Causes of an Overheating Car

Video Transcript

"Good afternoon my name is Tom Brintzenhofe, Certified Master Mechanic out of Reading, Pennsylvania and today I'm going to talk to you a little bit about the causes of an overheating vehicle. The easiest thing I can tell you, the most common cause of a vehicle overheating is low antifreeze. If you don't routinely when you stop and get gas or before you leave in the morning, more importantly before you leave in the morning before your engine is nice and hot check your fluids, your oils, your antifreeze, that is your biggest component to keeping your car from overheating. Another cause might be your thermostat sticking or a slipping belt. Believe it or not even having brakes sticking will cause a vehicle to overheat, something as simple as a transmission problem, not being in the right gear will cause a vehicle to overheat. The main cause of vehicles overheating is basically lack of maintenance and your second main cause of vehicles overheating is the thermostat if it sticks closed it is not going to circulate that cooling right and it is definitely going to overheat on you. The third cause would be a faulty fan. If your fan is not working circulating the air it is obviously going to overheat on you but those three components I would look at first after that I would definitely look towards brakes, transmission, maybe even a problem with your engine not burning right, not firing right, just running rough will cause it to overheat too but your main cause is your coolant, your thermostat and your fan. After that check your belt and stuff but hopefully those are your main causes of having your vehicle overheating."