OVERHEATING, as most drivers in this part of the know is a psychologically disturbing and financially intrusive occurrence.

These are some of the likely scenarios through which overheating shows it ugly face.

Let’s try and quickly run through some of the factors which mainly trigger overheating and the common sense, nay scientific, way to fix them.

Blocked radiator or condenser or radiator grille and/or bumper: Any of these could be blocked and could be visually examined by a technically savvy or indeed, non-technical person.

Mixture of coolant fluid is a mistake that’s commonly made, mixing coolants causes serious overheating problems. The best coolant remains water! So if anybody wants to put any chemical-based products out there into his radiator, he should make sure that he, at no time, mistakenly mix the pinkish-coloured coolant with greenish-coloured one. These two substances don’t mix and they cause instant corrosion in the vehicle’s cooling system and engine immediately they’re erroneously mixed.

Overheating is also initiated when , in sheer ignorance, a motorist overfills the radiator water reservoir, usually a plastic water container near and connected by a small hose-link to the main radiator, above the line with the MAX sign. If you notice overheating and you see this mistake, find a way of quickly reducing the water to the MAX level.

One overlooked common cause of overheating is the defective radiator cap. It may, to an uninitiated pair of eyes, be looking good but the rubber inside the cap may likely not be holding the pressure for which it was originally designed; therefore, water will gradually leak out of the radiator without discernible traces to the untutored eyes. This can best be ascertained by using a coolant pressure tester.

The most easily identified cause of overheating is the situation of classic coolant leak; when water is seen leaking from the radiator or any other component of the cooling system.

The much maligned thermostat(which many roadside mechanic have wrongly pontificated not to be relevant in a car for this clime) can best be tested if it’s working well by touching the two arterial hoses taking water to and from the radiator, if it’s bad, the hoses will be very hot.

Blocked exhaust and badly working transmission can also cause overheating.

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