Some owners who sensed in time "death rattles" their car, trying to sell it as soon as possible. Their victims, as a rule, are people who have forgotten Pushkin's "you would not chase, pop, for cheapness". As a result, such a buyer, if he does not get into an accident, will be forced to pay for serious expensive repairs in the near future after the purchase.
Experienced drivers will find this information trivial. However, the bulk of motorists who have not passed "autouniversities", riding up to "characteristic cod".
How to avoid a deplorable ending? Today we will focus on the possibility of engine failure and talk about one of the signs of such a situation - overheating. And not by chance. Hot summer ahead. And, as practice shows, in most cases, the root cause of engine failure at this time of the year is its overheating. The insidiousness of overheating is that, as a rule, the results are far from immediate, but they always affect. And if urgent measures are not taken, the consequences of overheating will inexorably lead to serious failures, or even to engine failure. This whole path is clearly divided into four stages.
The first stage is the occurrence of causes of overheating. As a rule, this is:
- leakage of coolant, followed by a decrease in the level below the upper radiator pipe and, as a result, the cessation of fluid circulation in the radiator and the formation of an air lock;
- belt loosening, failure of either the fan motor itself, or the fan motor switch-on sensor, or the fan viscous coupling;
- incorrect adjustment of the ignition timing;
- high degree of carbon formation in the combustion chamber;
- clogging of the radiator cells.
The second stage is the overheating itself. Most often it manifests itself while waiting in "traffic jams" on roads and engine idling. It happens like this: the driver sees that the arrow of the temperature gauge begins to move towards the red zone, but believes that until this arrow reaches it, there is nothing to worry about. This is the first and main mistake.
The engine temperature control system is very inertial. The temperature measurement sensor is located in the water jacket of a massive cylinder block with a large capacity. This means that the temperature in the cylinder block in the event of a coolant leak and a shift in its level will be significantly lower than the temperature in the block head. The formation of an air lock in the radiator and boiling of the liquid lead to the fact that the head of the block is practically left without cooling. What this means is clear to everyone. But the driver, at best, a little nervous, looks askance at the arrow and continues to warm the engine. And then, depending on the degree of overheating, the third and fourth stages occur, respectively.
During the third stage, the engine continues to heat up. And it's good if the case ends with the failure of the valve seals. And then they can "cover yourself" head gaskets, and the situation will smoothly move into the fourth, final stage.
It should be highlighted in particular. After all, if the consequences of the previous stages of overheating can be corrected in one way or another within the framework of an average repair, then the fourth stage involves irreversible destruction:
- overheating and breakage of rings with scuffing of cylinders;
- ingress of coolant into the oil and, as a result, scuffing of the crankshaft journals;
- block head deformation;
- the formation of cracks in the head of the block and the block itself.
Statistics allows you to identify car brands that are most vulnerable to overheating and more often than others "reaching" up to the fourth stage. "leading the way" here, and by a wide margin, Saab cars. Their forced engines with minimal clearances do not forgive the Russian "maybe". Our fans of this model, however, consider it shameful to be in tow and would rather ruin the engine than ask them to drag their car out of traffic jams to a car service. And as soon as the reason for the stop - "cork" - it will resolve and the Saab owner will press the gas pedal in order to slip away from the rest of the cars with a slip, the remnants of the antifreeze cooled in the radiator will pour into the red-hot head and block, which from such rudeness will not find anything better than to crack.
Car engines of other brands, although not as "gentle", but also do not forgive inattentive attitude towards them. Therefore, in order to save your movable property and the contents of your wallet, you should definitely remember: overheating is never accidental and never remains without consequences. And if you find a tendency for your car's engine to overheat, immediately stop operating until the cause is clarified.