While taking your kids for a long drive on their vacations in your favorite car, you might have come across the nuisances of engine overheating at times, followed by desperate search some coolant - preferably water. Further, if you are on a deserted highway, the situation gets dicier, as you would unlikely to find any suitable coolant immediately. Being an auto amateur, the situation often seems to be messier to you, and all you can do is to wait for a tow truck with the opened hood, and steam blowing out of it. However, in spite of your low familiarity with automobile intricacies, you can do a lot to ward off the curse of overheating. Here are some handy tips that would help you in countering the overheating issues effectively.

• Always keep observing the temperature gauge, and see if it is crossing the optimal mark. Don't drive continuously for hours, and few minutes rest is recommended after some specific time period.

• One of the major causes of overheating is improper circulation of antifreeze within the engine assembly. The coolant pays a vital role in keeping the engine of your vehicle cooler during warm season. So, it is advisable that you keep checking for any impurities into the antifreeze periodically. Also make sure that it should be at an optimum level.

• If the engine gets heat up while on the move, just turn up the heat in the car to its maximum temperature, this would drop the temperature by far, and hence checks overheating.

• If you know about the antifreeze compartment, then just pour half-a-cup water into it. This will dilute the antifreeze, and help in its smooth circulation into the assembly.

• Sometimes overheating also occurs because of poorly fitted hoses into it. This can be fixed by replacing those ill-fitted hoses by new ones. This can be temporarily corrected by proper torquing of those hoses. Sometimes the hose may get blocked or dislocated, in this situation, just take out the hose and clear up the debris deposited into it, which can be done with the help of flowing water through it.

• In case of heavy traffic, just keep fair distance from the other vehicles, as congested traffic blocks the airflow into your car's assembly, and thus causes overheating.

• Check out the radiator's overflow tank to find if it's empty, in this case, your car is demanding extra coolant. Moreover, if you observe boiling coolant into the tank then it is an alarming situation for the thermostat of your car.

• If your radiator's overflow tank is fitted with the non-pressurized cap over it, you can anytime add water into it. Don't put-off the cap when the engine is hot, and wait for the engine to cool down by turning the keys off.

In addition to these useful tips, it is suggested that you always keep few essential things, such as - water, flashlight, breaking liquid, antifreeze, etc - in your car. Additionally, keep your tool box full of necessary instruments to deal with various issues.