Reasons for Car Overheating

Overheating leads the engine to major defects in it, which results in expensive repair bills. It will leave you on the road side. Knowing the causes of overheating will be helpful to troubleshoot the engine by your own. Even you are not able to repair, you will know the cause of overheating. The following are the common reasons for overheating.

• Low coolant level: Most common reason for overheating of the car engine is low coolant level. To remove and circulate the heat produced by the engine, its cooling system depends on coolant. If the coolant is not enough to do the job, your engine will overheat. In the hot weather the coolant also get heat. The coolant is pushed into the reservoir, and the coolant is hot in this process, steam is produced. Over a long time due to the evaporation of the coolant, its level will decrease. You can identify this problem just by checking the coolant level.

• Bad thermostat: At highway speeds the engine needs more coolant than at low speeds. Because at low speeds car the engine does not produce the heat as much as highway speed. Your engine is overheating at highway speeds means that your thermostat failed. In the cooling system thermostat works as a plug. To keep cool it circulate antifreeze through the radiator. First check the leaks and the water pump. If both are in good condition, the problem might be in the thermostat.

• Problems in cooling fan: If your car engine has an electric cooling fan and it is not working properly, it can cause overheat. When the car is going slow, the fan draws cooler air through radiator and sent through front.
  • To test the fan, leave your engine idle for long enough to get heat. If it is heating in the traffic check the temperature gauge. When it is starting indications for danger zone, check the fan under the hood. If it is not working, there are two reasons, those are either problem with the fan or with the switch.
  • Sometimes the fan meter my burn and this cause failure of the fan. To find out this, disconnect the wiring harness of your radiator fan switch and insert the jumper wire into both contacts. The fan should come on. Some cars will activate the fan when you turn on AC. Therefore, you can test in this way also.
  • The bad radiator does not affected by the fan and this results in engine overheat. To test this, disconnect the wiring harness and run jumper wire across harness contacts. If the radiator fan comes on the problem is with switch. You need to replace it.

Leaks are one of the major problem for the engine overheating. There are many reasons to cause a leak for engine coolant systems. But these should get repaired immediately. Otherwise it will lead to major engine problems.