What Should You Do if Your Car Overheats?

If you find that your car is suddenly overheating as you’re driving, you need to know what to do. HRS AutoCare has these tips to help you to protect your car’s engine when you see it’s overheating.

As soon as you notice that your car is overheating, you need to pull over in a safe location and turn the car’s engine off. Pop the hood at the very least, and when it’s cool enough to touch safely, raise it if you can. That helps to let the heat dissipate more quickly. If it’s not cool enough to safely lift the hood all the way, just popping it can help a little bit.

You’re going to need to let the car sit for at least ten to fifteen minutes. That’s going to give the car’s engine plenty of time to cool down and hopefully to recover a bit. If you’re in a hurry, you’re going to need to resign yourself to the fact that this is going to take time. Rushing the process is not going to help at all. 

Once you’ve waited out the time, you can take a quick peek at a couple of things to determine if it’s okay to get the car’s engine started again. First, look at the coolant reservoir under the hood. If it’s totally empty, you may have to add coolant or even water if that’s possible. Running the engine with no coolant or water at all is going to mean you overheat everything again as soon as you start the car. Don’t turn the car all the way on, but just turn the key to the accessory setting and look at the temperature gauge. If it’s in the red, you can’t start the car yet.

You may have a decision to make at this point. If the temperature has come way down in the engine, you can start the car and stay where you are for a few minutes and see if the engine keeps a steady temperature. But if it hasn’t or you don’t have water or coolant you can add to the reservoir to get somewhere safe, you may have to call roadside assistance to have your car towed. Driving with an overheating engine is going to cause engine damage, and that’s a costly repair.

Don’t take chances with your car’s engine. If you’re experiencing engine overheating, contact us right away at HRS AutoCare in Nicholasville, KY. We’ll figure out what’s wrong and get you back on the road safely again.