How long can a car engine last while driving it with a coolant water leak?
If the cooling system is still more or less full of coolant, and the cooling fan is working, and you aren’t climbing hills, or towing a load, or the weather isn’t real hot, a car engine will usually run a long time low of coolant.But at some point, when the coolant level gets LOW ENOUGH, the engine will overheat quickly, maybe in as little as a minute or less, if it’s already fully heated up and you have a MAJOR leak.Four or five minutes of full throttle operation with little or no coolant is virtually guaranteed to destroy an engine. Ten minutes or more of normal driving with very low or no coolant will likely result in major engine problems.But if you drive a car with a low coolant level very gently, it might run all day under favorable conditions, light load, cool weather, etc, without harming it.Do NOT abuse your car by driving it with low coolant except in the worst sort of emergency. If you are in an accident, and see coolant leaking out, it would probably be ok to drive the car maybe a quarter of a mile or so to get it off the highway at a safe spot, etc.Mechanics routinely run cars without any coolant for a minute or less, when the engine is cold, which is long enough to pull into a garage from the parking lot, or to take the car outside so as to get another car into the shop.
What happens if your car runs out of engine coolant?
If you run out of coolant, and continue to operate the engine for a significant period of time, it will cause serious harm to the engine.Among the first things damaged is typically the heads and head gaskets. If you really push it, you could damage the block, seize the engine, or melt a hole in a piston.Before you get to the catastrophic damage point, there are some tell tale signs that you've run out of coolant. 1) the heater stops working2) the temperature gauge drops from hot to cold (because it's no longer immersed in hot coolant)3) as the engine heat soaks without the cooling system doing its job, the heat gauge eventually rises into the hot zone and keeps going. 4)At this point the engine is/has exceeded its designed operating temperature, and the check engine light may come on. At this point you may have already damaged the heads/gaskets.At any point past warning #2, turn off the engine and let it cool. Adding cool water while the engine is hot could cause warping/cracking. Not to mention you may get burned when opening the cap.
How long can I drive a car with no coolant?
I once crossed the USA West to East in a car with zero coolant.It was a derivative of the VW Beetle. The old one with an air-cooled engine.A friend of mine did the same in Europe, a trip from Germany to Spain over a week with no coolant.He had an old Porsche. The air-cooled flat six.Ok, that did not answer the question... I know... I just could not resist.Seriously now: If the leak is a slow one. You can full and top up with water every so many miles.If the leak is really fast, like no hose, then if the engine is started from cold, you can drive between a few minutes to a bit more depending on the engine....Coolant is rather important for engines.
Does driving high speed on low gear damage the car?
The exact values car speed and the gear in which you are driving varies according to the engine you are driving. One should be more concerned about the engine speed (rpm) than the car speed. A car is prone to damage if you cross the red line on the engine speed meter, else you are safe to choose any gear for a given rpm. In case you are crossing the red mark what happens is, the engine cooling system lack to provide sufficient heat dissipation which results in engine damage.The converse practice also does no good. You end up burning more fuel and damage your gearbox assembly. At lower gear car gives more torque for a particular engine speed than higher ones. Both these practices pull you system to the extremes, which in long run ultimately damage your car engine. So, go smooth on you car unless you are concerned about the maintenance costs. It is advised to use optimum gear for a given car speed as well as engine speed.One more thing you should avoid is unnecessary pressing of clutch especially at higher engine speed. This practice causes extensive wearing of clutch plates and may cause their slipping after an oil change. Replacing of clutch plates is a costly affair. You should only use it (clutch) for shifting gears and not for idling the acceleration; neutral gear serves that purpose.
Why does an ambulance sound like its engine revs to a high idle when it is placed in park?
The high idle is so that the lights, air conditioning, and heat do not draw down the battery. When an ambulance is on the scene of a call, the emergency lights are left on. You also want to keep the interior temperature at the optimum level for patient comfort and treatment!
White smoke under front of hood after driving through deep puddle?
I drove through deep puddle on accident (late at night after big rainstorm), white smoke came out from the front immediately following. Three days later, A/C wont get cold. Anyone know what this could be? There doesnt appear to be any leaks from under the car, and coolant reservoir is still full. I looked down into the engine and I dont see anything leaking. What could this be? And could it cause any damage to the engine if a/c is not fixed?
My car’s coolant reservoir hose is leaking. I need to wait for the part to arrive. Can I drive if I continuously fill up the reservoir with coolant?
Lemme share my personal experience regarding the same problem which I was facing with my Suzuki Swift. There was a minor leakage in the coolant hose of my car as it was quite minor one so I didn't pay much attention towards it and kept on driving the car (filling the car with new coolant whenever it was at the low level). The car was going smooth for quite a long time but one night while I was driving it at a pretty high speed, the leakage in the pipe became very high and the pipe got burst. Suddenly there was high rise in the vehicle temperature which I failed to notice, soon enough I could smell something burning and saw smoke coming out from beneath the hood. I stopped the car immediately and opened the hood just to discover that the engine was red hot. I immediately called the mechanic and asked him to take my car to his garage where I came to know that the pistons got so hot that they had melted and got stuck to the side walls of the engine. All this led to an expenditure of roughly 2000 dollars as I had to replace the complete engine. After this incident I discovered that a huge pressure builds up in the coolant pipeline which led to an increase in the leakage and thus caused this incident.So at the end what I would say is its better not to drive coz you never know when a small defect can cause you a big expenditure and maybe an accident as well.