September 29, 2020

Usual Car Engine Problems, Ways to Deter Them and Remedial Measures

Just like human beings, cars might suffer from some ailments. Undoubtedly, every car is adorned with all eases and comforts to grant it exceptional qualities. But all mechanically operated car systems and parts, have certain limits of performance and after that these ceases to play efficiently. Engine being the central part of vehicle, occupies the prominent place. It is the car part around which all other parts revolve around or dependent upon it.

Certainly the car engine is the most powerful and strong part but general wear and tear surely put deep impacts on it. So with the passage of time, engine loses its strength and you need to replace it. Engine is usually more affected by the drivers who have aggressive driving style and handle it carelessly. More often, we skip the usual maintenance regimen that leads to emergence of various engine problems.

In so far as most common engine problems are concerned, these, inter alia, are briefly discussed along with preventive measures and their solution:

Excessively Emitting Engine Smoke

Engine smoke is the quite familiar fault of vehicles that most of the drivers talk about while highlighting the issues of the vehicle. Admittedly, normal smoke emission is not an abnormal issue but excessive smoke needs to be looked at. This abnormal smoke is serious issue and needs to be addressed promptly from some skilled auto expert.

The issue being diverse and extensive, deserves in depth study. Generally, you would notice black, blue, white and grey smoke out of exhaust pipes of the vehicles. Each smoke has its own issue to deal with. Let us have a cursory look on these:

• White Smoke

It is seen that normal deposition of white smoke in exhaust system is not any issue but its heavy emission needs to be looked into. If we look into the reason behind this excessive white engine smoke, it is revealed that leakage of coolant into combustion chambers is the causal suspect of this trouble. Other issues can also be probed in this connection like damaged cylinder head.

• Blue Smoke

Blue smoke is a very dangerous for the vehicle as it indicates that engine oil is being consumed in excess. What does this tell you? It is clear indication that there is leakage of engine oil into combustion chambers. Most probably, reason behind it is the damaged valves or piston rings.  The only solution of this ailing situation is to have the replacement of valves and piston rings.

• Black Smoke

It is quite obvious that all engine parts are interlinked. This black smoke is its proof. This black smoke emission is caused by clogging of air filters. This issue is somewhat complicated as sensors, injectors or fuel pressure regulator issues, also contribute to black smoke. Definitely you can well imagine its importance from the fact that black smoke means, your engine is consuming more fuel. So this black smoke issue should be checked by some expert mechanic, who after identifying the defective part of engine, will guide you further.

Engine Resist to Start

One of the usual problems encountered by the car owners, is that engine does not respond properly even after turning the key. There are too many reasons behind this that need to be probed out. Among these, the most common being the battery failure. Hence, you must pay specific heed in the maintenance of the battery. You must check the interior and exterior of battery in usual practice.

• 

If you turn on key and see that car shows utter silence on this. You note that there is no noise at all. It indicates that battery connections of terminal cable have deposit of unwanted material that needs to be wiped off. And if these terminals are loose, screw them properly. If you turn on key and car is cranked over without starting, it shows the issue of spark plugs failure.

Now you are at some distant place away from you garage, then you have to have jumpstarting to charge the dead battery to bring it back at home.

Engine Overheating

It is noticed that smoke or steam comes from bonnet and rises enginetemperature. There are many reasons of this overheating. Actually it happens that your over-work causes this temperature rise on temperature needle. But simply to understand this ailing situation, is that car needs coolant and decreased coolant could be detrimental for your vehicle.

• Coolant Depletion

Now another issue of coolant depletion is occurred owing to some leakage or defective hoses. Hence always make habit of checking it properly before assuming any drive to avert any mishap on the way. This overheating of engine could also be due to non-function of radiator fan. If that happens, check the motor fan connection and thermostat fan.

• Other Detrimental Factors

Other indication of this overheating is bad smell from air vent smelled by the passengers of the car. Damaged radiator and radiator cap also cause the engine to heat up, raising the temperature of the engine. Apart from it, low quality filters are sometime clogged and causes the overheating of engine.

• Defective or Cracked Head Gasket

As said earlier, the defective spark plug causes the engine to overheat. In the similar manner, incomplete ignition is causal agent to raise the temperature of engine.

Now it is indicted well that on this overheating, you should stop the vehicle. If you do not act upon this advice, the engine will continue to heat up that would lead to complete engine failure. Hence whenever you smell or feel such an abnormality of overheating, set aside all your urgent assignments. Think single mindedly how to tackle this emergent situation. As you go on driving with this overheated engine, some worrying situation could arise.

