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-   -   What to do if your Engine Overheats on the road (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/technical-stuff/131650-what-do-if-your-engine-overheats-road-22.html)

Yes, there was a little white smoke for sure that I noted during morning engine warm-up, when I clean my car. Not alarming levels though. But I wrongly considered it as the typical water vapour due to moisture in exhaust. My bad, should have taken care to check the exhaust smoke ,in between regular running. There was no engine oil being burnt, for sure. And also there was no coolant mix-up with engine oil, as it did not turn white and frothy.

Must be preliminary stage of head gasket failure, I guess.

Figo doesn't have a temperature gauge. The OBD device would be certainly of help for cars without temperature gauge.

Is it possible to read evaporator temperature using OBD device? Everywhere I read that external thermometer is used to check AC vent air temp, I was wondering if we can read evaporator temperature sensor value over OBD. Have anyone tried this?

Experienced an overheating issue on my dads 2005 Swift today.

The car doesn't see more than 30-40 kms a week,but is used daily. Once in few months,I take it out to stretch it's legs on the outskirts nearby.
This evening I opened it up in all gears for around a kilometre and repeated again and towards the end I noticed the temp needle climbing all the way the red mark,not max. Since it was an open area with no traffic,i pulled over and opened the hood and let it cool.

I noticed then the coolant had splashed around the coolant tank and firewall through the vent on the cap. The coolant tank was upto the brim as well. I had topped up coolant couple of days ago upto to the high mark from half.

After letting it cool for ten minutes,I started the engine and the temp needle had dropped to half. Once I started driving,it again climbed immediately to the high mark. I was driving in low revs and without AC back home which was around 25 kms. After a while the needle dropped again to the half way mark but again rose as fast as it dropped. This happened a couple of times and finally after around 10 kms it become normal and didn't increase again.

Drove with the AC as well and it was fine. Checked the coolant level and it had dropped to little below the high mark.

Is there a problem with the coolant flow somewhere?
The coolant doesn't seem to have been mixed with oil and is green.
For now,the engine is running fine with no coolant leaks on the ground.

To me, it looks like thermostat issue. Get it checked, or rather replace it even if issue does not repro.

Did you check if the fan was rotating?
When was the coolant completely changed last time around?

Does this temperature fluctuation happen with the vehicle in Neutral and AC on?

I thought of the same,but then what about the coolant filling up the coolant tank and coming out?

Coolant was replaced in last annual service and car would have run not more than 2k kms since.
Fan is spinning as I noticed when the ignition was turned on to check the temp gauge when the hood was open.

No temp increase when in neutral, it is only when driving. This is the first time it happened.

Forgot to mention the car has run 52k kms and has a slipping clutch when revved hard.

Coolant overheating could be caused by any one of the below reasons.

1)Leak in radiator hoses
2)Leak in the radiator
3)Radiator fan not working
4)Coolant pump not working
5)Leak in coolant reservoir
6)Faulty radiator pressure cap
7)Failed thermostat.
8)Failed cylinder head gasket or inlet manifold gasket.

In your case I am seeing that pressure is building up in the coolant system, that's why the coolant has splashed all over, through the coolant reservoir cap.This has effectively ruled out leaks in the radiator, hoses and reservoir. Also radiator pressure cap does not seem to be the culprit.

Since radiator fan malfunctioning is also not the cause, the issue could be due to a faulty thermostat, or a faulty coolant pump or in the worst case a failed head gasket.

In my Figo Tdci there was no oil mix up with the coolant, but it was a case of failed cylinder head gasket.

Get the coolant pump and thermostat checked. Flush and conduct a pressure test on the coolant system. If the issue still persists, then we have to open the cylinder head, since gasket is the only item left out to be checked.

Watch out for the colour of the exhaust. Is it white, indicating coolant evaporation ?

No visible smoke. It looks like the thermostat itself which I will replace and check.
There is oil sweat on the head,but that has been there for quite some time now and hasn't increased.

From the symptoms,it hopefully is the thermostat itself. But what I couldn't understand was how the temperature went back to normal after a while and didn't increase or decrease.

The thermostat's pintle(rod) or spring could have temporarily remained stuck-closed for a while, blocking the coolant flow to radiator, causing the temperature and pressure to rise up rapidly.

Probably the thermostat worked fine after a while. That's why you did not face the issue of coolant temperature climbing up again. Anyway it is a faulty thermostat, and you got to replace it as early as possible, before it causes further damage.


Image source:www.theautomotiveindia.com

As far as I know, the thermostat is not connected to the ECU. There is no sensor, to tell if is closed or open.

