how long can one drive with a leaking coolant seal
 

early stages of a bad coolant seal are showing on my s5 13bt.

the engine has been consuming a small amount of coolant and smoking really hard with hot start. Once the car warms up there is not a trace of smoke at all which is not the case with all the others I have seen that smoke all the time. From my research it looks like it is a worsening coolant seal

Is there potential harmfull effects to the rotors/housing if I keep on driving it this way ? My future plan is to jspec swap it and rebuild/port the one with a bad coolant seal(s) so I want to have a salvageable parts. In the mean time I want to still drive it until I source another jspec motor and get it swaped in.

Should stop driving it immediately or are more miles left?

Longer you go, the less likely any parts near the bad seal will be re-usable.

I put a few thousand miles on mine, with a bad coolant seal... then I finally damaged an apex seal due to fuel issues.

I have a pressure relief radiator cap that I would open after I shut the car off; to let the pressure out of the cap and not in to the engine. I was also using about as much coolant as gasoline.

In my experience, you CAN drive it till you race a mustang on the way home then park it. It likely won't start after that.
You SHOULD quit driving it. Turned out my bad coolant seal wasn't a bad seal at all. I somehow blew a hole in the water jacket in the rear housing!
Good luck with whatever route you choose.

Take care of it asap, the leaking coolant will deteriorate and destroy many other parts of the engine (belts, hoses, etc.)

ok, kinda what I figured but I was never down this road before.

I have many things planned for the car and this will give me time to complete those.

car is parked.

i drove around on a blown coolant seal for like 6 months. i tore the engine down, and everything looked perfectly fine, except for the seal itself. I wouldnt worry about damaging things, should be ok

Also, don't let the engine sit for too long with coolant in the rotor housings. Drain it as soon as you can. You don't want that stuff rusting. Alot of those parts might be reusable.

Jack,before you go all Nutso on ripping the Engine down,a few things come to Mind:#1:compression test the engine.
#2:Pressure test the cooling system while you have the car parked on a Big Piece of Cardboard(that will show you that coolant leaked out Externally).
#3:check the Spark Plugs After the Pressure test for Coolant in the Housing(that will tell you Which rotor you should look at IF you have to Tear it down.)
#4; you mentioned HOT Start.Try taking the Plugs out and Pulling the EFI Fuse,while the Engine is Hot.Put a Rag up against the plug holes.Examine the rag to See what "liquid" is in there.That will determine if it is Fuel or Coolant that is Hindering starting).
anyhow.that is My .02 cents..Canadian..which is Hardly anything now a days,But Good luck.STYX!~

i had the same problem, and so did a friend of mine. all you need to do to continue driving with out that damn coolant buzzer going off is the following: buy some block sealant, follow directions on the bottle, usually consists of drain and flush the coolant system. put back in the bottom plug, fill with water add sealant, run for 30 mins min. drain and add coolant. but i never run straight 50/50 coolant in my car because i was buying so much of it at the time, so i would mix the 50/50 half and half with water. but when i did it, it didnt seal the first day, but the next time i added just a little water to fill it and it hasnt had problems since

it also depends on how badly and where the coolant seal is broken