I was thinking about the joy of having an apex seal dislodge and destroy an engine when I thought of this. A lot of brake pads have metal inserts so that when the brake pads get too low, the metal comes in contact with the disc and creates a screeching sound, thus warning you that your brake pads need replaced and that your maintanance is lousy. Anyway, I was wondering if this same concept could be used with apex seals. Anyone think it could be done even though the engine is lubricated?

thanks
-kevino

 

90 + % of apex seal failure is not because they have reached their wear limit ( high milage), but being broken off in some way. Either carbon deposits dislodging, pre-ignition, etc..

 

just keep your car under maintenance, change the oil every 3000miles or every other month if you really like changing your oil, change your fuel filter like every years, and keep the air filter clean, an i'm not sure if those gas treatment STP things work or not but it couldn't hurt i guess

 

I thought that apex seals became dislodged from wearing down to the point where they don't have a sufficient amount of metal base in the bore to provide support. I guess I was wrong then. thanks for the insight.

 

You've never had one apart yet have ya????

there would be no no way whatsoever to add some type of device like that onto the rotor... simply no room.. plus... even if you could do it... the squealer would ruin your housings if the seals already hadn't!

As the seals wear, and the slots in the rotors wear.. the seals can flop back and forth in thier grooves and the end piece can for a little horn on it... its the end piece that i've noted usually kills the housing after it wears and digs a nice big groove into the housing about 2 MM from the side... biggest reason i can think of to replace everything and speck the rotors every 100K

 

No.
Moreso now since the new Mazda apex seals are 2-piece.


You are correct on that.

Besides, how can you hear this warning from *inside* the engine?


-Ted

 

Yeah, I've had one apart. Rebuilt my engine recently and it is running great. My coolant seals went out, which is why I did the rebuild. Since it wasn't an apex seal problem, I didn't know specifics in a blown engine due to apex seal breakage. It was just a lousy idea to share out of all the normal problems posted. Thanks for the insight though.