On my way home from london last night, taking the a25 towards guildford due to the M25 accident. The traffic was dreadful, think I managed about 2 miles in 45 mins. Anyway, didnt notice the engine temperature creeping up until i looked down to see it in the red, pulled over immediatly and turned off the engine, steam started to seep out from the bonnet. Let the car cool down a bit and tried to start the engine, which wouldn't catch, later I realised the battery had also somehow gone dead as I struggle to put up the electric windows on the remaining power.

Anyway, was just wondering how likely it is that I have damaged the engine? Without any inspection what so ever the breakdown service guessed a head gasket and just loaded the car onto the flat bed. Its now at fleet honda awaiting inspection.

My car tends to forget to turn the fan on sometimes when stuck in traffic for long periods of time. Anyone else had any overheating experiences?

 

Mine overheated once when I was waiting at a car wash, it was caused by a loose battery connection according to Honda, which meant the fan wasnt kicking in. Its never happened again, but I was told that if it did, I should put on the air con to over ride and switch the fan on and turn the heat up to the max to draw the heat from the engine.

 

Hmm, this could be my problem to, especially as I seem to have lost battery power. Turning the heating on definately works, Ive used that approach once before. I didn't know about the air con triggering the fans, will remember that for the future.

 

I had the overheating once as well - sitting in traffic for 10-15 minutes crawling along, suddenly noticed the temp guage in the red. Couldn't pull over as high kerb, solid traffic - heater on full blast and temp dropped.

Mentioned it to dealer at some point, and they didn't think it would be a problem. Never occurred again, and unsure why it only happened the once, as I had sat in traffic in similar conditions before.