Q: Engine light came on, diagnosis at auto zone indicated bad sensor.. Today, my car started overheating.

asked by on December 23, 2017

A week ago, low coolant light came on. Had it tapped off. Two days ago came on again and car felt it was going to shut off. Engine light came on. Auto zone diagnostic indicated sensor issue. Ordered part. Today, while I was parked but car running. light came back on.. I attempted to drive home and it started overheating. Checked the under the hood and the antifreeze was very low and leaking out. I have also had issues with the AC. Blowing a bit warm. Not sure if they are both related. What could the problem be? Cost? Recently had tires put on at a ford dealer, couldn’t they have noticed the problem?

My car has 97000 miles.
My car has an automatic transmission.

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It sounds as though you have a coolant leak. It may be a small one and it could be that you didn’t get it topped off correctly. Pouring coolant into the overflow tank doesn’t necessarily do the trick. You have to get into the radiator, and there are probably some bleeder screws that need to be opened to get the air out. As for the check engine light, I wouldn’t bank too much on the advice from Auto Zone. Interpreting trouble codes is often more subtle than simply replacing the part mentioned in the code. You need to stop driving the car until you get this overheating thing sorted out. It doesn’t take long to do some serious engine damage driving a car with a cooling problem. Contact YourMechanic to have a technician come out to your home or office to check out your overheating Edge and let you know what it will take to solve it.

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