ok heres the story. i was driving down the road, my car was throwing out a crap load of smoke thru the exhaust. i thought it was just the rain coming off my tires (night time). so i drove 5 more minutes, looked at my tempt gauge,.. turned off my car but couldnt pull over because it was kind of a touge road, so i cruised for about 3 miles downhill. pulled over popped my hood and saw smoke coming from under my oil filter (heater hose). it has a VERY large gash, which all my coolant spilled out of. so today, i replaced the heater hose, filled it with coolant/water, started it, drove it down the road and the temp gauge started to go up again, pulled over. the radiator was cold, the top coolant hose was warm, but the temp gauge was 3/4 to HOT. whats happening? it never had this problem before.


tommorow i'm going to do a coolant flush since i work at Jiffy Lube (yes we do poor service but atleast it pays so i can do work on RX7)


i doubt this will fix it maybe there is a lot of crap built up on the bottom of the radiator?

 

If it's cheap enough, change your temp sensor - I don't condone the swappin and praying technique but I've found it's faster / easier / economical to replace sensors than try to troubleshoot a possible sensor problem. A new sensor will give you a good baseline to start troubleshooting with unless you're unlucky enough to get a bad one...

From what you describe it doesn't sound like the engine is roasted, mebbe the thermostat is sticking closed? If you turn on the heater, does it blow warm? ~rich

 

thanks for the reply, where would you recommend i buy the sensor? honestly i just need this car running untill i have enough to do a TII swap, so i dont want to invest anything above 100 dollars because that's 1/10 of my motor right there.

 

Do you (still?) have white smoke coming out the exhaust?

 

nope no smoke, only a little during start up

 

hmm... well, you might be lucky then.

If the smoke gets worse, it's time to be glad you were gonna get a new engine anyway.

Especially if you're still boiling/losing coolant.

 

i would be checkin coolant level..you may have air..but you said that you will be flushin the system anyays ..just make sure when you put the coolant in again that you get all the air out..I had air lock when I did mine..and understandable too due to the many coolant passages the engine has..try and search for some coolant filling procedures on the forum..there's tons of info here..and you may as well dig into it..and I hope you didn't toast your engine,..runnin with no coolant is usually disasterous..good luck,..

 

Any auto parts store - I wouldn't pay more than $20-30 tho. If they're more expensive, I'd rather troubleshoot. While you're there, order a thermostat gasket so you'll have it just in case... ~rich

 

yea i was hoping it was air pockets in the radiator because afterall, all i did was poured it in. ive read about the air lock funnel thing, but do they sell it at stores like pepboys or stores like that? ive always wanted one.

 

can't remember the info is in the threads (somewhere..sorry)..when you put in the collant fill it and start squeezing hoses,run the engine til the thermostat pops open and put your heater on full blast (it helps too)..eventually you will see the air staring to work itself out .Use the highest rad cap..if you have more than one..(pump neck and rad)..once you don't see any more air bubbling in the circulating coolant and it starts to flow out the top..cap the system and fill the over flow..about half way..take it out for a spin and keep your eyes on the gauge..allow the car to cool and recheck the level..top off if necessary..again I wish you luck..