiator when your car isn't going fast enough to bring it through the front. To test this, let your car idle long enough for the engine to heat up. Keep an eye on the temperature gauge. When it starts going into the red, look under the hood to see if your electric fan is running. If it's not, there may be two reasons – a bad electric fan or bad radiator fan switch. Sometimes the fan motor will burn out and the fan won't come on at all. You can test this by finding your radiator fan switch and disconnect the wiring. Get a jumper ire and insert it into both contacts – your fan should come on. Another way to test the fan is to turn on the air conditioning. Most cars activate the cooling fan at medium or high speeds when the air conditioning is turned on. The radiator switch is a switch that tells the cooling fan to come on when the coolant reaches a certain temperature. To test this, Disconnect the wiring harness and then run a jumper wire across the harness contacts. If the fan comes on, you will need to replace the switch.
If your car is overheating, it could be that the thermostat isn't opening. The most common symptom of a failed thermostat is overheating at highway speeds. The engine may be able to stay cool at low speeds because it's not working as hard and not creating as much heat. When you drive at highway speeds, the engine needs lots of coolant running through it. If the thermostat doesn't open, there isn't enough flow to keep things cool.
A broke fan belt could be another reason for the engine overheating. A fan belt operates the engine's cooling fan. Electric cars may not have a fan belt. If the fan belt is broken, it can be easily replaced.
A clogged radiator may be the reason your engine is overheating. If your car has more than 50,000 miles, your radiator may be getting clogged. You should flush your radiator every year.
A hot engine can do damage to itself, so even if the engine isn't overheating fully, it can still be causing damage. You should check your oil regularly to make sure there is adequate lubrication to the engine so that the engine isn't running against dry friction.