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It's dangerous to drive a car that's prone to overheating. Let's figure out the problem.
Some engines have an oil cooler, a separate small radiator to cool the engine oil. Cars with an automatic transmission often have extra connections to the radiator, allowing the transmission fluid to transfer its heat to the coolant in the radiator. These may be either oil-air radiators, as for a smaller version of the main radiator.
High performance engines frequently have additional oil, beyond the amount needed for lubrication, sprayed upwards onto the bottom of the piston just for extra cooling. Air-cooled motorcycles often rely heavily on oil-cooling in addition to air-cooling of the cylinder barrels. Liquid-cooled engines usually have a circulation pump.
Antifreeze was developed to overcome the shortcomings of water as a heat transfer fluid. On the other hand, if the engine coolant gets too hot, it might boil while inside the engine, causing voids (pockets of steam), leading to localized hot spots and the catastrophic failure of the engine. If plain water were to be used as an engine coolant in ...
The former may be the presence of foam (caused by hydrocarbons) in the coolant expansion tank. Coolant leaking into the oil system may result in a mayonnaise- or milkshake-like substance in the oil, often to be seen on the dipstick, or oil filler cap. However, the presence of this substance is not conclusive proof of head gasket failure, since ...
Hot coolant passing through the heater core gives off heat before returning to the engine cooling circuit. The squirrel cage fan of the vehicle's ventilation system forces air through the heater core to transfer heat from the coolant to the cabin air, which is directed into the vehicle through vents at various points.
Once the optimum operating temperature is reached, the thermostat progressively increases or decreases its opening in response to temperature changes, dynamically balancing the coolant recirculation flow and coolant flow to the radiator to maintain the engine temperature in the optimum range as engine heat output, vehicle speed, and outside ...
Some older vehicles had a single indicator labeled "trouble" or "engine"; this was not an MIL, but an "idiot light" meant to indicate serious trouble with the engine (low oil pressure, overheating, or charging system problems) and an imminent breakdown. This usage of the "engine" light was discontinued in the mid-1980s, to prevent confusion ...