Driving on overheating engine

[Kev090997]

My mother has a 2004 Echo which she has bought new and driven around on a daily basis. Majority of simple maintenance (oil changes, filters, what not) is done by me. Just today, the alternator belt snapped off which caused her to lose aircon, a lit battery light, and most worryingly, the red coolant light. Being completely ignorant to cars, my mother decided to continue driving for around for about 10-15km with the light on before arriving home.

Obviously, driving around like that will eventually cause engine failure, but I would like to know if those 10-15km could have done any lasting damage. I started the car briefly when the engine was cold and could not hear or feel anything out of the ordinary.

[trentmeyer23]

The coolant light may be as a result of the loss of voltage. Did it actually climb in temp?

[Kev090997]

Other than the red coolant light, I have no way of knowing if the temp actually rose or not. There is no water temp gauge in the ECHO; just a blue coolant light and a red one.

[voytek]

if you haven't blown a head gasket, you probably are OK...

How much water was in the radiator?

Make sure the radiator is full, start the engine, any bubbles coming up?

Any sign of oil in water?

 

[Hiro]

13 hours ago, trentmeyer23 said:

The coolant light may be as a result of the loss of voltage. Did it actually climb in temp?

Bear in mind that on the NZ engines the air-con belt also drives the water pump...

[thommo]

This story reminds me of our daughters BF who bought a 2nd hand Subaru Liberty from a wholesale dealer in Orange.  He'd already paid for the car, took it for a 10km test drive on pickup reaching up to 80kmh and on return noticed a burning smell.  Popped the hood, checked the dipstick - no oil!  Confronted the dealer who handed him a $20 note to buy some oil FFS! I'd have told him to shove his $20 up his clack and give me my $7,000 back. 

Because the car was over 160,000kms and more than 10yrs old, no statutory 3mth/5000km warranty in NSW, but he managed to get the dealer to give him 1mth warranty. The car has done tens of thousands of kms since and never missed a beat.  So you can get lucky with this stuff.