Radiator air bleeder is fubar, quick question!
 

My add coolant buzzer has been coming on ALOT lately and I will stop and check the coolant level and its fine! I heard this could be air bubbles in the system correct? So I'm inspecting everything and see that the head of my plastic, crappy air bleed screw is gone and there is a hole drilled all the way through it and a little coolant is leaking out! I'm thinking, on start up before the system has built up pressure wouldn't this little hole suck in air creating air bubbles and the add coolant light. And also this would keep the system from pressurizing and MAYBE causing my slight overheating problem right? How can I get whats left of the screw out without getting all the little plastic pieces in my coolant if I drill it out?

Thanks,
James

**********************UPDATE********************

I tried drilling it a little bit. With the drill on forward it keeps screwing the screw in farther:( If I go to far it will go into my radiator!! What can i do?:(

Take a propane torch, or even a lighter, or anything hot, and heat up the head of a flathead screwdriver, and then stick in in the screw. It will melt its own little groove. Wait for it to cool, then just unscrew it.

Or, get a reverse threaded drill bit. So when you are turning left, it is trying to thread itself into the screw. These things have saved me on more than one situation :)

Have you tried a "broken screw exctractor"/"easy out"?

i will try the heated up flathead right now...i have neither a reverse threaded drill bit or a broken screw extractor...that sux:(

i finally got it out and used the one of my parts car.. no more add coolant buzzer but my guage still gets up to halfway at high speeds

So how did you get it out? Have you replaced the rad cap/thermostat with factory mazda parts?

Well I couldn't get the screwdriver hot enough with the lighter to do any damage. So I took the upper radiator hose so I could catch any debris and I started drilling. I drilled a sizeable hole in the headless screw.
Then I took my largest flat head and just started spinning it in the hole. It was shaving off plastic until there was hardly any of the screw left in the hole and I backed it out. I'm not sure what the stock caps look like so I don't know for sure....my rad cap has some red chinese characters on it so I figure that one is stock and the one on my water pump neck is a CST. Another question....are the water pump neck cap and the radiator cap rated at the same pressure?

If you have two caps, one should be a 'flat cap' (no overflow fitting, or capped off) and the other would be a pressure release type cap (0.9 Bar).

Ok that makes sense. but where should the flat cap go, on the radiator or the water pump neck? And when you say flat cap you mean the kind without the spring on the bottom

There are about 8 different coolant filler cap configurations on the RX-7, so it can be confusing. The pressure cap (one with the spring) should to whereever there is a small coolant hose leading out to the overflow tank. The "flat cap" should go on the other hole.

thanks aaron. but could the caps really cause me to get to halfway on the guage?

If the pressure cap is not holding pressure, yes, it can increase temperature. You might want to check out http://www.aaroncake.net/rx-7/cooling.htm for troubleshooting info.

well i dont know about my radiator being clogged but my undertray is in there kinda...the front is in secure but where it attaches to the frame after the engine its loose(the screws are broken off in the holes) so im not sure if its doing its job. shit i dont have enough knowledge to fix it. i took it to a shop to get the coolant flushed and they said it didnt need to be done... he actually said he didnt want to rip me off

If you have an S5, halfway is totally normal. Our gauges really only have 3 positions, and the gauge sucks. Get yourself a water temp gauge. They're cheap and effective, especially on a car that will kill itself for even the most minor overheating.

Is it the same for S4? I have an 88TII

I think the s4 should be only 1/3 of the way up.

thats really around where mine runs...maybe a tad higher at around 90 or up...i really want to remove my A/C condenser to see if i can get it just a little lower and i will be happy

SONOFABITCH!! I went for a drive and popped my hood and there was coolant leaking from the air bleeder screw AGAIN! So i blew on the screw to get the coolant out of the way, as i blew one good time the damn head of the screw came off exactly like my old one did and now i dont have another spare screw. So i dont know what is causing this or how that could even happen twice. I also have another question. I noticed my top radiator hose is under ALOT of pressure...i can BARELY even squeeze it in at all!! I would assume that is too much pressure? Is my thermostat not opening and causing all the pressure back up?

If your thermostat didn't open i dont think that would cause the pressure to back up necessarily. The fact that theres a massive build-up of pressure suggests that air is getting into the system another way.

You say you're not losing coolant? Hrmm...this is a strange problem. Anyway, i dunno what your cooling system history is, but have you tried the geyser test yet? It COULD (that means maybe) be your coolant seals. Don't quote me on this, im not a freaking expert...but check it out anyway.

havent geyser tested it...i dont think its my seals. its only got around 60k niles on a rebuild

Unfortunately that means little. If you overheat a rotary, you can send your coolant seals to hell Reeeeeeeeeeeaal quick. geyser test it man.

i know im gonna geyser test it...and i never said it had been overheated man...it only gets to halfway on the guage. i know this is the engine "running hot" but that is not overheating by a long shot. coolant has never overflowed or boiled or anything...its been taken care of. ive got to geyser test it but its nasty and raining outside today

ok i went out anf "geyser" tested it. i took both egi fuses out and took my radiator cap off and cranked it....no geyser..nothing. NONE CAME OUT WOOT WOOT! I'm so freakin relieved. so what could be causing that screwhead to pop out? and the hose swelling some? maybe its just a bad hose and shitty screws?

Could be...maybe u just had a fluke streak with two bad screws or something. I dunno wat the explanation for the hose could be though. Maybe you have the wrong kind of filler cap on??

Congrats on passing the geyser test ;)