Read here:
Why thermostats don't have a sensor ?

If you have a proper cooling liquid temperature gauge on your dashboard, you might be able to see the proper opening. Starting from a cold car. Drive normally and you will see the temperature rise. Usually you will see on the first opening of the thermostat a drop in temperature of a few degrees. So the needle was going upwards slowly, just passed the normal operating temperature, drops a few degrees quickly, just under the normal operating temperature and then settles on the normal operating temperature.

This is the first opening of the thermostat and it involves a bit of hysteresis. On most cars/engine you can observe this. Good to check on your car. Preferably before you suspect the thermostat is going wonky, so you have a point of reference.

Good luck.

Jeroen

The thermostat was faulty.
The rod inside was bent and the spring jammed.
Surprisingly the issue did not re-occur even with the coolant tank almost empty.
Filled the tank and replaced the thermostat.

Great to know that the issue is resolved :thumbs up

Can I ask how much is the cost of the Thermostat and the coolant ? May be useful for comparison.

Cheers ! Love and Live to Drive !!

Coolant was topped up,not replaced. Thermostat is 340/-
The check engine light came on after replacement,but went away once the battery was disconnected and reconnected.

Clean your engine bay thoroughly with degreaser from above and below and then keep a close eye on leaking oil. Change all belts and hoses. This is a good preventive maintenance practice and prepare the car cross 100k easily. I am saying this because there seem to be oil leaks and prevention is better than cure.

Below I will explain the chain of events. Please advise what might have gone wrong and what needs to be done to have the same rectified.

I bought my car, KWID 1.0L, on the 28th March 2017. Yesterday, that is the 14th April 2017, we went on a small road trip to a nearby hill station, Pune-Panchgani-Mahabaleshwar-Panchgani-Pune, with 4 adults and 2 kids on board. The distance is approximately 150 kilometers one way, with some steep and lenient ghat sections. There were two observations, for which I need some expert advise. Below are they:

FIRST :- At around 6PM we reached a point called Arthur Point and this is where the problem occurred. To park the car, we had to make a couple of reverses and during these the car stopped completely. The ignition key was removed, still the fan belt was in action. This suggested me that the engine was over heated (though coolant is present per requirement). The fan stopped after approximately 5-10 minutes, but the engine could not be started. When the ignition key was turned, I could here the cranks but the engine refused to start. After approximately 15 minutes, I could risk touching some of the engine parts, but still there was only the cranks. After a few more anxious moments, the engine ultimately started and we could now come back to Panchgani, towards Pune.

SECOND :- Yesterday it was Ambedkar Jayanthi and therefore there was much road side processions etc at Panchgani. Thus while returning back, traffic was diverted to alternate arterial channels, which had pretty steep climbs with two way vehicular movement. As a result, the requirement was to drive only in first gear because of choc-a-block scene. Now while performing such maneuvers, I could hear the fan coming up once (or twice) and the engine trying to stall. Thankfully there was no stalling as it would have been a disaster then. As an observation, I also noticed that at certain points of time, the car seemed to lag to push ahead even though acceleration / gear was there in right spots. It happened at least thrice while were returning back (once on the ghats and twice on the highway). The car seemed unable to pull forward for a few seconds, post which the gear was brought below and then revving up helped. But at all other times, there was no such problems at all.

OBSERVATION(s)

• Engine over heating at ghats.
• Speed reduction at certain points, might be related to the engine over heating.

Questions

1. Why did the engine over heating occur when other cars could move around gladly?
2. We were stranded for approximately 45 minutes over there. With so much electronic gizmos aboard, how is it possible that if over heating is happening, then there is no visual / audible warning before hand?
3. The speed reductions that happened a couple of times, post this heating issue, can they be related or not?
4. Today I visited the showroom and this is the first time they have heard such a problem being reported on a Kwid 1.0 L. They have advised to check this with their KOTAK (someone who I understand is the technical person on engine front) and for that I have to leave the car with them. I intend to leave it on Monday. So that I get suitable leads from here and then take it up accordingly.
5. Car is just approaching one month and odometer reading is Nine Hundred kilometers odd. The problem that occurred, how soon does it occur on new car? (Our Amby had this problem, I know).

Gentlemen, please help me out with your inputs and let me know if you have any particular queries too, so that I can elaborate further. This incident though shook me over there, but after interacting with one of my close friends, I understand that there might be some sort of mismatch in fuel calibration with the ECU, which is a simple fix. Nevertheless, I want to have all your inputs so that future such occurrences can be avoided.

Thank you.