Car overheated and shut off

HEATHER25

MEMBER
1999 TOYOTA AVALON
6 CYL
AUTOMATIC
133,000 MILES

Hi! My car has been driving funny. Shaky and jerky when I stepped on the accelerator. Was told I had bad tie rods so I replaced them but it was still having the same issue. Then my car started squealing extremely loud when I first start it but would go away in about 2 minutes.
Last week I was driving pretty fast to work and when I got close to my destination (off the highway) it was rattling really loud and smoking under the hood and then the car just shut off. I had it towed back to my house. The car turns on and engine starts but I am scared to drive it. It is not low on oil but it is low on coolant. I did notice my ac id not blowing as cold as usual if that is related at all. Are all these things related or does it sounds like multiple issues? What could be the problem? Thank you!

1 Reply

SCGRANTURISMO

MECHANIC
4,897 POSTS

Hello again,

This doesn't sound good, but let's see what we can find out. Usually when a car overheats the cylinder heads warp causing the head gasket to fail. This happens because the cylinder heads are usually made from aluminum and the engine block is iron. Aluminum has a lower melting point and will warp easier. Can you check the color of your engine oil for us. You can easily do this by removing the engine oil dipstick and seeing the color of the oil on the end of it. Also, to check the internals of the engine I would recommend doing a compression check. Here is a link below explaining how to do this:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-to-test-engine-compression

Please go through this guide and get back to us with what you are able to find out. We can go from there.

Thanks,
Alex
2CarPros