How do you know if your car is overheating?

Answer 1

Most cars have a water temperature gauge in the instrument cluster. It typically has a little symbol that looks like waves of water. This gauge, when the car is running at the proper temp., will be in the middle of its two extremes. Normal operating temperature for a car is 180-210 degrees Fahrenheit. If the needle on the gauge is close to the red "H" or indicates that the temperature is above 210 degrees Fahrenheit, your vehicle is too hot and will likely overheat. If you don't have a gauge on your car, the best way to tell if it is overheating is by attempting to accelerate. When overheating, a vehicle suffers a significant loss of power because it is losing too much energy to heat transfer instead of converting it to mechanical energy. An overheating vehicle will struggle to accelerate or climb mild hills. You'll also often hear the sound of boiling water from the engine compartment because the coolant in the radiator has began to boil. If this happens, pull over and wait for the boiling to stop. You should then get a towel and slowly open the radiator cap to relieve pressure and then add more coolant. Be careful when doing this because the back pressure can blow off the radiator cap and very hot coolant can be forced out of the radiator. Most sources will encourage you to wait an appropriate amount of time for the car to cool so that you don't run the risk of severely burning yourself. Either way, proceed with caution in order to avoid injury.