Lizo7

iTrader: (11)

So i started up my car the other day to head to a friends house to patch up some of my '90 vert's rust and peeling and when i started it it did the accelerated warm up thing because i always forget to put it in gear and start but anyway after its warm up cycle the rpms dropped but they dropped to 1500 instead of hte usuall 900-1000 and it was making an odd sound it was a steady rev at 1500 but there was like a poof every few seconds like rrrrrrrrr-poof-rrrrrrr-poof-rrrrr-poof-rrrrr
i was like oh no what know so first thing pop the hood open the door and am like maybe i should look under car ( i dont know why i was thinking this but i did) and there was pretty steady drip drip drip of orange liquid so now im even more wtf now i put it in reverse and move back since i cant reach liquid and get out feel smell it and its got the consistancy of water maybe a tad thicker and is orange and smells like nothing so first thought was rusty water coming out from somewere maybe water pockets on the convertable top but then why would it come out after i start the car and its idleing weird
i drive over to my the friends house i originally planned on going to since hes like half a mechanic (going through school) on the first stop sign i hit going to his house i pushed the clutch in and it was still reving high and doing the poof so i drove up a hill to the next one and it stopped it was revving at 900 so i was like ok and drove the rest of the way there doing the same thing every time it was normal i got there to his house and got out to show him ( he was already outside working on his cutlass supreme or somthing ) and of course the idle was perfect and looked under and everything was dry no dripping from the spot no little puddle and for the rest of day i drove it around like i normally would and checked every time i stopped no leaking no nothing and it ran like a champ i even got pulled over not nothing to be proud of but im still a little pissed all i wanted was some pizza after a day of sanding and painting just cruising down the empty highway with the nice summer air just cruising around 75 bam got pulled over how pathetic speeding with a 75.
anyway i was wondering if anybody knew what this orange stuff would be and the spot it was actually leaving and dripping off the car (not saying thats were its coming from) looked like the transmission and dont tell me blown coolant seals, oil seals,ect ect, i wont believe you i just bought this car it cant and wont die on me already.
Thanks for any help
Matt

Stanello

iTrader: (1)

Next time it leaks, look and see where it's coming from. How old is the coolant in the car? It would be a good idea to give the cooling system a good flush.

Lizo7

iTrader: (11)

okay ill do that it did look a tad low
but any clue what the orange stuff is?
thanks for the advice
i really appreciate it

Lizo7

iTrader: (11)

it did it this morning again same thing odd idle and dripping drive it for a few minutes and its fine i tried to isolate were it was coming from and from any angle it deffinetly looks like the transmission but i dont think its coming from it i believe its dripping from something on top and dripping down and onto and off the transmission I also checked my coolant bottle and its pretty low actually right on the low mark and hte same color as the dripping so ill get some coolant and water and fill that back up and see if that fixes my problem i cant imagine flushing the coolant is going to stop the dripping but the coolant seems to be my problem thanks White87FC

FirstRotaryExp

iTrader: (3)

How many miles are on your vert? Does your heater work properly? Any mods? If the drip appears to be landing on teh transmission and is an orangish tinge, it sounds like, to me at least, that a heater hose is leaking.

Lizo7

iTrader: (11)

about 135k and i havent tried the heater yet no need to its like 90 every day and as for mods i havent done anything to it and as far as the other guy he put some cone filter on it and a optima battery and yea it appears to be landing on it and dripping off but would a leaky heater hose give me that odd idle for a few minutes?

RotaryEvolution

iTrader: (30)

sounds like a minor coolant leak and an air pocket in the AWS system, try to find where the leak is coming from as aforementioned.

darktritium

I know this is OBVIOUS but is your coolant green or orange? I think a radiator flush would be a good idea. I've heard around here to use the green kind, but I haven't really researched this much. I'm not sure about the idle being affected by the coolant. This is another random idea, but maybe you have some rusty water on sensors somewhere. I'm just throwing ideas out there.

Lizo7

iTrader: (11)

coolant looks to be orange in the coolant bottle
thanks for the ideas and comments guys

Jodoolin

There have been posts here indicating that Dex based antifreeze should not be used in 7's. The basic rule is that if the car was manufacturer delivered with green use green only and do not mix. If it came with Dex (red) use red and do not mix. Mazda RX7s were delivered with green. Brief but not definative discussion at this link

http://autorepair.about.com/cs/gener.../aa052601a.htm

Sideways7

iTrader: (7)

Yep, sounds like a coolant leak and the wrong coolant. Heater hose sounds like a good place to start looking. Also try the various coolant hoses on top of the intake.

Lizo7

iTrader: (11)

so i should flush out the orange coolant and find some green stuff?
thanks, i would have never known

FirstRotaryExp

iTrader: (3)

Yes, flush out all the orange and it might help to get all new hoses as well just to be safe imho

Lizo7

iTrader: (11)

So.....this is kinda weird just yesterday i started up my vert and for some reason looked under it, oh yea i was checking to see where an exhaust leak was coming from, (just added bonez high flow and some Greddy catback i got from rotaryressurection and well there was a stready drip from the tranny.

