When cold outside, like this morning, even though i let it idle for 15 minutes, the car is still cold.

The way i figured its cold is that the heater on, even full blast, it doesnt blow hot air, its just warm to the touch.

It barely makes it any warmer on the inside of the car.

My stock water temp. gauge is not working right now, so i cant really tell what the water temp is, but i'm suspicious the thermostat is stuck open....what do you guys think?

After leaving school, i let is warm up for 13 minutes, and the engine just bogged down and died on me as soon as i put it in gear, which is what it does when the car is not fully warm yet...

so does a stuck thermo sound like the problem to you too?

Thanks!

 

hard to say what the problem could be without a functioning water temp gauge

 

its possible that the thermo is stuck. i can drive mine when its cold and it runs just fine. its possible a bigger problem may exist

 

oh lord, not exactly what i would like to hear!

My car boggs down and dies randomly sometimes, very rarely though, like today, i came to a stop sign and i threw it in neutral and it just bogged down and died.

I got my battery and alternator checked, they said they both seemed just a tad bit weak, but it should still be fine, cuz it was only a little bit under normal.

I changed my ground wires and terminals, cuz they said that's what the prob. could be, but its still there. Also when i tap my brakes, my lights dim significantly.

Back to the heating problem, i hope its nothing major....

 

My motor runs good when it's warm or cold. In extremely cold weather, it's possible the water will never warm up... this used to happen in Nebraska, where it gets seriously cold and windy. A lot of people out there tie a piece of cardboard over the radiator to solve that problem. However, only checking the temperature of the heated air from the heater does not mean the engine/water is not warmed up. You could have a bad heater core, or the ventilation system could be stuck on cold. You could also have a bad thermostat. You need to figure out what the water temp actually is, so you will have to fix the gauge or get a new one. Course, a new thermostat is cheap enough that you could just replace it and hope that works. You can also check the thermostat in boiling water on the stove, just don't use any pans you plan to cook food with in the future.

 

well lets not jump to conclusions. start with simple stuff. like the thermo check it and verify that that is the problem (most likely). also check the cold start resivour, is it empty? if it is mix 90% antifreeze and 10% water. but make sure the Veterans on this fourm put their thoughts in. I've only had an rx for about year now. as for the brakes, what does your volt gauge read? if its under 12 start turning **** off or (a better solution) check the amps the alt is putting out, the battery as well. these cars like their juice. what do you have running when it boggs down? radio, heater on full, lights, defrost, wipers?

most likely its something simple, the thermos go out often.

 

wow, thanks alot for the input! The heater thingy does change from cold to warm when i change it, its just that when i put it on the warmest setting, its just not like its supposed to be. It blows out room temperature air, not hot air. I will change the thermostat tomorrow.

 

thanks to you as well. My cold start reservoir has only about 1" of fluid in there, how much should i put in it? half ways is good?

I already have a new thermostat and gasket, i'll put it on tomorrow and hopefully it will solve the problem.

As far as the voltage, i belive it was like 12.14 or something like that, but the funny thing is that it would all of a sudden drop down to like 9 and come back up, causing us to think its a bad ground. I will go and get it tested again tomorrow to see what they read. But i dont run any accessories at all when this happens, no heater, no radio, no lights, no wipers, no defrosting, just driving it plain as can be.
Its weird, i'll go and get the readings off it tomorrw again and see how it came out with the new ground cable and gold plated terminals!

 

A digital voltmeter & a good water temperature gauge would be helpful.

A stuck thermostat could cause this. I'd replace it (with a Mazda OEM thermostat) preemptively.

As for the voltage drop & bogging out, it's quitepossibly a bad ground. Search for info on grounding - you'll find a lot.

-=Russ=-

 

i might have possibly grounded my wire wrong! I cant find any good info on the search, but i thought (and this is how i did my ground) that the ground runs straight from the battery to the starter bolt. Half ways down the bolt, the chassis ground is spliced into the wire and bolted up to the side on the strut tower. Is that the ONLY thing that is grounded to the main ground wire?

I did leave my old ground wire cuz i didnt want to go through the trouble of untaping everything and taping it back together, so i'm not sure if there is anything, other than the chassis ground, that is sliced into that ground cable. I also realized i should have sanded the frame where you ground the chassis.

