There are a few reasons why your car might overheat. It could be something simple like you just need to add some engine coolant. Other than that, there could be a problem with the radiator, the water pump may be on its way out or even worse, your head gasket could be about to write your car off.

The purpose of the head gasket is to seal the cylinders to maintain engine compression and avoid liquids like oil or coolant leaking into the engine. A blown head gasket can cause serious damage to the engine and result in an older car to be written off which is why car owners need to catch problems like this early. Your car may emit blue smoke which indicates that oil is burning. Without wishing to state the obvious, this is bad as oil should not be leaking. If your car is emitting white smoke then it is probably the engine coolant burning which is a less serious leak but one that still needs to be addressed. The first and most obvious indication that the head gasket is weak will be that your car will overheat and this will only become apparent when you are driving.

There some things you can do if your car is overheating to bring it back from the brink of breaking down. First, if you are in a safe place to stop, turn the engine off for five minutes as a way of cooling the engine down. You could try lifting up the bonnet if you are pressed for time. DO NOT take the radiator cap off until the engine has cooled. So many people have burned themselves on hot water that has bubbled out of the radiator.

However, if you are stuck in traffic, it is clearly not safe to keep turning your engine off. If you decide to pull over, make sure you are well away from the traffic. Too many people have been hurt stood on the side of the road. If it is not safe to stop then try putting the heater on full blast, if this makes the inside of the car too hot to bear then open the windows until the needle on the temperature gauge goes down.

Once you make it to your destination, if the overheating is not due to the amount of water or coolant in the radiator, make arrangements to check your car into a garage to confirm whether the head gasket is ok or not. The mechanic will do a pressure test or a leak down test which introduces compressed air into the cylinder and measures the rate it leak out at. From this stage, your mechanic will advise you on the best course of action from here.