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Never ignore your car's warning lights

BryanMatthews | Aug 5, 2010 |

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All the instruments on your dashboard are important but some of them are more important that others! At least they are in the sense that ignoring them can cause permanent damage to your engine. Two of these critical warning lights are the oil pressure gauge and the temperature gauge.

When the car's engine starts to overheat big problems are caused. Temperatures can get so hot that metal will melt. Moving components like the pistons going up and down in the cylinders can become friction welded together. This kind of problems is described as an 'engine seize' and usually cannot be repaired without an entire engine refurbishment (or by getting a replacement engine), a very expensive proposition and if your car's not worth much money it might even be cheaper to get a new car.

Overheating is a caused when the car's cooling system fails. There are two aspects to this system. The main component is the coolant (water mixed with antifreeze) that circulates around the engine and through holes drilled into the engine block, absorbing excess heat as it is pumped around. The water mixture is cooled on the car's radiator where it is spread over a large surface area allowing the liquid to be quickly cooled by the air forced into the radiator as the car moves along. One place the coolant cannot get to is inside the engine. So to cool this area motor oil is used. The motor oil covers the internal surfaces of the engine and can absorb heat the cooling system cannot reach. Oil pressure is vital to keep the oil moving and thus keep the heat moving away from the core of the engine. The oil pressure gauge is the instrument that tells you how well the oil pump is working. Low pressure can be caused by many things and should be immediately rectified as it is very damaging. There are few quicker ways of ruining an engine, sometimes permanently than running it without enough oil.

Good quality oil is needed to protect the engine and keep it clean. A dirty engine is harder to cool as the resulting black sludge build-up stops the motor oil from coming into direct contact with the engine, reducing surface area and therefore making it harder to cool. This is another reason to avoid a cheap oil change.

No matter the cause when these warning lights come on you should take immediate action. If in doubt seek advice from a professional.