Possible engine damage due to NO coolant

3 weeks ago (6/3/05) I drove away with a new 2005 ZX5 SES. At 1023 miles,the car overheats on a major Interstate and I'm towed into a nearby Ford dealer. The next day, looking at the car, they discover that it has practically NO coolant. The technician tells me that he had to add 1-1/2 gal. of coolant!! The Service Manager surmises that the Dealer did not perform the Pre-Destination Inspection (PDI) before giving me the car. I ask for and they perform a complete PDI.

In discussions with the Service Manager, I tell him that I've been getting poor gas mileage from the start: 22.3 MPG; 25.4; 28.7; and 17.5 (just before the overheating). He he says this could be related to improper cooling, running hot, etc. The car is rated for 26 MPG-City and 32 MPG-Highway. I get 25.9 MPG (after the overheating).

I read in the car Manual today that the coolant system capacity is 6 quarts or 1-1/2 gals. I would welcome all constructive opinions on whether the engine could have or may have sustained damage from driving it 1000 miles with very little coolant - AND how one could technically determine this.

Thanks, JFC

I might suggest getting the service manager to put this in wiriting. There is a chance this incident will cause or contribute to engine damage in the future. Any records. opinions etc may be helpful if there is a warranty claim dispute.
Also report the incident in writing to the dealer and to Ford, again to help support any future warranty claim.

The possible damaged areas are: warped castings, especially cylinder heads, weakened or blown gaskets, esp the cyl head gasket, and scuffed pistons and cylinder walls. These problems might result in shortened engine life, loss of power, excessive oil or coolant consumption.

Its difficult to prove any damage without disassembling the engine, but a compression test and a leak down test might indicate some trouble areas. If you are worried, or spot some trouble areas, these tests would be a place to start.
IMHO drive the car and keep track of ALL oil and coolant consumption. Try to get any observed problems repaired before the warranty period runs out.
You might demand a new engine or a new car from the dealer, based on this incident but likely this will not elicit a satisfactory response from the dealer, because for the moment it seems there is no performance problem.
However, many engines have survived a low-coolant situation without apparent damage, (depending on engine design and the severity of the overheating situation) so you may avoid any problem altogether.

Magic Rat -
Thanks. I will visit the servicing dealership tomorrow and insist they mention the 1-1/2 gals. And I may ask for a new car or new engine from the selling dealership or Ford Motor Co..

I spoke with my Dad earlier and he, too, said this could cause problems in the future. What I don't quite understand is - why not problems in the here and now? Would it be the cumulative effect of routinely heating the engine with this early abuse actually pre-aging the engine? Or something else?

Will ask the selling dealeship to perform a compression test, etc. And I'll keep detailed records, as you suggest. Regrettably, I have seen in this and other forums that some Focuses (Foci?) have reported consistenly poor mileage, with no identified solution.

JFC

About the mileaga....do not condemn your poor mileage until you have put several more thousand miles on the car. Often engines need many miles to fully break the engine in, seat the piston rings and loosen up. Think of it this way; the internal parts of the engine, especially the cylinder walls are smooth, but not polished to a mirror-like finish. Running the engine over thousands of miles will polish the moving parts, making them smoother and reducung their friction when moving. Also piston rings seal better on a fully -broken in engine and are able to extract more power from the fuel as it is burned, thus improving gas mileage.

As for any damage......parts like the block or cylinder head may have become slightly warped and/or the head gasket was overstretched because the engine expanded thermally too much. This warp or weaker gasket may seal....for now, but might blow in the future.
The pistons may have become weakened or scuffed, causing increased wear for a short period of time. In time, the piston skirt might collapswe or the cylinder wall is permanently marked or gouged.

Remember the Chevy Vega in the mid-1970's? They had a very weak cooling system where the slightest under-filling of the system caused over heating and problems just like these, for thousands of the cars.

Your situation is bad luck, but do not worry about it too much. The stuff I discuss here are worst-case scinarios and your car may actually be undamaged.
I might add that it is possible your car was filled properly with coolant and has a manufacturing defect which is consuming the coolant, either by it leaking out or being burned in the engine.
Either way, keep an eye out for coolant loss and send it in for warranty repair at the first reasonable sign of trouble.

Magic Rat -

Again, I appreciate your thoughts. To confirm your comments re: mileage, the car I just had (and gave to my son) was a 1999 Honda Civic bought in 2002 with 27K miles. Its combined mileage in 2002 was 29 MPG, and this slowly increased to 31 MPG. I fed it only Super and maintained it well. I hope your speculations about breaking an engine in play out.

Today I spoke with someone at a Lawyer's office that deals with Lemon Laws and he said poor mileage is a difficult issue to link with other performance/mechanical problems.

As noted, I will ask the selling dealership to prove to me diagnostically that either there has been damage or not - and will share your theories with them.

JFC

yeah that blows id raise hell

i want to replace my engine in my 97 eclipse, but i dont know anything about cars . HELP.

i want to replace my engine in my 97 eclipse, but i dont know anything about cars . HELP.
Start a NEW thread on this subject and you will get a better response. This thread discusses a completely unrelated subject.

lol yeah if it overheated and you stopped right away then its probably ok. if you kept going for like 20 miles with the guage pegged, then it might have some problems. my buddy bought an old ranger and the thermostat was stuck closed and he ruined something in the engine on the way home with it lol. i think it was just a gasket or something but still its a pain in the ass to replace a head gasket lol

i want to replace my engine in my 97 eclipse, but i dont know anything about cars . HELP. If you have no automotive exsperience, hire a good mechanic!