What to Do if Your Car Overheats

If you do a lot of driving in the summer months, as many people do, you may run the risk of having your vehicle overheat on a hot highway. As temperatures soar into the 90s and beyond, it can be hard to keep your vehicle cool if you are facing a long drive – and that’s especially true if you are covering hilly terrain. So, it’s important to have a game plan for how you will respond if your vehicle does overheat, and we’ll discuss that topic in the content below.

Are you in the market for a new or used vehicle to explore the area with this summer? Or maybe your current vehicle is in need of some basic repair and maintenance work? Whatever the case, Taylor & Sons Chevrolet is here to serve you. Give us a call or stop by today to learn more.

Watch for the Warning Signs

Before you find yourself dealing with an overheated car, it’s a good idea to keep track of warning signs as you travel that the temperature in your engine might be getting too high. Fortunately, you don’t have to be an expert on this topic to watch for things that point to an overheating vehicle.

First and foremost, pay attention to the temperature gauge on your dash. The location of this gauge will vary depending on the make and model of the vehicle, but it’s always in a spot that is easy to see. It’s normal for the temperature gauge to hang somewhere around the middle of the range as you travel, but you should start to pay attention if it jumps up near the high reading. Make it a habit to check this gauge periodically as you drive to watch for signs of elevated temperatures.

Another sign of overheating is some steam escaping from under the hood of the vehicle, or unusual odors making their way into the cabin. If possible, pull the car over to a safe location if you suspect that it is starting to overheat. This is the kind of problem that it is better to get ahead of and be proactive rather than waiting until it potentially gets worse.

Playing the Waiting Game

If you have decided to pull over because the engine of your vehicle was getting too hot, the best thing you can do is simply to wait. You might be frustrated while not making any progress on your trip but do your best to set that to the side and just let some time pass. With the engine off, it will gradually start to cool. It will be tempting to open the hood to let the engine cool off faster, but that is a move that could put you in danger. Given the extreme temperatures in place under the hood, you’ll want to do nothing and just let the heat dissipate naturally.

Take a Look

Once the engine has cooled down to a more manageable temperature, you can carefully open the hood and see what is going on. Often, an overheating engine is a symptom of a coolant leak, so you might find that you are running low on coolant at this point. Opening the radiator and adding coolant could make the rest of your journey much easier to manage. If you have coolant on board and ready to use, this is a pretty easy job to complete by yourself.

Before you do anything, however, remember that the engine is still very hot! Yes, it has cooled down some from its hottest state, but it is still way too hot to touch with your bare hands. The radiator cap can easily burn your hand, so use something like a thick glove or a folded towel to protect yourself when opening it. Also, don’t look down into the reservoir while opening, as there could still be steam waiting to escape. Fill the radiator to the full line, and also top off the overflow tank nearby.

Proceed Carefully

If you are able to add coolant and your vehicle seems like it is ready to move on, get started slowly and watch how things go. Hopefully, the temperature will now stay down in an appropriate range, and you can make it the rest of the way. However, if the temperature does jump right back up, you’ll want to stop again and possibly call for help. At some point, it will be necessary to get to the bottom of what is going on so the cooling system can be corrected, and you can stay away from this problem in the future.

An Unusual Tip

We need to offer up one other piece of advice – as surprising as it may be – for when you find yourself facing an overheating vehicle. As soon as you notice that the engine is starting to overheat, turn the heater inside the cab all the way up to its highest setting. While it might seem like the last thing you would want in this situation is more heat, you’ll be heating up the cab, and that just might help to keep the heat from rising too high in the engine bay.

The idea here is basically to pull the heat from the engine area into the vehicle. This will obviously create quite the uncomfortable situation inside the cab, but you might have to deal with that discomfort and a bit of sweat for a while until you can resolve this situation. Also, don’t turn back to the air conditioner for relief, as this will only serve to move the engine temperature higher.

With proper planning and preparation, you may be able to avoid entirely the issue of your vehicle overheating. If it does happen, however, we hope this article will help you respond appropriately and get back on the road as soon as it is safe to do so. Thank you for stopping by and we hope to see you at Taylor & Sons Chevrolet soon!

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