In a fit of generosity I loaned my Father-in-law (Fil) my car so that he could make the 30 mile daily commute whilst his car got fixed. I didn't mind, I can take the bus easily enough.

Well i got it back last night, and when he got it there, he told me that he had broken down, but it was obviously now fixed.

He said that he had blown out a heater hose and over heated it on the highway. As he put it he saw steam out the rear view mirror and then the engine 'conked' out. He had it towed to his mechanic who promptly fixed it, took his money, and sent him on his merry way.

Driving it this morning I did not notice anything out of sorts, no overheating according to the gauge and no strange drivability problems.

So am a driving a grenade with the pin pulled out or am I ok? what damage might have occurred that I'm going to have to fix?

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The old white brick

I overheated mine a couple of times before I replaced the radiator.

Slants are pretty tough! If it is running fine now it will likely continue to do so.

You may want to change the oil, as overheating can break down motor oil and reduce its capacity to lube your engine.

-Mac

Double-check the work done to the car.
Were both heater hoses replaced, or just one?
Hoses correctly installed, routed properly, clamps tight?
New coolent or did they just refill the system with water?
And one more vote for an oil change.
DD

Right, I'll change the oil.

just the hose that blew was replaced, so it was routed right, and they put fresh coolant in it. opened the hood and saw that I'll really need to do some cleaning in there as well.

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The North American Wild Chihuahua lives in a mutualistic relationship with the North American Wild Cow, providing an early alert system and carrion clean up.

It's a good bet that if one hose was rotted, other hoses are in the same condition (unless you know they've been changed).

I would go ahead and change all the other hoses before you get it out on the road next summer.

-Mac

Thankfully I've replaced the top and bottom radiator hoses and the bypass hose not all that long ago. so the only old hoses in the system were the heater hoses. Lucky me. And I would love to be able to leave my car alone till next summer, but....I kinda' like being warm on the way to work.

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The old white brick