CAUSES AND REPERCUSSIONS OF ENGINE OVERHEATING
Engine overheating, while common, can be terribly destructive. If your customer manages to exceed the maximum operating temperature of their engine for more than a very short time, it can cause complete engine destruction. Of course, total lockup isn’t that common, but there are a number of different things that can happen when an engine’s temperature soars, commonplace among cheap engines auctioned off on the internet. What causes engine overheating and what repercussions might your customer suffer?
Damage to the Head Gasket
One of the first things that overheating can do to your customer’s car is crack the head gasket. As the engine’s temperature soars, the metal expands. The more expansion there is, the more pressure the engine puts on the head gasket. Eventually, the gasket will crack. A cracked head gasket isn’t necessarily a death knell for the engine, but it can be very problematic. It can allow antifreeze into the oil and vice versa, and can also cause very serious oil leaks.
Cracked or Warped Cylinder Head
In extreme cases of overheating, you’ll find that the damage goes deeper than just a blown head gasket. It can actually warp or even crack a cylinder head. To find out if this is the case, you’ll need to do a compression test on the engine. A pressure test on the cooling system will also help determine if there was damage to the head.
Causes of Overheating
The number one cause of engine overheating is driver negligence. The world is rife with stories of customers with leaking radiators who managed to keep things running by adding water on short trips. The “I’ll get it soon” mentality has killed more engines than anything else. That applies to everything from not replacing a radiator with a known leak to not checking the coolant level regularly, not inspecting the cooling system hoses and failing to do a coolant change when necessary.
However, there are some causes that are outside the customer’s control. For instance, thermostats that stick shut are not anything that your customer can prevent, and are both common and detrimental to engine health. Others include failed or leaking water pumps, failed cooling fans and fan motors and more.
Overheating is deadly to an engine. If your customer has brought in a car for engine overheating, be thorough in your diagnostics. Make sure to address both the repercussions of overheating (potential warped head, for instance), as well as the underlying cause of the problem.
