Radiator Trouble 101: What to do when your Car Overheats

With the Arizona heat tightening its grip on summer travelers, you might have noticed more cars sitting forlornly on the side of the road than normal. As you might have guessed, this is frequently the result of unrelenting heat, which can wreak havoc on your car’s innards. So, what to do when your car overheats? Where to turn to? The service department at Avondale Nissan has your answers right here.

First of all, from the earliest signs of your gauges going in the wrong direction, it’s important to immediately shut your air conditioning off and roll down the windows. This lessens the burden on the engine, helping to allow it to cool by itself. If this doesn’t produce the necessary changes, turn on the heater, which draws hot air from the engine compartment — as it heats the people riding in the interior cabin, of course. In terms of what you can do as you’re physically driving, these are the first lines of defense.
If they don’t provide the needed respite from engine overheating, you may want to watch how you’re braking. If you are in stop-and-go traffic, do your best not to ride on the brakes, since this puts a huge burden on your engine as well. Particularly during tight traffic, do your best to avoid stop/go driving too, instead idling with the flow of traffic. And, when heading downhill on a steep grade, try not to ride the brakes in the process, and take breaks to give your motor and brakes a rest if needed.
When you’re stopped in traffic, come to think of it, there’s another thing you can do as well. You can quickly switch your car into neutral or park, and rev up your engine a few times. This allows the radiator to pull liquid and air through/over it, since revving the engine makes the fan and water pump speed up.
If none of these help at all with your engine heat problems, then perhaps you might have another radiator issue altogether, such as leaky hoses, low fluid levels or a misbehaving thermostat. For any and all radiator issues, we encourage you to visit our service department at Avondale Nissan!

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