What to do when your car overheats especially on a hot day, and you’re stuck in traffic. Your car is idling and the temperature gauge on the dashboard is starting to creep up. It’s time to panic right? Not necessarily! Check out these tips for what to do when your car overheats:

Turn on your heater

The next step is to turn on the heat to maximum. You should aim for a temperature of 90 degrees. Do not use the AC (air conditioner) if you have one; this will actually make things worse.

The reason for this is that turning on the AC lowers your engine temperature by cooling down your engine, which means that it can’t get rid of its heat quickly enough and could cause problems with overheating.

Get out of traffic

Get out of traffic. When your car overheats, you want to get it off the road as soon as possible. Traffic is dangerous, and cars are heavy—if yours tips over while it’s still running, it could start a fire or explode. If you’re not sure how much longer you can drive safely with your engine at full throttle and no air-conditioning (you should be able to keep going for another mile or two), pull over and park the vehicle in a safe location before continuing on foot.
Find a safe place to stop if possible; otherwise, find an open area where other drivers can see that there’s something wrong with your car so they’ll be careful around it and call for help if needed
Turn off the air conditioning

If you have air conditioning in your car, turn it off. This will reduce the load on the engine, which means less gas is being burned and less heat is being generated. As an added bonus, this also helps to cool down your engine faster than if you leave it running with the AC on. Once your car has cooled off and you’re safely stopped at a rest area or service station, feel free to restart your AC!

Find a safe place to stop

Once you have found a safe place to stop, pull over as far off the road as possible. This will help minimize your risk of being hit by other vehicles. When you are ready to stop, look for a wide shoulder or parking lot. If there is no shoulder available and stopping in traffic is not an option, find a safe area where someone won’t be hit by your car if it stalls or overheats while driving on the highway (exit ramps are often used).
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