If you spring a oil leak or coolant leak, Brake fluid or what ever whilst trave

Yep 100% in tune with my vehicle.
My brother in law & I bought our Hiluxes at the same time & over 13 years of ownership he blew 3 engines & I still had the same motor after 240,000 km.

I remember looking at my temp gauge on one trip & seeing it was too low. To me that means maybe no coolant on the temp sensor so stopped immediately. Turns out I had split the lower hose & dumped all the coolant out in a matter of minutes. Let the engine cool down, replaced the hose & coolant & was on my way again. I asked my BIL what he would have done & as I suspected he reckoned there was no reason to stop with a low temp reading so would have kept driving & trashed the engine! Some people just don't get it.

yep absalutly you can pick it up well before your vehicle dies

ive picked up a holed radiator, leaking gearbox, leaking shockers, leaking rear diff pinion seal and even a siezed belt pully well before there was any damage

why don,t you let him learn the hard , like we did , hes an adult
then he should start acting like one .
mechpete

A few years back had to go a recover a Guy from near Paynes Find WA , he had driven his diesel discovery untill it seized and came to a halt , the engine was so hot that it had melted the wiring together on top of the cylinder head .

Another was a woman who was unable to grasp that just because the speedo went to 200k did not mean the car was able to travel at anywhere near that speed for any length of time. (straight six commodore had thrown a rod)

still it takes all sorts !

Personal knowledge, and the "feel" of the vehicle can save a lot of drama's, and gauges are based on old technology. They have a purpose, but with all the computers in more modern vehicles, you wouldn't think it would be too hard or expensive to add a buzzer instead of just a little light on the dash when things are going wrong.
Scangauge's and the like are fine, and pretty reasonably priced as accessories, but if they could be "tricked up" to have adjustable set warning sounds instead of just digital readouts, many engines and transmissions could be saved.
While we at it, how about someone invent a pressure switch that could be added to the brake lines, so that additional LED brake lights could show the extent of braking. How many times do you see lazy bozo's driving at highway speeds with the left foot resting on the brake. In appearance, it shows the same intensity as full on panic braking. How many rear end accidents could be avoided if you saw that the person in front was just slowing, or preparing to stop at a set of lights, or slamming on the brakes to avoid something.