Signs Your Car’s Engine Needs to Be Rebuilt or Replaced

There will come a time when your car’s engine has reached the end of its life and it will either need to be rebuilt or replaced. There are some signs that your car’s engine needs to be rebuilt that Pit Shop Auto Repair is going to list below. It’s important to bring your vehicle to our shop at the first instance of any of these signs. In all cases, you may need to have your car, truck, utility vehicle, or van towed because it cannot run at all or to prevent further engine damage.

Constant Overheating

If your automobile is overheating constantly, there is damage to the car’s engine or cooling system that needs to be addressed. Depending on the cause of the overheating, replacing the cooling system may resolve the issue. If your vehicle is overheating because you’ve cracked the engine block, replacing the engine is the only option.

Excess Exhaust

Exhaust smoke coming out of your tailpipe is a sign that your engine is hemorrhaging either fuel, coolant, or motor oil. As you can imagine, the engine would not hemorrhage such fluids if there were not severe damage inside of it. The colors of the exhaust tell you which fluid is being burned away. Black is fuel, white is coolant, and blue is motor oil.

Knocking Sounds

If your engine is knocking all the time, it’s possible that the pistons are rattling inside of the cylinders. If either of these parts gets damaged, your engine will need to be rebuilt at a minimum. The pistons begin to rattle inside of the cylinders once the rod bearings wear down. You can also break a rod, and this will render your engine useless.

Metal Shavings

Finding metal shavings in the motor oil is a sign of engine death. The metal shavings are coming from your engine parts. Unbelievably, these parts are slowly disintegrating and the oil is picking up the disintegrated metal as it flows through the engine. The more metal the oil picks up the more the oil itself damages your engine.

Power Loss

Finally, if your engine simply cannot produce power anymore, it has reached the end of its life. Gasoline engines usually have up to 300,000 miles of life in them. The record for diesel engines is 900,000 miles. No matter which you drive, your engine will eventually need to be replaced no matter how much we service it simply because it’s too old.

Pit Shop Auto Repair in Libertyville, IL, is an expert in rebuilding engines and replacing them. Call us today to discuss any concerns you have with respect to your automobile’s engine.