It can be a significant contributing cause, especially if it's bad enough to keep the system from pressurizing.
A bad radiator is a radiator that is leaking or clogged. If you are loosing coolant then you have a leak that should be easy to find if the leak is at the radiator. If it is clogged your engine will overheat.
A bad water pump or thermostat can cause an engine to overheat. A plugged (clogged) radiator or heater core may also cause an engine to overheat.
It could be the radiator is clogged. The thermostat could be bad (prevents the coolant from circulating from radiator to engine block)
Bad thermostat, plugged radiator, blown head gasket in order of expense.
several things 1. no radiator coolant 2. thermostat is bad 3. needs new water pump 4. make sure engine/radiator fan is running
yes. but there are several other things that can cause it to overheat. not enough coolant, bad belt, radiator blocked, bad thermostat,bad water pump to name a few.
If the timing were off, it would be possible to overheat an engine, and have the overflow throwing water at you. But, in newer cars, this is usally not the case. You might have a bad hose somewhere-radiator, or heater hoses. And/or, the thermostat could be bad. NOPE
The fan might spin slowly, or not at all. By not spinning at speed, the fan will not cool the radiator enough and the engine could overheat.
One way is: with a cold engine, take off the radiator cap, start the engine and let it run to operating temp, and look into the radiator to see if you see any coolant flowing usually from one side of the radiator to the other. If you look in the radiator and the coolant is not moving, then your water pump is probably gone, and don't overheat your engine. Without coolant flowing through the engine you cna overheat the engien and cause severe damage.
Bad thermostat, cap and radiator is a common cause.
Coolant system leak, faulty thermostat, lack of (or long overdue change of) engine oil... low fluid or bad thermostat, low oil, bad radiator,clogged water pump. You should also make sure that the radiator and a/c fans are working propperly
The engine produces heat no matter the weather. The cooling system must have a problem such as a bad thermostat, bad fan clutch, plugged radiator, missing radiator shroud or low on coolant because of a leak somewhere.