Engine Overheating? Here’s Why

May 25, 2018

If you’ve ever had your engine overheat, you know it’s a scary thing. Your temperature gauge veers into the red, smoke comes out of your hood, your car stops, and you’ve got a literal hot mess on your hands. Here’s how to fix some of the common causes of your engine overheating.

Your thermostat might be broken. The thermostat both tracks the temperature of your engine and regulates it by restricting coolant from going through the engine block of your car before it’s heated up sufficiently. If the thermostat is broken, it won’t open up and therefore coolant won’t be able to reach your engine, causing it to overheat.
The coolant hosing is degraded. After driving your car a lot, the hoses that carry the coolant, which are usually made out of not-so-high-quality plastic, can get corroded or caked with grime, which can lead to the coolant not making it through the hosing efficiently, or at all.
You’re out of oil. If your car is out of oil, you’ve got a problem. Oil lubricates and even helps cool your engine, so if you’re out of oil your engine could also possibly weld itself together, which can lead to it seizing. You really don’t want this, so make sure that your oil level is good. You should be checking your oil at least once a month anyway – so if you aren’t doing that… start doing it!
Air in your cooling system. Sometimes air can get into your cooling system, even though it’s a closed system. If you get enough air in the system, it can block the flow of coolant and cause your car to overheat. The simple fix for this is to test your coolant and, yes, you might have to flush it. If you’re looking at your coolant, make sure your engine is cold – as in, you haven’t run your car for a couple hours beforehand.

If your engine does overheat, you’ll want to stop driving it as soon as possible and take it to a shop or your dealer. They will be able to tell you exactly what’s going on in your engine and help you get it fixed as soon as possible. If you’re ever unsure about what you should be doing with your engine, don’t try to wing it! Your dealer will be the best source of information about how to care for your vehicle’s engine.