Q: Does extreme cold weather cause a car to heat up so fast,temperature gauge getting to the top

asked by on December 14, 2016

The weather was so cold tonight to probably 2degrees,I tried to heat up my car like I usually do and tried the interior heater ,but it was blowing cold air so may be waited for another 15 minutes then hit the road.in may be 3 miles car temperature gauge just hit the top.and smoke start coming out the hood.do you think my water in the radiator froze, because I had a bottle of water in my car that had frozen so I thought the same might have happened. Thank you let me know what you think

My car has 67000 miles.
My car has an automatic transmission.

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Hello, thank you for writing in. If you have only water in the radiator, and no antifreeze then more than just overheating can happen Often the freeze plugs in the engine will pop out causing issues, the engine block can crack, and other related issues. If there was antifreeze in the system, then your engine may have just overheated. The radiator also may have frozen and cracked. Its very hard to tell without performing an inspection on the vehicle. Check all of the hoses, the radiator, and the engine to try and find if there is a leak anywhere. If there is no leak you will want to check the quality of the coolant, the water pump, and the thermostat. Extreme cold conditions can effect all of these components and more. Make sure you are using a high quality antifreeze.

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