when i drive my FC it overheats quickly, and the coolant comes out of the filler neck as steam. any ideas what the problem could be? (87 n/a)

thanks
-matt

 

could be a number of things, but it sounds like you may have a blown coolant seal. when this happens, combustion gasses enter the cooling system causing excess heat and pressure. check the fsm or Haynes manual for cooling troubleshooting, and go from there. good luck

 

the best way to check a coolant seal is to open the radiator cap at idle and see if the water is splashing out in bursts. If it is warm the engine up with cap on and then shut it off and quickly pull the leading plugs and see if any steam comes out of the housings.

 

sounds like ur motor is toast to me but then u get to crack it open and the fun begins

make sure u check your oil if it looks like a milkshake u need to rebuild

is there some smoke when u start it?

 

yeah, the exhaust smokes if i don't start it in a while. someone told me i need a new oil pressure sending unit too. but it hasn't been started in about a month now...

 

For the average person, that doesn't seem very safe.

If you DO this when the car is running (and the thermostat being open), make sure you releive pressure slowly.

 

have you looked/replaced the thermostat lately?

Does your fan turn on? have you checked the clutch fan to make sure it's working?

 

no i haven't replaced the thermostat lately, i got one, but its the stant one. so i'm gonna order a mazda OEM one. And i'm not sure about the clutch fan, are u talking about the huge fan in front of the radiator? cause that works.

 

that's the fan. I'm talking about the clutch mechanism for the fan. If it's not working/broken then the fan won't come on when it's necessary and you'll overheat. Download the FSM and start diagnosing the problem. Check post #8 in the FAQs.

 

i mean obviously check for a blown coolant seal but it could be a number of little bullshit things like a radiator cap or thermostat

 

yeah, we do that.


What's this bump on my head?? "It's a TUMOR!!!!!"

I lost all power! "apex seal!!"

My GF doesn't say she loves me anymore!! "She's sleeping with the local football team!"

I think the first thing is to have the cooling system pressure checked. That will eliminate the possibility of a leak somewhere.

With the car COLD: pull the radiator cap and turn the car on. Check for bubbles and other foreign substances. If no bubbles are visible then move on to the other tests.

 

i had the same problem where it over heated really quickly and the coolant seal thing popped off. it was just a bad radiator cap though. i got lucky i guess. i dont kno much but check ur radiator cap and see if u get lucky like me =]

 

People seem to jump to the conclusion of a blown engine very quickly these days.

Overheating cooling systems can be caused by a number of common problems. This page covers virtually every cooling problem you can have:
http://www.aaroncake.net/rx-7/cooling.htm

 

just pressure test the system, go to autozone and rent a free loaner tool, for the longest time i was guessing what my problem was just test it!

 

Most likely cause is a bad thermostat. Remove the thermostat for now, since it's not 100% essential (but good for optimal cooling, warmup and closed-loop mpg). Next go to aaroncake's link above. This should be obvious, but don't drive the car until the problem is fixed.

 

he said it smokes on startup i could be wrong and for his sake i hope i am but isnt that a main symptom of bad coolant seal?

by all means make sure u check all other possible reasons for the overheating and while your at it read the whole site aaroncake.net project tina is my personal favorite

 

I having this same problem myself, and will fellow the steps some of you have provided. Thanks.

 

thanks for all the advice!!! i don't think there is an autozone in hawaii though. or on oahu. but my school got the tools.