my wife has a 21013 plug in prus that she purchased two months ago. last week driving on a highway in california on I 10 she hit something in the road she pulled over saw that it looked like a piece of an old bicycle that dislodged when she pulled over . she got back in the car and kept driving . the car seemed fine. no warning lights came. after a few miles she noticed that she had no airconditioning. after a few miles more all the lights suddenly came on . she got off the highway pulled in to a gas station and had the car towed to the nearest toyota dealer. He says that that there is a hole in the radiator and that caused the engine to go bad and need to be replace. is this possible? and that there would be no warning lights going on until l it was to do anything about it? My wife never sensed anything wrong while she was driving except for the lack of airconditioning until the warning lights went on and she was able to turn the engine off when she parked.
It does sound like the coolant was lost, leading to serious overheating, which can definitely warp engine parts and require expensive repairs (so that, counting parts, machining, and labor costs, it can be more economical to replace the engine). It's too bad the Prius has a temperature light but no temperature gauge; with a gauge you can notice signs of trouble earlier. It would have been good to look carefully under the hood after a suspicious impact, for any sign of escaping fluid or steam and, if none seen, stop again a few miles down the road and recheck, looking at the various fluid levels. But "would have beens" are always after the fact. Best of luck with the car (or your next car, if that's how it works out). -Chap
Engines don't just "go bad", even if they overheat. I'd ask them what specifically happened, confirm the hole in the radiator, and check the oil to see if it's "milky" (suggests blown head gasket). Q: Car not starting after overheating | Ask YourMechanic After you figure out what the specific symptoms are, then you can get a better idea of what to do. With that said, if worse comes to worse, I think any used engine from a 2010-2015 Prius can be dropped in as a replacement.
If she was driving any amount and fluid was leaking that bad, I would think she would have noticed. The car underneath would be coated with leaked fluid. The back if the car would be coated as well. Even without coolant, it can run for a few minutes, so go into the shop and run it and listen to how it runs. Make sure there's still oil in it. Having said all that, aluminium heads and blocks will warp from over heating quickly if it got real hot.
