You will find a coolant temperature gage on your vehicle's instrument panel. See Engine Coolant Temperature Gage for more information.

If your vehicle has a Driver Information Center (DIC), the display will show an Engine Coolant Hot/Engine Overheated message. See DIC Warnings and Messages for more information.

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. Just 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 because of being driven with no coolant, your vehicle can be badly damaged. The costly repairs would not be covered by the vehicle warranty.

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. In heavy traffic, let the engine idle in N (NEUTRAL) while stopped. If it is safe to do so, pull off the road, shift to P (PARK) or N (NEUTRAL) and let the engine idle.
2. Turn on your heater to full hot at the highest fan speed and open the windows as necessary.

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 and you have not stopped, pull over, stop, and park your vehicle right away.

If there is still no sign of steam, you can push down the accelerator until the engine speed is about twice as fast as normal idle speed for at least 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.

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