Content

• Steps
• Warnings

Imagine a situation: you are pushing in a traffic jam in front of a traffic light and suddenly you notice that steam is pouring out from under the hood. And here the overheating light came on. Or another option: you drive yourself along the road; it's pretty cool outside the window, and you turn on the stove. But what is it? Icy air is blowing from the deflectors, and for some reason the fuel consumption has increased ... These scenarios are united by one problem - a malfunction of the cooling system. The good news is that you can do without a qualified auto mechanic or special tool to diagnose the cooling system, and all the steps will take no more than an hour.

Steps

1. 1 Catch the moment when the engine starts to overheat. The reason lies in a malfunction of one of the many components of your car's cooling system.
2. 2 Look for leaks. This is your first action when a cooling problem occurs.
   • Make sure the system is filled to capacity and that the antifreeze temperature and system pressure are within acceptable limits.
   • With the hood open, locate and identify the coolant pipes. You should find the top and bottom motor pipes and two stove pipes.
   • Carefully inspect the pipes and collars. The hoses must be intact and free from cracks or breaks, and there must be no leaks around the clamps.
   • Inspect the radiator from all sides and look for leaks - that is, check if a trickle or even a trickle of antifreeze is running from somewhere from the radiator housing.
3. 3 Wait for the engine to cool slightly and open the radiator cap. Now start the engine again and warm it up to operating temperature.
   • Look through the open hole. If the thermostat is working properly, you should see antifreeze flowing inside. If the radiator is empty, it means that the thermostat is stuck in the closed position and you need to replace it.
   • If the stove does not heat up, then, perhaps, the problem lies in the clogged heater radiator, which in this case should be replaced. Find a pair of heater hoses under the hood - they are thinner than the engine hoses and are connected to the rear wall of the engine compartment. When the stove regulator is turned on to the maximum, and the engine is warmed up, then one of the thin pipes should be only slightly hotter than the other. If the temperature difference is very large, then, most likely, the heater radiator is clogged and must be replaced.
   • Contact a workshop or store with a request to check the functionality of the radiator cap. If it is faulty and does not hold pressure, then buy a new one.
4. 4 Look for other possible problems.
   • The pump may be the cause of the problem in the cooling system. Stop the engine, look deeper into the engine compartment and check the drain hole located at the bottom of the pump.
   • If you find a leak there, then it's time to change the pump.
   • In addition, the pump impeller may be damaged. In this case, the pump loses the ability to pump the required amount of antifreeze through the system and, therefore, must be replaced.
   • The radiator may be clogged. This usually happens due to the fact that the owner neglects the scheduled maintenance of his car, does not flush the cooling system, and never changes the antifreeze. In an amicable way, the coolant should be changed at least once a year. The way out is to repair or replace the radiator.
   • On a car with an electric fan, a malfunction of the cooling system can be caused, as you might guess, by a failure of the electric fan itself. Park and warm up the engine to operating temperature. Then open the hood and observe the operation of the electric fan. If it turns on and draws outside air through the radiator's honeycomb, it means that the fan is working properly; otherwise, it requires replacement. By the way, at first it makes sense to go to an electrician to check the fuse and wiring.
   • Overheating is not the only possible problem with a cooling system. In some cases, subcooling may occur. Its consequences are not so devastating, however, as a result of subcooling, fuel consumption may increase. Optimum engine operating temperature is the key to high efficiency of the fuel combustion process in the cylinders. The reason for underheating, as in the case of overheating, is most often the thermostat, only in this case it gets stuck in the open position.
   • Wait for the engine to cool completely and check the thermostat. Remove the plug from the radiator, wind up and look into the radiator through the open hole. If you see antifreeze flowing inside, it means that the thermostat is stuck in the open position. Also, this malfunction can lead to problems with the stove. Therefore, after diagnosing the thermostat, check the heater operation in accordance with the above algorithm.

Warnings

• When checking the cooling system with the engine running, be extremely careful to avoid injury from moving parts of the engine.