TransWikia.com

Car overheated, found no coolant, now it won’t crank

Motor Vehicle Maintenance & Repair Asked on August 10, 2020

So I have a 2004 Toyota Camry, and a few weeks ago I was driving home then I started smelling this foul burning smell, I didn’t think nothing of it … I thought it was others cars because I was on the interstate. So I got off the exit and was just hitting an traffic light then all the sudden my car stopped and wouldn’t crank back on… I (of course) freaked out and realized the burning smell was me( basically my car overheated). But long story short.. I took my car to Pep boys. The guy gave me a (1 minute) review then told me to start my car and he smelt it and said “burning” and then he realized my car didn’t have water/coolant and immediately said it was the head gasket and I need a new engine. But I didn’t think that was the reason because my car wasn’t leaking and my oil was just fine, I didn’t have the symptoms of a head gasket like no bubble on the stick, my oil wasn’t milky, and it wasn’t leaking plus etc. Not only that I just got my oil changed a week before the incident. So I went to a friend for a second opinion and he was saying it wasn’t head gasket and that Pep boys was trying to scam me. He took a look at my car and we both put water in it and tried to crank it up but no hope. But I didn’t smell any burning. Also no dashboard light came on. So we did some research and we’re both thinking it’s the water pump and the timing belt…. but it doesn’t make sense because I still don’t know where my coolant/ water has ran off too. Could someone please help me !!?

2 Answers

A head gasket can fail where there's a breach between the cylinder and the cooling jacket. When that happens it burns coolant. So it's very possible you have a bad head gasket. It's also possible you have a coolant leak and that's what caused the over heating. Try rotating the engine by hand using a socket and large ratchet on the front crankshaft bolt. If the engine won't rotate, it's toast.

Answered by user9181 on August 10, 2020

If you run the car out of coolant your head gasket will very often fail.

When no coolant are circulating and the engine is running the cylinder head will heat up and expand,this will compress the head gasket and strech the head bolts.

When the engine cools down and the cylinder head contracts a lot less pressure will keep the head gasket sealed to the sylinderhead/engine block as the head bolts have been streched too far from the heat they where exposed to.

The next time you start the engine the head gasket will fail.

if you see the failiure before the engine overheats too bad you might avoid changing the head gasket and head bolts.

If you fill coolant and the head gasket is blown you might get liquid in the cylinders this is uncompressable so it might stop the engine from cranking over,if this is the case remove the sparkplugs to get the liquid out.

Answered by trond hansen on August 10, 2020

Add your own answers!

Ask a Question

Get help from others!

© 2024 TransWikia.com. All rights reserved. Sites we Love: PCI Database, UKBizDB, Menu Kuliner, Sharing RPP