Hi,

New to the forum. Have a serious question. My sister has a 2006 Civic. She got into an accident where the car suffered some front end damage. It looked drivable so she attempted to drive it home. On her way home the car began to overheat. Indicators on the dashboard lit up but she disregarded them until the car stalled. When she had it towed to the dealership, the technician checked it out and found that the engine suffered a catastrophic failure. It got so hot that the oil dipstick was welded to the actual engine.

Now she needs to replace the engine and hope that there is no further damage.

My question: Is there suppose to be some type of an automatic engine shut off in a Civic that will automatically shut down the car if the engine temerature is too extreme to prevent such engine failure?

Just curious.

Thanks!
Rafal

 

Automatic shutoff? No, not that I know of. Just the idiot light on the dash... ouch... what an expensive way to learn a lesson! [:@]

 

I just have to ask what was your sister thinking when she ignored the indicator and temp gauge?

 

I'm pretty sure that the radiator was broken in the accident and the cooling system pretty much stopped working. If your cooling system stops working, you pretty much have 30 seconds before the engine block melts down. I don't know of any automatic shutoff but when the temp guage is at red, that pretty much means pull over to the side of the road before you melt your engine block. That does suck, but live and learn i guess.

 

and thats if they even have a gauge, most only have the light, remember an episode of tool time, where the wife blew the engine, when asked about the light, she answered.. i thought it would get brighter if it real important..
i hope its covered by the insurance as part of the accident??????

 

that was easy...

 

He wasn't asking why it broke... just asking if the car should have shut itself off, which is something I have not heard of

 

I doubt it. The insurance guys are hardasses as it is. The accident did not cause the engine to overheat and melt.

 

but the damage from the accident did... its argueable and worth a try

 

It seems as though it'd be a safety concern for the vehicle to have a cutoff of sorts. What if she were driving on the freeway and the thing just died in the lanes?

Expensive lesson, none the less.