coolant issues-the buzz from hell
 

alright, so last night on my way home i hear the most annoying buzz known to man. yes, worse than the one in Dumb and Dumber. we all know this wonderful noise as the "add coolant" light. so, i limp home and today i decided to flush/refill the coolant. using the steps in the factory service manual, i drained, and flushed the system, then refilled it. i let the car idle for a while, no problems at all. let the car sit for a while, then start it up again to take it out and see if everythings is ok. yeah right. the buzz is back with a vengeance. the coolant is full, there aren't any leaks, and this motor is SUPPOSED to be brand new. is there any way that a fuse or wire somewhere could be causing this, or am i doomed? i dont' understand how it idled for damn near 10 minutes without a glitch and then the second i get in the car to drive it, the car shits. just looking for some help. Thanks alot,
Brian

Try getting a new thermostat...

At the top of the rad there is a sensor next to the cap. The wire coming off this is notorious for breaking and setting off the buzzer.

i'll check the wire. if not, a new thermostat would suck to replace. if i drained the motor and the rad. would i just need to fill the rad and the overflow tank? if i forgot to fill something, then that could be it.

the sesnsor on top of the rad. is fine, the wiring is still connected. i drove the car up and down the street, and the buzzer came on after about 30 seconds. and, to add to the fun, my speedometer no longer works. maybe there's a short somewhere.

bump

the buzzer is also for low oil level ;) check the oil and the iol level sensor and connection. Mine raised hell for about three weeks untill I found that the connector was not plugged in all the way. ;)


Santiago

The tach works off a signal from the trailing coil. I had a non-functioning tach for a long time until I fortified the grounding of that system with a simple wire from the coil's mounting bracket to a bolt nearby on the firewall.

You might check all the grounding wires.

You have got a case of shocking electricals . I had the same probelm with my car which was an n/a converted to a t11. My dash stopped workin and everytime i changed the fuse it would blow up again. There is one big fat set of wires. I shaked them and the dash stopped blowing up. Why i dont know. Try checking all your grounds. Oh The buzzer. Should be easy. Make sure the sensor is good, the wire is good. And change the thermostat. MAn the most important thing ever.

I was having the same problem with my buzzer going off non stop. We checked the connection.. seemed fine. the wire broke inside the wireing harness somewhere. So i grounded the wire to the chassis. 2 years later no problems what so ever. I have a ritual every morning of checking all my fluids... takes 10 min and saves headaches over time.

I'd rather take 10 min in the morning before i leave for work instead of sitting on the freeway overheating or running out of oil for 4 hours

(I got stock on the skyway bridge because my "friend" who was helping me do my yearly fluid flush (including oil change) forgot to tighten my oil drain bolt... Needless to say the engine didnt get hurt, but i do carry an extra bolt and 2 quarts of oil everywhere i go.

sorry that was off topic, i'm gunna shoot my self in the foot now

-Markus

thanks for all the help guys. i'll have to wait until later to check all this out because i got called into work. 9 hours on a saturday, yummy. relisys190, i just did something equally as stupid. you know that warning on the radiator cap that tells you not to open it if the engine is warm? well i was an idiot yesterday and completely disregarded that (i thought the engine wasn't warm enough to cause a problem). coolant spewed everywhere. let me tell you, i have no left foot now, the shotgun took care of that. i'll tell you guys how this all works out.
Brian

Whoa, holly-flashback. Sounds exactly like my car (althoug I also had the problem of my logicon and gauges not lighting up all the way(and yes the dimmer switch was all the way to bright)). Anyho, everyone else has about already covered what to do, so bye.

Ryan

I experienced this exact same thing on my girlfriends jeep last weekend. It had been happening for about 6 months. Finally got time to get in there and check it out and couldn't find a thing. After a couple hours I gave up and put it back together. WHALA!, it's fixed! I don't have a clue what I 'fixed'.

ok, i checked the speedo sensor by the trailing coil, and all the wires were hooked up ok. the oil level sensor looks connected ok. i also noticed a few other things while under the car. there's a little bit of oil leaking from the nuts holding the oil pan on, and also from the oil drain plug. there's also a random wire connected to a harness dangling. i can't figure out where it goes. here's a picture.

another thing i found, which is somewhat visible in the previous picture, is a hole, just aft of the oil pan. i can see what looks like a gear in the transmission, just sitting there. shouldn't there be a plug to cover this up? there's also coolant leaking from the heater core hose, i'm going to replace that.

take the wire for the coolant level sensor and connect it to battery ground. no more buzzing! i did it to mine......

what did you use to strip the wire? i don't want to cut it.

ran a ground like you said, attomica, still no speedo. how do i test for a faulty sensor?

EDIT: btw, i think that by resetting the cpu, i deleted the add coolant code. so now it's a speedo issue.

last time when I changed the coolant, after I filled it up and started the car the buzzer came on because the was a air pocket on the top of the radiator. The is a valve on the top of the radiator right where the hot coolant enters the radiator. When you unscrew the valve, you let the air out of the system and then put it back. That's how I did mine, no more buzzer!!!

i'll have to try and find that too, petex. does anyone have any information about the picture of the exposed gear? that really scares me right now.

its been awhile since i was inside my transmission, but i think that hole is supposed to have a black rubber plug inserted into it. no fluids or anything are supposed to be in there....

and that gear...that is your flywheel....

correct me if i am wrong about this, like i said...its been about a year since ive had the transmission out of the car

-tommy

does anyone know where i can get one of these plugs? i checked all over mazdatrix and couldn't find anything.

ok, i replaced the thermostat and block->heater core coolant hose, and now the buzzer isn't going off. i grounded the trailing coil as directed, and replaced the ground on the bellhousing. tach still doesn't work. i also have a new problem. after driving the car not more than 3 minutes, the temp gauge is maxed out, and my car is idling at about 2000 rpm. the motor was hardly hot, and all seemed to be well. i checked the main fusebox in the engine bay, all the fuses are ok. then i looked in the fuse box at the driver's footwell, and found that i'm missing the cooling fan (15amp) fuse. is it posssible that without this fuse it would run all retarded like this? i need this car running damn near perfect by tomorrow, and this is driving me nuts. anyone know what's wrong?

eh, it's working now. i'm so confused

Coolant level sensor
 

Hi, how do you connect coolant level sensor brown wire to battery ground as it has a female bullet connector at end of wire that plugs into coolant level sensor? Please indicate how to prepare coolant level sensor wire and exactly where to connect it to battery ground.

Thanks,

Gordon