Q: Car went from cold to hot while warming up

Seeing your Ford Taurus’ temperature gauge in the red zone is an immediate reason for concern. Since this is indicative of your engine overheating, your Ford’s cooling system will need to be thoroughly inspected to determine the cause behind the vehicle getting hot so quickly. It is important to enlist the assistance of a friendly certified mechanic as soon as possible to verify this and avoid permanent engine damage.

A best case scenario of a red zone reading would be a faulty temperature gauge. THe temperature gauge displays whether the car is overheating and faulty sensors have been known to duplicate these concerns. A worst case scenario however would be a large leak somewhere in the cooling system, causing a lack of coolant. This would lead to your Taurus’ engine heating up too quickly, leading to overheating. Situations like these require a trained mechanic to diagnose exactly what is causing the overheating problem.