OK, I've reached my wits end and I'm begging for everyones help.

Here's the story: I went to start my car on Friday morning and got the dreaded 'low coolant' buzzer. I've never had problems before - no smoking, great water temperatures (always <=85*c), etc.

I picked up some distilled water and cracked the filler neck. The filler neck was visibly empty, but it didn't take much to fill it. My overflow was bone dry as well, so I filled that up. I took the car for a test drive, watching my PFC water temp and water temp gauge like a hawk. My temperatures were perfectly normal, but I was still incredibly worried. I looked for leaks under the car or in the engine bay, but I couldn't manage to find anything.

I was out later that night driving my car with some buddies, continuing to watch my water temperature gauges like crazy. I pulled over to check under the hood, and once every 2-5 seconds, I noticed a sizzling sound followed by a tiny puff of smoke. It looked like it was coming near the secondary turbo, very close to the engine/manifold. After poking my flashlight around, I saw what appeared to be a small ring of fizzling water coming from the joint inbetween the secondary turbo and the banjo bolt for the coolant hardlines.

I started searching on the forum to begin researching the probable leak locations, but then I started hearing some very bad news - if the leak is coming from where I think it is, you have to remove the complete turbo assembley to replace the faulty hardline/copper crush washer.

I checked the 'usual suspects' (the two turbo coolant hoses) with ease (no emissions equipment) and found nothing wrong. I also have no coolant lines running to my throttle body (thermowax and double throttle removed) and found nothing wrong. I pulled my UIM to see if there was anything I was missing, but I couldn't find anything. Reassembling everything, I accidently cracked my passenger headlight cover by leaning on it (ugh) and I'm worried I didn't reassemble everything correctly (I suffer from obsession and anxiety).

I couldn't find anything visibly leaking. I jacked up the car and crawled under and noticed the rear part of the subframe was visibly spotted with coolant (green blots), so I looked upward and found that directly above was the secondary turbo coolant hardline/banjo bolt. I noticed that water was collecting on the hardline, running down, and dripping onto part of the hot exhaust manifold below. I guess that explains why I didn't notice any leaks, but only heard the sizzling and saw the steam rising up - the coolant has been dripping and burning up right away. The only other place that I could imagine the leak coming from is possibly the coolant outlet on the rear rotor housing that connects to the throttle body (which I'm assuming has just been capped off because that's been eliminated), and might be dripping/spraying onto my suspect area.

So now I have no idea what to do. This is really frusturating because the turbos are only one year old (they're the 'new' BNR Stage 3s), and the real kicker is that they were purchased from and installed directly by Bryan at BNR Supercars when the previous owner had the new engine/turbos done by Bryan. I'm currently in college and I live 200 miles away from my mechanic, and there are absolutely no other FD owners in the area, nor are there any local shops I can trust to fix my problem.

I have 2 options and plenty of questions:

- Enlist a friends help to tow the car back to Dallas (expensive and time consuming) and have my shop repair the car, whatever needs to be done.

- Top off my cooling system and drive the car back to Dallas, watching my PFC commander and water temperature gauge the entire time and praying.

Questions:

- If it's a worn-out copper crush washer or a pinhole leak in the coolant hardlines, would driving 3 hours back to Dallas be too risky if I filled up beforehand? Am I risking enlarging the leak/hole along the way and running dry and frying my coolant seal?

- If I was to begin to run dry, would I notice it immediately in my coolant temperatures and allow me to pull over and fill up again?

Regarding my UIM removal/reinstall paranoia:

- As I was unhooking the TPS, I believe I accidently adjusted the front nut (preload?) by about a quarter turn. When you unhook the TPS / mess with the UIM / anything else, do you need to readjust/recheck it or anything like that? When I had my Haltech with my old FC, I remember having to recalibrate the TPS. I have no idea how to properly check/adjust or calibrate the TPS or anything like that (I know nothing about it period) - is there anything I need to check or do? More to say, how would I know if it was improperly adjusted?

- Does anyone have a general rule of thumb on how tight I should tightening the t-bolt clamps for my silicon couplers on my intercooler hoses? It's the first time I've ever delt with those, so I have no idea how to judge it.

Thanks to anyone that's actually read this thread. I'm really desperate for answers here, and I'm reaching out for everyones help.

Thanks a million!

 

"which I'm assuming has just been capped off because that's been eliminated), and might be dripping/spraying onto my suspect area."

That's impossible, because then the coolant could not circulate through the system. It has been rerouted to wherever the coolant lines continue onto after the throttle body, (that is how it was done in johns car when he had it done).

As far as driving your car with it running out of coolant, the buzzer WILL come on when it gets low which at least in my car was before I ever noticed any change in tempurature. I have driven my car with a coolant leak, not 3 hours though. However essecially all of the driving is highway which is a huge advantage if you were to go that route.

At what tempurature are your fans programmed to come on?

When you drove the car around after topping it off and not noticing any difference in tempurature, how long did you drive it around before returning to check/fill it up, and how low had it gotten by that point?

I am not saying the best idea for you is to simply drive it back, it may not be. I am trying to get an idea of how bad this leak is.

 

be carefull if you decide to drive your car that way, it may catch on fire with the coolant leaking or you may cause some slippery sufaces..

