Vehicles running on diesel, petrol and even electric cars naturally create heat when in motion.
To ensure the engine stays at an optimal operating temperature, your car relies on a fluid called antifreeze, or engine coolant.
Coolant/antifreeze is the most important fluid under the bonnet, maintaining the temperature of the engine to prevent overheating.
It is made from heat-absorbing ethylene glycol or propylene glycol to help collect heat from the engine components.
The coolant is designed to expand as it increases in temperature and helps protect the engine from wear and tear.
Because of this expansion, coolant is placed into the vehicle using a 50/50 ratio with distilled water.
But what happens to a car when there is no coolant in the system?
When the car coolant runs out it alerts you of the danger by signalling through a dashboard warning light.
It might be a temperature gauge warning your vehicle is running hot.
Some of the effects that would happen if you drive with low coolant include;
Engine could overheat
A coolant helps regulate the amount of heat in the engine thus continued heat could lead to a damaged engine.
Continued use of an overheated engine could lead to permanent damage, such as pistons welding to the cylinders.
Blow of the head gasket
A blown head gasket happens when the seal between the cylinder head and engine block fails.
The head gasket sits between these two areas of the engine, sealing the coolant passage, oil return passages, cylinders and pistons.
When the head gasket fails, these channels are no longer sealed, which can result in coolant leaks, oil leaks or gases escaping from the combustion chamber.
A blown head gasket happens when the engine overheats, causing an increase in thermal pressure which puts immense strain on the gasket.
Car shutting off
Some cars have a safety system in place to automatically shut the engine off before it suffers significant damage.
This could be dangerous especially when the vehicle shuts down in dangerous situations such as a slope or in the middle of a highway.
To mitigate the issue, motorists are advised to pull over whenever their car engines' overheats and wait for the engine to cool down to a safe working temperature.
Once the vehicle has cooled down, you can try adding water to the cooling system but it’s important to flush it out and replace it with quality coolant/antifreeze.