 

actually, not sure if this has been discussed or not, but when the voltage drops suddenly, how badly does your idle drop? does it ONLY drop at idle, or does it drop when you are cruising as well? the terminal on your alternator could also be cracked or corroded like a mother. you should check that as well, (preferably with a wrench touching the alternator terminal whilst youre touching the negative terminal to your battery! ok....nevermind, dont do that, i dont want to be sued for someone dying by reading that, DONT DO THAT!). but, my electrical problem was due to mostly a couple bad grounds and my alternator having a poor terminal. also, if youre running the stock alternator in an s4, that would account for some thing as well. they are known for pathetically low amperage. grounds would definitely be first, ESPECIALLY the engine block ground to chassis and starter grounds!!!

hope that helps at all.

Ry.

 

i will defenately check the alternator ground, are there any more? i still need to know if there is anything else spliced into the battery ground except for the chassis ground.

 

no there shouldn't be, I haven't gotten a chance to rip apart everything yet so i'm not 100% sure. all electronic componets have their own ground i.e. they don't gound back at the battery. the battery ground it on the chassis by the driver side strut tower

 

Let me know if changing the thermostat works for your heater.
I'm in Ottawa and its damn cold and my vents weren't on properly, but now they are and I can feel the air blowing at the windshield now.
I had my car running for 30-45 minutes and I was only getting the room temp that you are getting. I'm changin my Thermostat tomorow (Nov. 19th 2005), if you get your done before 1pm post the results cuz I will be doing it sometime after 1pm and would like to know if that worked.
Thanks.

 

Ok, so I now changed my Thermostat and added coolant and everything was cool.
The heater still doesn't blow out hotair let alone warm air, still blowing cold air out.
The only difrence with the new thermostat is the engine stay really cool even to the touch.
The coolant pipes get hot but if I put my hand on the engine itself nothing, just stays cold.
I only start feeling the small amount of heat after 30 second of leaving my hand there.
I drive my car for about an hour to get it all warm and the temp gauge shows it at about 1/4 of the way up in temp level, it used to be just under the 1/2 mark. I have a pic to show if any one cares to see it. But yah other then keeping the engine cold it didn't do any improvement on the heat inside of the car, just blows cold air.

 

darn, you beat me! I got seduced by some girls right after work, when i was panning on changing the t-stat, so i didn't get to it today. I'll do mine tomorrow.

It really sux that it didn't help, i had my hopes up and everything.....
I wonder what it could be, but from your results, it looks like i'll have to go to the junkie again!

I'll change mine tomorrow and i'll let you know how my results were.
Thanks for sharing.

 

My bad dude. It does work, well, Kinda.
I went to my friends house to party Saturday (45 Minute drive) and the heat didn't work at all just cold air. But once I got to his house we chilled for a bit (30 minutes) then left to go to another guys house. The WHOLE ride there I had crazy SUPPER hot air blowing out, I was going nuts yelling IT WORKS, FINALLY!!! Its worked that whole night and all of Sunday when he was in the car. But the 45 minute drive back home was all cold air not even getting warm. So Iether;
1- his foot was touching a wire that made the heat work.
2- he is just good luck.
3- there is something to do with the passenger seat the makes the heat work (I doubt this one)
But yah ill check my wires and see if that is the issue.
I also have my driver side handle broken the spring inside the door.
i hate how they used springs to make the doors work.
I just fixed the lock too (Spring broke).
But yah change it and youll see you engine stays quite cool to the touch (mine is atleast).
Your heater should work. mine did but I gotta find out why its not consistent.

 

I am starting to think you guys have bad water pumps or something.

 

Can someone show me a pic of the cold start assist resivor ?

 

hey dude, thanks for keeping up with it, i've been very busy myself so i havn't had time to slap the thermostat on yet, i just did my brakes today.

I have a bigger problem right now, please read my other thread.

 

Ok, so now after a week, my heater works and works good, from what I can tell, some times it is random and will go cold but its been hot air 98% of the time.
So everything is good for me other then the driver door wont open cuz a spring is broken in the handle and I dont have time to take the window out and replace the spring. Thats a project for next summer probably when I drope the turbo engine in.

 

I was having the same problem last week in sub zero temperature, I would let it idle for 30 min, then go for a 45 min drive, the car was still cold. not even enough heat to warm up the inside of the car.
went out and got a 8 dollar thermostat, spent 20 minutes installing it and now I have heat by the time I leave my neighborhood (with a 5 minute idle before I start driving) and the car is nice and warm at operating temperature within 5-10 minutes. I love it.

 

hey there, thats great news! I know it sounds really dumb but i still havn't changed mine!

I have a coolant leak from a busted hose somewhere around the turbo area, but i cant find it! Its dripping really slowly, i;m just trying to find the damn leak!

 

is the leak in the rad?
If yes crack an egg into in and that will stop the leak till you fix it.
GO MYTH BUSTERS!!