Took a closer look and its dripping on the tranny from somewhere above.....at first i was afraid of a coolant leak then was like wait its from above the tranny then was like ok so heater...no thats over towards the passenger side. So i come inside to search for coolant dripping onto transmission as well as other searches and found this......weird ever since the day i posted this the first time this hasnt happened.

oh yea and i changed out the coolant so yea the drippy drippy is green now so i guess before it was coolant.

I suppose its some random line running over the tranny that might be cracked? any info on what to take apart first i know to get to the heater core the dash has got to come off so if thats the case i might just wait till spring im sick of working in this cold.

oh and this time no erratic idle came with the dripping.

Thanks
Matt

SukMy7

there are 2 heater hoses going into the heatercore, they are located on the driver and passenger sides of the engine bay, one goes from engine to the heater core the other goes from heater core to radiator. Check these hoses and replace them if nessicary. then check all the coolant hoses around the intake

Go48

iTrader: (7)

Assuming there is no leak inside the passenger side of the car, check the two heater hoses that attach at the firewall. Also, there are two coolant hoses that attach to the rear of the throttle body that may be leaking and causing the coolant to run down the back of the engine onto, and dripping from, the tranny. In the attached photo, those two hoses are in the highlighted area. The hose most visible connects to the BAC (ignore the blue thingy), and the hose behind that hose, which is only partially visible, connects to the top of the engine beneath the upper intake manifold. Check those out.

RoughRex

I'm guessing it's the hose that's under the Tb...the hardest one to see and replace. I would think if it were either of the heater hoses it would be fairly obvious plus I don't think it would drip onto the tranny. Unfortunately... that's about the only coolant hose I have not replaced on my car so I can't tell you how but, if you do a search there are plenty of threads that discuss it.

Lizo7

iTrader: (11)

haha awesome info guys thanks alot, ill check all this stuff tommorow and see what i can do.

What your all saying about it being a heater hose is what my thinking was exactly if it was one 1 wouldn't my carpet be all wet and 2 it wouldn't be dripping on the tranny so im going with that its most likely the hoses by the throttle body which could have possibly been why i was having an erratic idle during the summer when this happend as well maybe? at any rate ill check and report

thanks again

Matt

Go48

iTrader: (7)

The heater core is inside the car so if that was leaking you would know it. The two hoses that connect to the heater core connect to pipes on the firewall and if they were leaking, you would not necessarily see a coolant leak inside the car, rather the coolant would leak down the firewall onto and around the tranny. So check those two hoses first since they will be the simplest fix. The hose that connects under the UIM/TB will be a PITA to replace and most likely will require removal of the TB. I've heard some say that they have changed the hose without removing the TB, but I would not even attempt that myself.

Lizo7

iTrader: (11)

Yea so i got a chance to let it run for a bit today to find the leak and its deffinetly not coming from the heater core hoses there not leaking in or out of the cabin the hose that connects under the throttle body is a no go to (thanks for the pics Go48)

and from what i can tell now that its up on jackstands its not dripping on the tranny anywhere in the engine bay if it was i could see a line of coolant running down the bellhousing and its dry. and from under the car i can deffinetly tell its dripping directily on the gearbox and running down the side ( i can see splashes from the dripping).

Oh and i let it run for awhile because i assumed it would stop as soon as it warmed up just like it did quite some time ago and just as i expected it sure did so im stumped.

I even thought maybe something is dripping from the engine bay and working its way along the metal thats above the tranny. like not dripping off but following the metal on the slight downward slope then dripping when it leveled out on top of the gearbox but everything is dry.

Go48

iTrader: (7)

Is this really coolant dripping? Based on your last post and the orange color it may be tranny oil leaking from the extension housing (where the shift linkage is located) mating surface with the main tranny housing.

Lizo7

iTrader: (11)

Well i thought of that but i had just put in a newer trannsmission recently so if it had the same problem as my last one and somehow turned the gear oil green....haha i dont think so.

Like i said in the summer it was orange and i was prompted to change the coolant to the green kind (how was i to know the car i had for a week had the wrong kind of coolant in it)

so i changed it and now its the right green stuff and now...it's dripping green. So im pretty sure it's coolant and i can deffinetly see it dripping not leaking (theres splashes on the gearbox) I just dont know where its coming from.

If anybody has any other ideas ill try them but for now at least while its below 0 degrees here most of the time im going to let it go since in 30 seconds it stops anyway, untill it gets warmer then i suppose ill start ripping it apart to figure it out.

Thanks again guys

Matt

TehMonkay

iTrader: (-1)

Definately the coolant hose going to the TB, the guy that works on rotaries at our dealer used a torch to bend a pair of pliers to get to that hose, thats how much of a bitch it is.

If you look at the BAC the hose runs from the rear of the wter pump housing to the bac, then from the bac to the TB(or rather the thermowax setup thingy) the from there to a nipple on the rear iron.