Soon to be owner, low coolant level?

[dsego]

Hello everyone. I've been hunting an LX570 for a while now. I'm test driving one soon, and prior to this, I requested an inspection with a local dealer. It's a 2014 150k kms, with next to no service records. "Soon to be" in the title because if its not this one, I'll eventually find one.

The inspection states "Low coolant, no apparent sign of leak". This makes me nervous of head gasket issues, but I have a local mechanic who is really good with the 200 series. Any way to figure out if it is indeed a head gasket issue or something more troublesome? I've gone through that before, and that engine actually cracked a couple of piston heads. It was fixable, but I don't want to go there with this new (to me) purchase. Or if I do, I want to negotiate accordingly.

Thank you in advance for your time.

 

[bloc]

Most likely the valley plate. Plenty of reading to do in this section on that.

The big question is whether the coolant got low enough to damage anything, and really there is no way to know for sure. It might be fine.. but might not.

Personally I’d keep looking.

 

[Sandroad]

The valley plate leak can be inspected with a boroscope under the intake manifold. I wonder how low the coolant is. Just a bit under the full mark in the reservoir is very different than being low in the radiator. One of the first signs of an internal head gasket leak is misfire on cold start and eventually a check engine light from misfires, but by that time you can tell it’s not running right. Low coolant is a risk, so caveat emptor.