 

I drove it around for about 30 minutes and we let it sit for many hours. I had lost about a tall shotglass worth of coolant from the top of the filler neck, and the overflow bottle still appeared to be full. I had a small puddle under my car.

 

Bump!

 

not worth the three hours... just grab some tools and go for it!
there will be some tough moments in there but it saves a lot of hassle with towing etc.

a tall shotglass in 30 minutes isn't terrible, if you do take it on a long drive just make sure you don't put cold water in the hot engine and take it easy...

also, you could take off the filler neck and take out the thermostat.
when the thermostat is closed i beleive there is more pressure running through those hard lines - removing that and letting the system free flow will keep yours temps down and the flow rate up... that may help stem the bleeding.

 

Its most likely the turbo coolant lines. They are difficlut to inspect in the car, especially because they have the foam protecttive sleeve over them. Do yourself a favor and replace them. Call Ray at Malloy Mazda. Should be less than $20 for the pair. The 2nd place in that area that is a common leak are where the turbo coolant feed and return lines bolt to the turbo. The attach via banjo bolts and copper crush washers. You might be able to get away with snuging them. If not order some new ones from Mazda. There isn't much else that can leak on that side of the car. Possibly the heater core? Check that too. Also double check the nipple on the back of the rear housing that goes to the throttle body.

 

Is there anyway I can snug the coolant banjo bolts on the engine side of the secondary turbo without removing them completely? Is there any special tool or angle I can access them from?

 

One of THE best tools one can have is a set of flex-sockets. I can't count how many times these little honeys were the only thing that could get into some tight spots.
I believe those are 10mm bolts you need to get to, and if you take off the downpipe (I know I know!) you'll have pretty decent access to that area.
Personnaly, I don't think you'd be that bad off just driving the 3 hours to the shop. The WORST thing would be a fire, but that is highly unlikely in my opinion. The most likely 'worst thing' would be that you'd have to pull over a couple of times, let it cool for thirty minutes or so, and then fill it back up with some distilled water/antifreeze.

 

OK, update for everyone.

I checked my coolant this morning and while there was a small puddle under the car, it didn't appear as though I lost much at all.

I took the car for a 20 minute drive around town and noticed nothing wrong. It was too dark out to see how badly it was leaking, but my temperatures were fine and there was no smoke rising up that I could see.

When I got home, I popped the hood and noticed a glowing tucked away. The turbo was faintly glowing red, and the glowing subsided after a minute. I never got into boost or anything - just a little driving around town.

So now I'm not only worried about overheating my engine and possibly catching it on fire from coolant, but now I'm worried about damaging my turbo. Argh!

 

Hey Kevin.

Just need a 19mm wrech and you can get to it from the bottom. It is a pita to get to but can be reached.

Bryan@BNR
205 640 1193

 

bump, having the same issues

 

did you just buy this car from that guy in TN? can't recall his screen name, something about "the nooga"

 

That was the first thing I had to fix on my FD when I first bought it. What you need to know is that FD engines are built like batteries, that is there are unlike metals sandwiched together and this caused the coolant to get very acidic. Very important on the FDs to religiously change the coolant. When they sit a lot which many do as wk end cars, the high acidity will eat through the metal coolant pipes. Yes the bummer is that you have to remove the turbos and it's a lot of labor. I had someone do it for me and it cost me $1000 even though the part was only about $12 as I recall. It gets worse real fast. Get it fixed before you blow up the motor and turbos. These cars are real funny like that. Very unforgiving of putting off routine maintenance. Change the coolant at least once per year. Sounds like you haven't had the car that long so some previous owners must have let it sit too long like what happened with mine. Here's what you do to the previous owner if you ever see him again.

 

If you go for the drive just bring a few extra gallons of distilled water and schedule a few pitstops to let the car cool down and fill up with coolant.

If you're still trying to figure out if that's where the car is leaking from put the car on jackstands, remove the under tray and let the car idle. If you don't see any leaking then it could be because the turbos are hot enough to be burning it off. So turn off the car leaving it on jackstands and you should find a nice puddle under wherever your leak is coming from.

If you're worried about a fire, then I think just running straight distilled for now should solve that problem since IIRC it's the coolant that catches on fire (not positive on that one, do your own research).

Or just follow the write-ups on this forum for removing turbos/replacing the washer at the banjo bolt.

Regarding the TPS; just do a search and you should be able to find Chuck Westbrook's method for checking and properly adjusting a TPS. It's probably in the FAQs too.

 

I got it guys, thanks

And yeah, I bought the car from AgentSpeed, great guy.

 

did u fix it what was the cause of the leak?

 

I'm having the same issue.

 

6 years later I never thought I'd see this post back on the front page!

 

We've been eagerly waiting for 6 years for a resolution, that's why!

For the benefit of the community, what was the problem and fix?

 

I believe it was either a small fracture in the coolant hardline or a copper crush washer that lost it's ability to seal.

 

lol 6 years? This is why we, the community, need to post solutions when we figure them out! I'm glad you figured out your problem, I'll be checking the same thing out this week.

 

probably was simply the banjo bolt backed out a little, nothing i haven't seen before. just tighten it back up and i bet it would have been resolved, no dicking with disassembling the turbos or any fun stuff like that..