How to avoid overheating

• You must immediately turn the engine off if you want to prevent yourself from heavy damage. However, to bring the car at some safe place, you can drive in short intervals of time by giving an interval to cool down the engine. But even then, it is not appropriate to drive and would be better to avoid driving in heated condition of engine.
• The next action you should take, is to turn off the air conditioning, the reason being the units of air conditioning are at work directly with the car engine. So when you turn off the air conditioning, engine gets relieved and load on it is lessened. Actually engine has to work more with the air conditioning, raising the engine temperature.
• Then more to take action on this overheated engine is to turn the heater on at full, by doing so, engine will be allowed to emit its heat out through heater of the vehicle in the car cabin. Roll down window glasses so that heat emitted by the car, could be exited out. It is quite obvious that inside temperature of the cabin is made conducive with reference to outside temperature depending upon the weather and time.
• It should be kept in mind that keep heater on, to decrease the engine temperature but it does not work well on motorway where high speed is inevitable. Here is best to promptly bring the vehicle at halt and search out some workshop nearby.
• Be warned that never remove the radiator cap in this heated condition when the water is almost at boiling temperatures and you can burn yourself by removing the cap. Actually in this condition the pressurized steam would blow out if you remove the cap. In this way you can have severe head and face injuries.  Advisably, wait for some moments until engine is cooled.

A great care should be taken when the engine gets heated as if the car has deprived of coolant, then never and never you should take the risk of starting the engine. What should you do now, is to seek the help of some break down car experts in you close vicinities.

Engine does not Start Easily

Engine heating is common observation specially with older and used vehicles. Temperature can be more alarming when the vehicle is in running condition. This deserves to mention here that the temperature is always acceptable to you if the temperature gauge does not cross the red zone. Situation becomes more serious when you turn on the key, only engine revolves but fails to ignite. This puzzling situation is confronted by most of the motorists and this is due to various reasons that are briefed below:

• Defective Battery

Dimming of dashboard lights on ignition of engine, depicts clearly that battery has some issue and situation will prolong up till keys are in the ignition. Apart from it, you will also have the clicking sound on turning the ignition, failing the engine to start. As aforementioned that consistent look after and following the maintenance regimen, you increase the life of car parts especially of engine.

Normally, it is observed that people forget to turn the interior lights or headlights off carelessly. In the same manner if you leave the DVD player in working after turning the engine off, your battery will receive shocks. Even the jump start fails to start the car. But completely failed battery would do nothing except its replacement from Engine Trust.

• Corroded or Loosely Connected Battery Terminals

There could be another reason of engine idling and that is due loosely attached battery terminals or these terminals are corroded entirely. Due to these loosely connected terminals or having some Sulfuric acid buildup on them, battery fails to start the engine. This situation could be controlled by applying some oily material or grease to the terminals.

Make a great care in up keeping the battery as it causes a great panic for you if not working properly due to aforementioned reasons. Following the maintenance regimen, completely clean the salts deposited on its terminals before proceeding onward. Otherwise if not possible every time, then this cleaning should be done at least after a weeks’ time consistently.

Unusual Noises

Every machine has its own temperament and requirements. Naturally the machine operator is quite vigilant about anything odd happening there. In the similar way, vehicle is a complicated and sophisticated machine pampered with computer technology. It too, sometime has defects due our negligence or some other reasons. Various sounds heard from it have specific messages about some problem.

Fuel Pump failure

You must be well aware of role of fuel pump that it plays in car functioning. Yes, you have rightly perceived that it puts the fuel into combustion system of engine. Without further ado, simply speaking, the efficacy of engine is enhanced if the more fuel is added into engine system and delivery of power is also increased. So it becomes clear how important this fuel pump is. Surely, nothing will be performed by engine if it does not get fuel to work.

Like other engine problems that cannot be afforded for a moment, fuel pump failure also causes a great trouble for the motorists. If we talk about the symptoms of this fuel pump failure, it comes out that various indications in this regard confirm that fuel pump is not working properly.

Choking of engine when the vehicle is on move and suddenly it resist to start. Resultantly pressure and power is also reduced. Smoke from tailpipe and more fuel consumption are also tell-tale signs of fuel pump failure. And engine overheating says all.

Hence with the help of these symptoms, one can easily understand about the malfunction of fuel pump. Be warned that never take the risk of its repairing as instead of repairing, replacement of fuel pump would be wiser option from some trustworthy portal like Engine Trust.

