The coolant system in my ls400 had a leak in the upper hoses. My mechanic said the engine could have overheated without the thermostat showing it since the rubber hose was completely detatched from the system. He fixed the leak but I'm worrying it caused permanent engine damage. The engine did smoke a bit but it think it was only the leak since it smelled like coolant and came behind the engine where the leak was.
How long did you drive it that way?
100 miles atleast before I noticed anything. The coolant reservoir was 3/4 empty. But the temperature was steady 80°C
And even yesterday morning when I filled it back up and dtove to my mechanic the temperature gauge went back to steady 80° after a couple minutes of driving
Thanks for the response. Yes there was still coolant in the resere. Yet I'm still quite uneasy for driving over 100 miles without noticing the coolant leak. How could I check for possible engine damage from overheating?
You may have damaged your engine, but there's a good chance you didn't. What you have to do now is carefully watch for any signs of a damaged engine - blue or white smoke, dropping coolant levels, dropping oil levels -or you can do/have a mechanic do a compression check and a check for a blown headgasket - Scotty has videos on these procedures, they aren't too difficult or expensive.
Guys. I bought the coolant test kut. But I could not find a cap on my radiator or anywhere else apart from the reservoir. So I put it on the coolant tank. It was sealed properly. Is the result still valid? Liquid was Blue after 5 mins of pumping