I recently found out that there was a crack in my radiator in my 2011 Nissan Maxima.
I didn't have the money the day of to get it fixed so I drove home (8 miles away) but I would've never known there was a crack unless they told me because it wasn't leaking that bad.
I did notice a small pool of green liquid under the hood however. I put straight antifreeze in the radiator and it only took a few ounces plus
I've never seen the gauge go into overheat status at all. Nothing more than halfway on the temp meter inside.
I work third so the next day I was going to work like normal at 11pm and nothing out of the ordinary happened. Still barely taking any antifreeze at all.. Everything seemed normal.
I went home from work this morning after driving my car (8 miles) to get home and I noticed a faint white smoke that lasted about 30 seconds to a minute after shutting engine off. Keep in mind that I put more antifreeze in the radiator before leaving work so it was max full (but it barely took any anyways) so I don't understand why the smoke.
Does the smoke mean engine damage?
I immediately had my car towed to a mechanic shop afterwards.