my exhaust has a newfound rancid smell. my battery died earlier today, i got a new one, replaced that, and my add coolant light came on again. it does this regularly, but normaly the light goes off and the buzzing stops. i had the car running and was searching for the buzzer (where is that bastard?!) and all of a sudden i smelt somethin rancid. i crawled to the rear of the car and sure enough, the exhaust smelt funky-stanky. so, funny exhaust smell, add coolant light and buzzer. my coolant level seems okay, as is the reservoir. the only thing i can think of is if the mixture has too much water; the wire has a bad spot; or one of the sensors is furked. any help... please. pretty please. i have cookies...

 

i ghetto-grounded the wire before the sensor, so the add coolant would shaddup. but i think my car is running rich. actually, i'm pretty sure it is because the part of the emissions i failed shows my car to be running rich in the 25mph test. anyone know a common problem that would cause this?

 

a thorough search should give some ideas abouot the running rich thing, O2 sensor maybe?

I wouldn't recommend running without the coolant level sensor. Get it replaced if you think its bad but I would keep it. It has saved me a time or 2.

http://www.mazdatrix.com/b8.htm
http://www.mazdatrix.com/getprice.as...m=15-610B-8553

 

thanks for the links. i dont intend running it as is for long, but i refused (to myself) to drive that damn thing buzzing non-stop like that. i had to preiodically stop the buzzing. i have been keeping my eye on the temp gauge, though, just in case. the thing is, the car ran more than perfect on the slower speed test (15mph), it was the 25 that absolutely KILLED me. a jump from .02 to over 3.00, thats just an incredible increase.

 

i'd say o2 sensor is taking a dump on ya- once it does that- the ecu says "screwit- we'll run full rich to pretect the motor"

once that happens- the cat (if you have one) gets filled with unspent hydrocarbons and starts melting it' self down (i've seen it- looks kinda cool in a scar kinda way- glows as bright as the exhaust side of a turbo)- and that, my freind really, smells like someone dropped a pooper in your tail pipe