How far can a Subaru Legacy go without coolant?

[Fish02]

Hi everyone,

 

As you can tell, I'm pretty new here and I have a question about the cooling system.

 

Here's the story. I have a 2013 Subaru Legacy, you know, one of the ones with the undersized piston rings. Well, I picked my car up from the body shop yesterday after getting the damage done by a bear hit and run because it was supposedly finished. As part of the repair they replaced the radiator. Also as part of the repair, unintentionally though, they didn't hook up the lower radiator hose or it blew off due to pressure in the system from their test drive. I figure it was the latter since the clamp was still slid way back from where it would've been to hold the hose in place.

 

Long story short, I drove 21 miles without coolant in my engine. My guess is that the puddle around the right front tire of my car was all of the coolant that drained out while sitting there waiting for me to pick it up. 17 of those miles were done at highway speeds of 65 mph and the rest were done at 50 mph. My car about flipped out at me when I hit the driveway with the needle maxing out and the dash lights going nuts. I called the shop to have them tow it back to them and they did.

 

My question is, what kind of damage could possibly be done to the engine and should I accept the car if all they did was fill the coolant system back up?

 

Any help is appreciated as I've never had to deal with a car that severely overheated due to a complete lack of coolant. Low coolant on a different car, yes and that was easily fixed by replacing a the lower and upper radiator hoses. I'm kind of worried about damage to the most expensive part of the vehicle.

[lockmedic]

To paraphrase Ron White: how far can you drive without coolant? All the way to the spot where your engine blows up.

 

Obviously running without coolant is not good. Not as bad as running without oil, but not much better.

 

any funny noises on pulling into the driveway? Knocking/pinging?

 

It's complete speculation as to whether or not you'll ever have problems. Historically Subarus do not like being run hot. . . the older motors would typically start slowly digesting the #4 rod bearing after a loss of coolant (usually blown headgaskets), and within 10-20k miles, you'll have a rod knocking or worse.

 

Will yours do that or similar? Dunno. In a perfect world, you'd tear down the motor, split the case, inspect rod & main bearings, cylinder walls, etc. . . but we don't live in one. Best case they'll buy you a new long block. Worst case they fill it back up and tell you to keep an eye on it. . . and maybe the shop agrees (in writing---notarized, preferably) to accept any liability associated with future engine repairs/replacement as a consequence of this episode of coolant loss for x years/miles.

[Akasa]

It all depends.. you're absolutely better off because you at least had some airflow to the engine at that speed, though there's no telling what damage might have been done.

 

As Lockmedic asked, was there any clicking or pinging sound when you pulled in? When you get it back check to make sure the car idles like it used to. I'd also recommend a leak-down test. Generally what fails when your car overheats are the head gaskets, followed by the piston head or possibly the cylinder wall warping (whichever is the weakest link.)

 

You could have dodged a bullet and not overheated it bad enough to cause any damage, but i'd do a leak down test to verify.

[SSpeed]

I would push for a new long block. Years ago I overheated a car the same way. Filled it up and all seemed fine. Drove around for 2 months thinking I dodged a bullet. Then one day out of the blue, plumes of smoke out the back and horrible knocking sounds.

[GTEASER]

2:33 without oil or coolant. I wouldn't run the car from a cold start more than about 2 minutes without coolant.

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nrgraxem3F0]Engine explosion contest- Engine blows up - no oil or coolant- motor explodes minnesota - YouTube[/ame]

[DonnyJagaru]

I would be surprised if that engine wasn't whipped. When the TEMP light comes on you should really pull over and shut the engine down.

[NVAKeith]

Document all this, photos, miles driven, tow receipt to get it back to body shop. Detailed work order describing the screw up. If your insurance company was involved in the collision repair, notify them of the shops screw up.

 

A new long block with 5/60 warranty is what I'd fight for, preferably installed at competent dealer so you can get warranty support from Subaru directly.