If your car is
over-heating then today's your lucky day because I'm
going to show you how to fix a car that
overheats.
Many
things can cause a car to overheat, so start with the basics;
Check the
radiator fluid:
When it's
cold, take the radiator cap, and look inside. If it’s bone dry, the next thing
to do is to pressure test the system to check for leaks. There is a pressure
leak testing kit you can use. And don't worry if you want to do it yourself,
you can also buy these kits used for $30. And some of the new ones only cost
about $70. Just hook it up to the radiator, and then pump up the pressure. In
case you can see it's leaking right out of the radiator, the radiator is just
full of holes. Now, this case is pretty easy. There was a hole in the radiator.
But sometimes, it is more complex; you watch the pressure on the gauge and see
if it starts to move down. Pump it up to 16 lbs. pressure or so, and watch the
gauge. If it starts dropping like this, you know there's a leak and you have to
find where the squirt is coming from. But let's say you pressure tested it and
there weren't any leaks at all. What do you do next?
Well
realize that the radiator caps are supposed to hold pressure in, so if they're
worn and rusty, you might just need a new radiator cap.
There are
machines that test radiator caps, but they're so cheap, just go buy another one
and stick it on.
Now if
that doesn't fix it, the next thing to check is the cooling fans. So start the
car up and then turn the AC onto full blast, then check the cooling fans to see
if they're working back there. If the fans aren't working, there won't be
enough air sucked through the radiator and it will overheat. And when they don't
work, check the fan motors, they often burn up. To check to see if the motor is
out, just get a little jumper wire and stick one end on the positive cable of
the battery and the other end on the red cable that feeds the motor.
If the
fan doesn't start spinning, you'll know the motor is burned out. But let's say
the fans are working fine. Well, then you might have a bad thermostat.
These
thermostats close so the engine warms up. When it gets hot they're supposed to
open up, and sometimes they stick. Most thermostats are pretty easy to get to. On
a Toyota you just follow the bottom radiator hose, and there's the thermostat
housing in the back. It just has a bolt on the top and a bolt on the bottom. You
pull it out and replace the thermostat. And then you better hope a new
thermostat fixes your overheating problem, because if it doesn't, then you have
one of two rather expensive problems.
Either
the radiator itself is just so old it can't dissipate heat anymore, or the head
gasket on the engine is starting to blow. Now these modern radiators are made
of plastic and aluminum, so they often corrode inside, and don't dissipate heat
anymore. They don't leak and they look perfectly fine, but they just can't get
rid of the heat.
And as
expensive as some radiators may be, you better hope the radiator fixes it because
the only other thing can be a bad head gasket.
In that
case, you have to tear the engine apart, and that can cost well over $1,000 on
most modern cars. So before you turn the engine down, it's a good idea to do a
combustion leak test on it to make sure the head gasket is leaking. It's a
simple test where blue liquid is put into a tube and then the engine is run to
see if the blue turns yellow. If it does, you've got a head gasket leak.
So the
next time your car starts overheating, don't get mad. Get under the hood and
fix it.
And
remember, if you've got any car questions, just visit our website