Why Is Your Vehicle Overheating?

Your car or truck walk a delicate line between producing the power necessary to do what you want it to do and remaining cool enough to function. If you’re experiencing overheating issues, MDP Diesel & Auto has these suggestions as to what might be causing the problem. 

The one problem you don’t want to have is an issue with your vehicle’s head gasket. This piece seals the space between the cylinder head and the engine block. Fluids that don’t need to be in the wrong area stay on their side because of this gasket. They fail occasionally, and that leads to almost instant overheating. If the temperature gauge suddenly pegs in the red area, you might be looking at a head gasket failure.

The thermostat in your vehicle’s engine has one very simple job. It opens when the temperature rises to a certain point and then it closes again when the temperature falls. This allows coolant to flow as needed in order to cool the engine properly. When the thermostat fails, as they sometimes do, it’s no longer doing it’s job and your vehicle is likely to start overheating rapidly.

Coolant does need to be topped up periodically. This is a liquid that travels through extremely hot areas and does evaporate a bit. Eventually old coolant burns up, which is another reason that flushing and refilling coolant periodically is an important service. Thankfully, coolant levels are usually easy to check because the reservoir is usually easy to spot and has a little bit of visibility to the contents. If the reservoir is empty, you need to top up.

The entire cooling system for your vehicle’s engine consists of a variety of hoses and components. The water pump, the radiator, and the heater core can all spring leaks, losing essential coolant from the system. Beyond that, hoses can get brittle and spring leaks, too. If any of these same areas develop a blockage, that’s just as bad, if not worse.

If you’re running into trouble with your vehicle overheating, let us help you troubleshoot the problem. Give us a call at MDP Diesel & Auto in Jackson, MI and we can set up an appointment to run some diagnostic testing. Once we know what’s wrong, we can give you a plan for getting back on the road without overheating.

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