Does your car engine overheat suddenly and then go back to normal as if nothing had happened? Does this happen often, as if your car is possessed?
Car engines literally have fire in them, so they will heat up when it is running. When it is not burning fuel or when idle, it will cool down. However, if your car’s engine temperature suddenly drops while you’re driving, it may have a malfunctioning cooling system.
This problem has the potential to seriously harm engines if ignored. What therefore should you do in such a situation? How are you going to determine the cause? Don’t worry!
In this article, you can examine why your car engine temp spikes then returns normal and learn ways to fix those to avoid engine harm, so read below.
Why Do Your Car Engine Temperatures Spike And Drop?
Heat will be produced by your car engine, its fuel, and oxygen due to the reaction called combustion that makes the engine work. The designs of cars allow the transportation of engine heat for safety and to prevent deterioration.
But, if you notice your car engine overheats suddenly and cools down, it can be a sign of internal problems that require urgent engine repair.
Here Are Some Issues That Can Cause This:
Bad Thermostat
The car engine thermostat is a plug that has one main job. It should sense the temperature within the car engine and control hot water flow.
After running for some time, car engines will reach a temperature point. The thermostat will sense this and push the plug to release coolant fluid to ooze.
When a thermostat is malfunctioning, i.e., broken or stuck, it becomes less sensitive to heat and will only react to temperatures above normal. Because of this, you won’t be aware of the unsafe temperature levels of your engine, which will damage it.
The following are signs of a malfunctioning thermostat:
- Cars overheat even at low speeds and require more warm-up time.
- The coolant temperature gauge either displays a false reading or is red.
- Audible engine rumbling noises.
Low Coolant Level
The engine coolant or antifreeze is a green liquid that does a great job in keeping the engine temperature from reaching dangerous levels.
The fluid also pulls heat when oozing through the engine’s arteries and releases it via the radiator. But sometimes abnormal heat can make the coolant leak and flow in wrong routes.
A cooling system leak or forgetting to replace the coolant tank are the two main causes of low coolant levels. Your car engine will always be dangerously hot if there is not enough coolant fluid to suck the heat.
What happens when the coolant level is low?
- Visible coolant bubbles.
- Steam coming from the exhaust system.
- Radiator fluid that is foamy or brown instead of green.
Faulty Radiator
The radiator in your car works to transfer the hot coolant that passes through it which absorbs excess heat from the engine and the surroundings.
A coolant leak means inadequate heat trapping and moving mechanism. Do you know your car radiator gives up? It can be due to a busted radiator cap, a leaking radiator hose, or a broken radiator fan.
When these happen, less coolant may reach the engine. Why? A clogged radiator with bad particles inside it would limit the space for coolant to flow in the cooling system. Sometimes, you might even see steam from the automobile hood.
A malfunctioning radiator can also show other symptoms like:
- Reduction in engine output.
- New strange and loud noises from the engine.
- Unreliable, wrong thermostat reading.
Water Pump Malfunction
The water pump does not push water! It moves around coolant fluid throughout your car engine’s complex cooling system in cycles. It is also there to prevent hot water from getting stagnant in your car’s coolant system component.
Your car’s engine overheats so much when it does not get its heat removed by the coolant, or its water pump stops working. This can push cooling system performance levels below the critical bar.
Most of the time, the water pump is the reason why people’s car engine temp spikes then returns normal without reasons.
The components of your car’s cooling system are like cogs of a complex machine, so you should also check the engine serpentine belt in addition to looking for a malfunctioning water pump.
Signs that point to a malfunctioning water pump:
- The engine is making a loud knocking noise.
- Engine power loss
- Reduced fuel optimization
Bad Engine Sensors
Car engines are now monitored by so many advanced sensors for many purposes, but mainly to keep them healthy and optimized. If your car engine overheats and then cools down suddenly, it may be a simple laughable issue like a failed coolant temperature sensor.
Your car dashboard displays what the sensors read at any given time, and it also has a temperature gauge that measures the engine’s temperature.
Your car’s temperature gauge could show high and low readings if any sensors mess with it. This can confuse your car’s system and give you readings that indicate the rapid overheating and cooling of its engine.
Indicators of a malfunctioning engine sensor are:
- Problems with the heater and air conditioning.
- Warning lights that go on and off
- Poor fuel efficiency
Low Engine Oil
If there is not enough engine oil, the engine can actually get overheated instantly. Like the green coolant fluid, engine oil cools the moving parts (pistons, valves, etc.) in addition to lubricating the engine, but in a different way.
If you do not notice your car’s “low oil” warning feature, you will cause temperature buildup in these parts and make the engine overheat.
Don’t even think of driving if your engine is running short on oil because this could cause unfixable damages to your car’s functional engine.
Here are the signs of low engine oil:
- Oil pressure warning light is on.
- The smell of burning oil (very dangerous).
- Unusual sounds coming from the engine.
Clogged Heater Core
The coolant’s path is not an impossible level maze; all you need is a heater core that works as a heat exchanger.
The heater core moves and pushes heat into the car’s cabin, where you sit. But it needs that steady stream of coolant from the engine to do it.
The heater cannot get its hot coolant if the heater core is clogged. This causes coolant to become hot, but guess what else? This also results in engine overheating.
Obvious signs of a blocked heater core:
- Warm air comes from the air vents even if the car isn’t warm.
- A sweet-smelling coolant leaks around the front wheels (don’t inhale them).
- Car temperature gauge readings that are abnormally high or low.
Loose Serpentine Belt
A loose serpentine belt can make your engine hot and angry like a serpent! As already said, engine cooling components are like cogs of a big machine. So, obviously, the water pump is one of the parts under the car’s hood that receives power from the serpentine belt.
If you don’t want to get technical, just know a loose serpentine belt will make shoving the coolant into the engine block inadequate due to the inability of the responsible component to produce enough force.
Indicators to know if the engine belt is loose:
- Sounds coming from under the hood, especially when accelerating, or screeching.
- Engine parts (water pump, power steering, etc.) stop working.
- Other warning lights or the check engine light is on.
Final Thoughts
You should be alarmed if you notice your car engine temp spikes then returns normal because it can damage all the critical and costly parts in no time.
Therefore, it’s advisable to quickly call a professional engine mechanic to inspect your vehicle! Professional engine mechanics have everything they need to check your car engine, stop it from overheating, and much more.
