You will find an engine coolant temperature gage on your vehicle's instrument panel. See Engine Coolant Temperature Gage . You also have an engine coolant temperature warning message on your instrument panel. See Engine Coolant Temperature Warning Message .

Caution: Steam from an overheated engine can burn you badly, even if you just open the hood. Stay away from the engine if you see or hear steam coming from it. Turn it off and get everyone away from the vehicle until it cools down. Wait until there is no sign of steam or coolant before you open the hood.

Notice: If the engine catches fire while driving with no coolant, the vehicle can be badly damaged. The costly repairs would not be covered by the vehicle warranty. See Overheated Engine Protection Operating Mode for information on driving to a safe place in an emergency.

If you get an engine overheat warning but see or hear no steam, the problem may not be too serious. Sometimes the engine can get a little too hot when you:

If you get the overheat warning with no sign of steam, try this for a minute or so:

1. If your air conditioner is on, turn it off.
2. Turn on your heater to full hot at the highest fan speed and open the windows as necessary.
3. If you are in a traffic jam, shift to NEUTRAL (N); otherwise, shift to the highest gear while driving -- AUTOMATIC OVERDRIVE (D) or THIRD (3).

If you no longer have the overheat warning, you can drive. Just to be safe, drive slower for about 10 minutes. If the warning does not come back on, you can drive normally.

If the warning continues, pull over, stop, and park your vehicle right away.

If there is still no sign of steam, idle the engine for three minutes while you are parked. If you still have the warning, turn off the engine and get everyone out of the vehicle until it cools down. Also, see "Overheated Engine Protection Operating Mode" later in this section.

You may decide not to lift the hood but to get service help right away.