ok so i drove to work just like anyother day without abusing my car too much. during lunch i walked out to my car started it...about 5-10 seconds later the add coolant light came on and so did the buzzer...ok i figured ****...my car is fucked...i blew my coolant seals or whatever...so during my next break i went to see if the oil was milky like it had coolant in it...it looks fine...so i came out after work and i went to add coolant to the thermostat and it just overflowed like its full. so i put some in the resivoire....then i started my car and no buzzer...about a minute or less into idling it came back on...and its like 20 degrees out so i figured ****...my car isnt going to over heat and if its fucked its fucked...so i drove it home.the temp gauge stayed right where it usually does..about 4 mins from my house the buzzer stopped for about 5 seconds and came back on....some one tell me my motor isnt fucked......tell me its just a sensor or something stupid like that....

by the way..its an 86 base 5spd.

SOMEONE HELP!!!!

 

Your oil dosent have to be milky was your resovuore full ?? by any chance because my engine was drinking (burning the coolant at first and it would just dissapear the n the resv started filling up. The simptoms you are describing are verry similar a start of bad things to come. I also have an 86 base

 

well my resivoire wasnt full and still isnt...the exhaust smells like...well exhaust.no sweet smell or anything....is it at all possible that its just a fuse or a short???maybe still not enough coolant in my resivoire? and what does the bad things to come consist of?...the car has almost 150k miles but im fairly sure it was rebuilt within 50k

 

Wiggle the wire that goes to the water level sensor on top of the radiator near the rad cap next time the buzzer goes off. Mine was doing the same thing and it turned out to be a faulty wire going from the sensor to wherever (it basically shorted out). Swapped it out with a new one and it stopped doing that completely. Just something to think about.

 

i did wiggle it a little bit but it was completely pitch black out so im calling off work tomorrow until i figure it out...then maybe ill think about going in lol

 

im not saying its that for sure but i would try everything else first before coming to the conclusion of saying my engine was fucked up

 

Is it leaking anywhere on the ground? Did you try bleeding the radiator.

 

well if it is my motor then its not the end of the world i have another motor sitting in my buddys geeeerage....but judging by the condition of the tranny that came off the motor it might not be the best...i dont want to put a motor in a motor with burnt apex's

 

*GASP* could it just be a very slow pinhole leak somwwhere that has let your coolant leak out and evaporate on contact with something hot and you just have an air bubble in the system that you didnt bleed out thoroughly!!!

 

listen i got home from work about 20 mins ago..its not like ive been out under the car all day...i havnt bled the radiator..there wasnt any on the ground..

 

It's not a smart idea to drive the car around once the buzzer started to go off.
Especially after refilling the coolant...

Be prepared to replace the engine.

The buzzer went off, because there is a leak...somewhere.
The compromised cooling system does NOT work well, as it needs pressure to work efficiently.
The motor might not have been leaking internally.
It would've been a number of things, some of which could be: water pump, bad thermostat, leak in radiator, leak in some hose, leak in heater core, etc.
You should've tried to find the leak, fix it, then it would've okay to drive it around.


-Ted

 

check that damned heater hose on the RHD side of your car it may be have a small hole from moving everytime you rev for a thousands of miles

 

why would the car run perfectly fine to work...then the hose just all of the sudden the heater hose have a hole in it...the heat and defrost worked fine....so i doubt its that...my buddy said to bleed the radiator and fill the resivoire properly and see what happens...

 

The hose could just be old and worn out. Any number of reasons for a hose to leak. You would still probably have defrost and heat with just a tiny slow leak in a heater hose. Might not even be a heater hose. There are a number of places coolant could seap from. Most common on mine was where the BAC/Hose from TB ran into the top of the engine. It always liked to leak around that area

 

never ask why some thing happens, stuff just goes bad, dont exclude things because there was nothing that could have caused it. thats a very bad why to approach problems.

some good examples:
i was driving my 300z and it just started overheating and shooting steam everywhere. my lower rad hose AND thermostat went bad at the same time. a week later the upper hose went bad as well. i did nothing to cause any of this.
last week the heater core on my 300z popped for no reason what so ever i was just driving and 10 min later i had friggin antifreeze all over my carpet and an overheating car.
my roomate changed the oil in his crx this weekend and the distributer seized up. explain that one.

 

I thought about selling "replace engine" covers for the "add coolant" slot on the cluster... That would be funny......

 

ok ok good point...i guess i should get my *** up and try and figure it out...ill look for any leaks. bleed the system...and see what happens...if anyone has any other suggestions then feel free to tell me

 

a good thing to check for leaks is to take a compressor hook it up to the overflow line and pressurize the system. then check if you can see/hear any thing coming out. i had this happen to me and it was that the Orings between the lower intake manifold and engine busted. so all the coolant was flowing into the runners or on to the top of the engine. thus none leaking any where.

 

just an air compressor and the line from the therm to the res?

 

be very careful about using compressed air to test for leaks... there is actually a tool that is used for cooling system leak-down test. it utilizes a hand pump with a gauge built into it... you should never put more then 20psi into your cooling system for fear of blowing out a seal or gasket

 

yeah use those nozzles for blowing stuff and cram it into the hose, hold it on there and hold the lever thingy down then have a friend check for air/water shooting out.

turn the output pressure down.

 

ok thank for clearing that up before i start blowing a bunch of air into my cooling system

 

do yourself a favor before anything else...

while the engine is cool/cold remove the radiator cap near the thermostat... let the car warm up to operating temprature. once warmed up(when the thermotat has opened) let it sit an idle with the cap off for 10 minutes... keep an eye on the temp gauge and add coolant as necessary... there is a good chance you still have an air bubble in the system somewhere...

 

yea i was up until 5am reading http://www.aaroncake.net/rx-7/ the site has alot of useful info

 

haha that would be great to sell a car to someone with that on there....they would call me a week later like oh no the replace engine light came on....
were you running the car hard?

yeah.

your problem

hahahhahha