Fuel Filter Blockage

Fuel filter basically filters the fuel being supplied to engine so that clear and pure fuel is supplied. As human kidneys filter the blood and supply the pure blood to heart for pumping, on the similar pattern the fuel filter performs its function by purifying the fuel before its entry into the engine system.

But sometime it ceases to function by clogging, thus it becomes impossible for fuel filter to let the fuel pass through it. This situation is somewhat alarming as engine and fuel pump both become vulnerable and stop working. The clogged fuel filter will be unable to supply fuel onward and without it, how it is possible that engine could perform effectively. This will cause delay of engine in starting, misfiring, irregular power supply, indefinite power supply.

Now coming towards the solution of this abnormality and that is only the replacement of this bad fuel filter with the best one so that you may continue your laid back journey without any interruption.

Polluted Fuel Injectors

These fuel injectors are located in combustion chambers wherein they inject fuel in form of thin and refined spray. These at very high pressure sprinkle the fuel in combustion chambers. It is advised to have better output by the fuel injectors, clean them regularly.

Their cleanliness is also of great value as by doing so, carbon emissions quality will also be decreased.  As all of you, are well aware of the fact about initiatives taken by environmentalists towards green movement. So in this context the wellbeing of fuel injectors is direly needed so that purified fuel is passed on to the system.

Now question arises how you can confirm that fuel injectors are polluted. That is not so complicated. However, we will guide you accordingly. One obvious indication is deposit layer that encircles the fuel injectors. This shows something is wrong.

Whenever you feel any difficulty in starting car, never ignore the cleaning of fuel injectors.  There are many symptoms of this trouble by which you can also diagnose the problem. Amongst these, suddenly stoppage of engine, increased fuel consumptions, efficiency and power absence and misfiring are the indications of bad fuel injectors.

Ignition Switch Malfunction

Engine problems are of paramount importance to study and solve the issue because any one or more could encircle you during your cozy drive. That is why it is imperative that you should have some preliminary knowledge about these. This would certainly help you to take prompt action in right direction. Now we will apprise you another most serious issue of defective ignition switch. Though not so grave yet needs to be looked at.

Before going ahead to see the actual issue, let us see how ignition switch works. Simply to understand, there are three phases in its operation. In the first phase, it makes electric system to work making you aware of all on dash board. And now at next step, ignition switch energizes the ignition system power and also fuel injection system so that after starting the vehicle, you could proceed to your set destination.

When you turn on keys in ignition switch, you get no response. Now have a deep probing what has gone wrong. Truly speaking, ignition system is gateway to all the systems working in the car. So any failure in it, causes the stoppage of engine and other systems too. You can guess its failure through the symptoms like engine stalls, no response on turning ignition key, flickering of dashboard lights and start of car without engine action.

Now certainly you will be keen to know about its remedial measures. As it is main starting point, hence you will never like to take any risk in this regard. If you are thinking about its repair, it is not long lasting solution of this defective ignition switch. The best and viable solution to have eternal peace, is to replace the ignition switch through reliable portal.

Faulty Starter Motor

It might be possible that you are aware of this starter motor that mainly starts the engine assisted by flywheel that rotates the crank.  It gets power from car battery and activates the engine revolution, thus makes both the ignition and combustion to work. Like other car parts and engine, the maintenance of starter motor is must to have regularly. Any ignorant approach towards it, causes serious impacts leading to its failure.

For sure, certain symptoms are there that guide the driver about the failure of starter motor. Normally you will hear motor sound like that of a grinder, smell of smoke from engine on starting the engine, unresponsive starter motor and despite hard click on twisting ignition key without getting engine started.

Amongst all of these symptoms, the smell of smoke coming from engine cabin on starting it, is the clear indication of defective starter motor. The repair of the faulty starter motor could be had from some expert mechanic but it will not cost you much.

Defective Alternator

As said earlier in preceding paragraphs under the heading battery issue, that defective battery is the biggest problem as without it you are unable to start the engine. But defective alternator is more grave as it ceases to transmit current to battery. Thus battery will not start. Hence it is perceived well that alternator creates current and in this way battery of the car is charged. Obviously, failure of alternator needs more focus to rectify it. We have discussed almost all common engine problems that you can face with your car. Now with this dead battery you cannot do anything further. The symptoms of alternator are usually unresponsive battery, warning lights of battery, dim lights and need of jumpstarting. This faulty alternator will intimate you about voltage and issue could be tackled either by repair or through replacement, depending upon the extent of damage occurred.