Can Someone Help. I just bought a 1989 Rx7 COnvertible, and after the car has been running for a bit, I get the faint smell of anti-freeze from the engine compartment, however, there are no visible leaks? THe car runs fine, and the temp guage looks normal!! Any Ideas!!

JOHN

 

You may have a leaking heater core. Try running the defroster on a cool day, with the heat set at high. If the windshield fogs, it's a dead givaway that the heater core is leaking.

 

Hey thanks,

I checked last night, but nothing fogged up. So I decided to go on along drive and see if anything smelled/changed and when I got back I could not smell it any more! Should I still be worried.?

 

When my lower radiator hose was leaking I could always smell it but could hardly ever see it, unless the car was up on a lift. The factory clamps suck, so if you have to change the hose, make sure to get some new clamps too.

 

The favourite place for fc's to leak the green life blood seems to be as follows:
1: water pump weep hole, it starts to run down the front cover towards the main pulley
2: lower coolant buzzer sensor on top of rad, they seem to come loose after awhile and need a little 'tweak'
3: the coolant lines going to the thermowax on the back of the intake, there is one hose that has a molded 90 deg turn in it, they start to tear at the 90, its between the firewall and the intake chamber
4: the rad hoses, those spring style hose clamps suck, they start to loose their tension after they have been removed and installed a couple of times,.
The best place to start is to replace all the factory clamps with real gear style hose clamps, this has solved coolant issues on more than one FC I have seen..Max

 

Thanks!!! Ill replace em, any good places you know of to get the clamps?! Thanks again!

JOHN

 

I think mines leaking from the weep hole is there anything you can do about it and will it get worse?

 

you need to replace the waterpump. it'll probably get worse. it also means your water pump bearings are giving out.

 

Just buy some worm gear clamps from an auto parts store. Hardware stores also sell them.

 

Well, i found the leak in the radiator. It was coming from the black plastic covering, right underneath where the serial number was. I just put some sealant on there, and some metal tape, hopefully that will last, otherwise Ill just buy the new radiator...

 

Don't fool around with leaky radiators on RX-7s or any other car for that matter...one overheat and your engine is toast. Take the radiator to a repair shop or just bite the bullet and buy a new one.

 

You could also look for a used one, but make sure to get it pressure tested before you drop the cash on it.

 

Well, I just bought my new radiator from the radiatordoctor.com... Acutally i purchased it from them through ebay, so final cost was 136 vs. 195 that is on the website, not a bad deal, esp. when saving money. Its supposed to be an oem fit, so lets hope so!!!
JOhn