If your hose breaks on a warm car,  ( and inevitably that is when it will
happen due to increased pressure)  you will know.
the steam will pour out from your hood pretty quickly as the  rad fluid hits
the hot engine.

aside from the car overheating and the engine block cracking / warping due
to the overheating I don't think its that big of a deal to save the 100
bucks for new hoses.

for fun a buddy and I ran an old  4 cyl volkswagen fox without a rad to see
how long it would last.  It ran for about 10 minutes before the engine went
bang, and would not start again.  Turning the engine over there was
absolutely no compression left in the cylinders.

ymmv

Dave

Hey y'all.  I have a '90 Integra that gets driven occasionally.  Last
time it was in for an oil change, they told me the coolant hoses are
brittle and ought to be replaced.

Now I do plan to get this done, but maybe not right away 'cos it's
pretty expensive.  Is there any danger to the car (or the people
inside) if the hoses happen to fail while I'm driving?  I mean, if it
were a timing belt problem you might have some serious engine damage,
plus it's not so good to stop going if you're on the freeway or
something.  But with this, I was thinking I'd see the temp go up and
hopefully have some time and be able to pull it over.  Am I wrong?

Thanks.