Car Breakdown Question! :<?

Question

today i was driving my car and like this light that said "hot" came on, and a minute later there was tons of steam coming out the hood of my lil car :< and the engine wouldnt start up again, and aparently this is from a radiator hose pipe breaking from overheating and my QUESTION IS like how does one prevent that, does one put it in a higher / lower gear, is the car just junk, add more antifreeze? pull over and wait? or what? i dont know honestly PLEASE HELP ME XD

Answer 1

When your engine begins to overheat you should pull over immediately and let the car sit until it can cool down.

If you know absolutely nothing about auto mechanics you should have the car towed to a professional.
If you have a general idea about vehicles you can add water to the radiator to keep the car cool until you can drive to the garage.

There are several things that can cause your vehicle to overheat... Not enough coolant, broken hose, a bad themostat, a hole in the radiator, blown head gasket. .... Just to name a few.

To prevent things like this from happening, get regular service check-ups, when they change your oil they will check your hoses and belts and reccomend other maintenence you may need, like a radiator flush.

Regular maintenece doesn't prevent all breakdowns,
but it does help find many small things before they become major problems.

Answer 2

I agree with the above answers. But as for what you should do you should try and get to the side of the road and shut the engine off and let it cool down. The heat can cause a bunch of expensive problems for you, and you may not notice them for some time. For instance the heat can change the temper of the valve springs and they could break. If you're running an interference engine and the valve doesn't close then the piston will crash into it and you really have problems.
I know this from experience. Did it once, and I won't do it again.

Answer 3

To prevent things like this, all you can do it check your belts and hoses periodically. If you want to never have problems like this, replace your belts and hoses every four years. Sometimes a hose or belt just breaks down. When an engine overheats and loses coolant you need to pull over immediately and shut it off. Have it towed home to work on or to a reliable garage.

Answer 4

For prevention, check your vehicle weekly, inspect the hoses, belts and fluid levels... you might have found a cracked hose or low on coolant. You can try to add more coolant an see if it dosent overheat again, but for overheating it could also be the thermostat sruck closed, or your cooling fans not coming on.

Answer 5

Hoses wear out over time. It's just nature. You can check on them every now and then and have them replaced at your leisure, but there's nothing you can do to stop them from eventually failing.