bobbit31

Hopefully someone can give some insight to a problem i'm having w/ my rx-7:

I turn on my car and after about 5 seconds the add coolant alarm blares.
However, the coolant level is full. During the week the alarm would go off after about 1 minute or so. Starting yesterday it went on and stayed on and not only that, after driving it for about 2 miles the temperature guage went higher than normal... i killed it right away (didn't go in the red). I was driving it w/ the a/c blasting so the fans would continuously run and still the "overheat" w/in a few minutes of driving. There is no coolant leaking, no water spitting, my vacuum level reading off my boost guage is normal, my exhaust is normal (not white or blue) and nothing seems to be hot in the engine bay.

If i blew a coolant seal wouldn't my exhaust be white and my vacuum pressure low? Any ideas as to what might be going on?

Ralgh

Running the AC will make the car run hotter. Turining the heater on will help it run cooler. It could be the water pump or thermostat. The fact that is happens immediately makes me think there is some other problem. What it is I don't know. Maybe electrical. Short of having a real, linear water temp gauge in there I am not sure how to tell what the real water temp is.

bobbit31

actually, i topped off my coolant again and the alarm went off. Everything is working fine except when i take it for a drive then come home, coolant starts leaking... i didn't notice it the first time it happened which is why i thought my coolant level was full... right now i'm hoping it's leaky hoses... i'm going to try and find them now.

i'm also going to be installing a real water temp gauge on thursday...

so given that everything seems fine except it starts leaking when it comes up to temperature (i'm guessing since the coolant expands and pressure increases) does it sound like leaky hoses or could i still have a blown o-ring?

Ralgh

After installing a larger radiator I started leaking coolant from the upper hose from the end I didn't remove (engine side). I just moved it around a bit and re tightened the clamp and it never leaked again. If the coolant is leaking outside the car I think you don't have a terminal problem. I haven't had much experience with this but I hear an internal leak is usually a rebuild. I think a real temp gauge is the way to go. I am in the decision process on what gauges to buy and how to mount them right now.

maxpesce

Tom (Ralgh)

I am currently in the process of modding my dash to accept some AutoMeter 2 1/16" 'Sport Comp' guages - I am putting a elect water temp gauge in place of the stock oil press, an elect Oil temp in place of the stock fuel level, and a putting the fuel level in place of the stock water temp. The AutoMeter 2 1/16" guages fit with some trimming of the panel. the only major problem is one of the pannel wiring connector sockets is in the way of the fuel gauge - I have not yet decided if it will be eaiser to modify the gauge case or the harness connector.

I have also installed a mech Oil Press gauge on the A pillar along w/ my boost Gauge.

I may also add a Triple Pod to the dash for ATF Temp, Volts, & A/F ratio

If you want to drop by and check out what I am doing and/or make any suggestions shoot me a PM or e-mail

johnchabin

iTrader: (2)

When you say the coolant level is full, where are you checking it? At the plastic coolant dipstick (overflow tank) or at the water pump?

If you are checking the overflow tank, you may really be low on coolant. Based on both the warning buzzer sounding and the temp gauge reading hot, this would be my guess...

bobbit31

john, you are absolutely correct... to clarify my previous post, i filled both the filler neck and overflow tank... i drove it and everything was fine but then after i drove it it started leaking... i didn't notice this at the time.
The alarm started going off and was baffled since i just topped everything off. I topped it off again and the alarm went away... but after driving and reaching operating temp, it starts leaking out.

so now i'm trying to pinpoint the leaks... to be safe, i'm going to be getting it towed to my buddies shop on thursday to give it a thorough once over and to get some other fun stuff installed (unless of course i need a reman *knock on wood*)

Thanks for everyones input, i'll let you know the status in a few days...

this forum is awesome by the way.

Trexthe3rd

Sorry bud, I'll bet a hundred bucks your seal is gone. The coolant is going out the overflow. In most cases, minor seal leaks will not show up in the exhaust. Do a search for coolant, you'll find hundreds of pages of info on this.
In short, top off the filler neck, leave cap off, run car till normal temp and look at the coolant, you'll most likely see small stream of bubbles, that would be your exhaust gas.

bobbit31

yeah i tried that... no bubbles but the coolant level rises and overflows after about 45 seconds and since i didn't want coolant to spill all over the place i turned the car off... i filled it up to about an inch+ before the top of the filler neck.

7racer

my seal on the radiator cap wasn't working...it didn't look bad and I couldn't figure it out. Finally, the seal total went and I obviously found the source of the leak.

If you havn't already, just try changing the cap to a new one....it's pretty cheap.

fedupfd3

iTrader: (1)

does the car run hot your temp gauge above normal if so you might need to change thermostat had it happen in the 86 GXL I owned or the sensor is going

bobbit31

trexthethird: you owe me a hundred bucks!

anyway, needed a new radiator and radiator hoses...
everything is working great for the time being... but with this car who knows what'll happen next.

thanks for all your input!

bobbit31

trexthethird: you owe me a hundred bucks!

anyway, needed a new radiator and radiator hoses...
everything is working great for the time being... but with this car who knows what'll happen next.

thanks for all your input!