When your hood begins to smoke and every warning light in your car comes on at the same time it can be one of the scariest experiences you can have as a driver. But it is not the end of the world. Cars overheat. It happens. In fact, it happens so much that designers generally design cars with overheating in mind.
These designs allow both you and your car to survive an overheat. So, the car is designed to survive. That means you have to design yourself to survive along with it. To that end, Harris Garage in Hayes VA would like to provide you with a three step guide on exactly what to do when your car overheats.
Step 1: Turn on the Heater (Really)
This is definitely nobody’s favorite step, especially during the summer when an overheat is the most likely. But it can save your engine from catching fire if done promptly.
What you have to remember is that your car derives the heat in its heater from the engine itself. That means that by blowing heat onto you, the engine is losing some heat. So, the moment your warning lights come on, or if you see smoke coming from your hood, crank that heat up.
Step 2: Pull Over and Turn off Your Engine
This might be the hardest step in this process, as you might be overheating in the middle of traffic. But if you cannot find somewhere to pull over, the principle remains the same: Find somewhere to stop, turn on your hazard lights, and turn off your car.
One of the overheating “design features” mentioned earlier is that engines are designed to not really be flammable. They can catch fire, and when they are overheating, they will. But that fire will burn itself out rather quickly once the heat of the engine goes away. Turning on the heat and turning off the engine helps this.
Step 3: Add Coolant if You Have it, Call a Tow Service if You Don’t
If you have extra coolant, add it to your coolant system before you start your engine back up. Give your engine about twenty minutes of rest before you start it up again, even with this new coolant. During that time, you should be figuring out the nearest auto shop to take your car to. The closer the better.
If you do not have coolant, then do not start your car, and do not try driving anywhere. Call a tow service and get your car towed. You do not want to be rolling into the shop with a flaming engine. That is not just bad for your engine, that is dangerous for the mechanics that work at the shop.
The name of the game when dealing with an overheating engine is safety. You want to get your car to an auto shop, and you want to get it there with both it and yourself intact. This means you should not rush things. If your car is off and is not currently burning, then you just need to take your time.
Stay safe out there, and try not to panic if this happens to you. Just remember that there are people who are trained to deal with this, and you are trying to get to them as soon as you can.