if there is no coolant in the reservoir and its completely empty will the coolant sensor on the dash board?

Question

still give an accurate reading of the temperature of the temperature of the engine, eg if your pipes birst and you were about 20 miles away from a ford dealer, or home (where you had replacement pipe) would the sensor still give accurate readings so you could stop and let the car cool down before starting the engine up again?

i found my self with a leak a few weeks back while i was looking under the bonnet this was just before i was about to go out luckily i noticed it, if i hadn't of noticed it what sort of damage would it of done to the engine, and if you were having a leaky pipe and you were far from home or a garage with no coolant on you could you suggest any other liquid (such as water) that would work long enough for you to get home,

Answer 1

If there is no coolant, the engine will heat up. the thermostat in dashboard will show the pointer to the hot zone.

If you feel like it is reaching there, stop and don't drive until you fill the coolant.
Driving an over heated engine will cost you more than the cost you will pay to tow your car or bring coolant.

Answer 2

I had the same problem with my focus the thermostat housing had broken leaking coolant slowly over some time, unfortunatly for me i was on a dual carriage way when i got the first signs that i had run out of coolant, the temp guage was well in the red and the car was stalling. i stopped ran up an embankment and walked in to a village where i found some kind soul who gave me 2, 2 litre bottles of water. Water is basiclly good for getting you home, the reason why coolant is usually a bright colour is because it has coolant mixed with it which has anti freeze and other things to protect your engine from the elements. Best bet after you get to a garage is to get your leak sorted out and have your reservour drained so they can put the correct mix of water and coolant in. I now check everything every weekend and carry a bottle of water in the boot just incase! NEVER drive without coolant.

Answer 3

The temperature gauge will not work - it measures coolant temperature, not actual engine temperature, so with no coolant it won't work.

Bear in mind that the temperature varies at different points within the engine, so if you had a sensor in one place, it wouldn't warn of overheating elsewhere.

Also, cars are designed to be used properly, not by idiots. Therefore the engineers assume that the car will not be used without coolant, and design the rest of the car accordingly.

If the pipes burst, stop immediately and call out your breakdown/recovery service.

Answer 4

Water is better than air by far. But if your system is ruptured or otherwise open and not able to hold pressure like it is designed it will allow your coolant to boild at a lower temp for one thing.

Beyond that if you run the engine without coolant, your water pump is not being lubricated properly and that make for an unhappy pump. Also you run the risk of really cooking the inside of your engine as well as possibly warping heads. I have never personally seen cast iron heads warp from overheating but many things are aluminum now and aluminum is not as forgiving.

As far as your question on the temp sensor reading. (we are not talking about the level sensor, that is different we are talking about the temp sensor here) No it may not give you an accurate reading of your engine's tmp. You see it is designed to read the temp of a liquid Not the lack there of in air. Your cylinder walls could be hundreds of degrees hot and your temp sensor is not picking that up because of the poor heat transfer properties of air when compared to water. Your gauge could be way off.

Just be safe and patch the system as best you can and fill it with water to limp yourself to safety if you have when you are in a situation like that again. Oh and be sure to bring as much water as you can carry before you try to limp it away, you might need it.

Once you get to safety, you will need to repair the syspem properly and flush the water out and refill with your proper coolant ratio. Water transfers heat bettar than coolant really but it won't lube your water pump or resist corrosion like cooalnt will. Be sure to use coolant unles it is an emergency then as I said, water is bettan than air.

Answer 5

Yes, the temp guage will still work but you would be mad to drive the car with no coolant in it. The engine will definitely overheat and eventually seize causing terminal damage. You need to get the cars cooling system pressure tested properly to determine were the leak is. Get it repaired. In a modern car, the cooling system will probably need bleeding to remove any air pockets. As to whether any other liquid is ok, yes water will do to get you home and get the car repaired but it is important to run the car with coolant. Water will corrode the internal cooling system of the engine as it has no lubrication, the cars hoses will become hardened and more likely to split causing another leak.

Answer 6

if your car is out of coolant and there is a low coolant level sensor on the bottle,the low coolant light will come on. if your car does not have a low coolant level sensor and it is low on coolant,the temperature gauge will reading abnormal cause by air in the coolant system. turn off engine right away if temperature read hot.

Answer 7

Plenty of advice on this page but no one has said, if you have to add water to you car radiator let it cool down before adding water etc because the water will no doubt blow out when it hits the hot metal, and possibly burn you.If you discover a leak before leaving home carry spare water, better still leave the car get a bus. The leak will only get worse.Better being safe than sorry.

Answer 8

You should never drive the car with no coolant, you risk much more than a simple burst pipe, you could do irreparable damage to the engine.

Answer 9

If you lose all coolant you would end with a siezed engine because the coolent keeps the engine cooler at running temperature so engine damage would occur.
your temperature guage would drop to zero so always watch these type of dials while your driving

Answer 10

It's not unknown for a car to overheat without warning because there is no coolant in the system. The temp senser isn't always in the optimum place when no coolant is touching it.