supercell

Hello all-

Since I bought my car last year, I have had to replace the AST, radiator and radiator hoses, and the water pump since I first got it due to leaks, but the car has never overheated. (luckily, these things were caught when I was parked) Now, I have no visible leaks under the car at all, but I am concerned about minor amounts of coolant loss- not from driving, but rather while the car is sitting for a day or two. I have not had the coolant light go off yet, however, I can fill the filler neck almost up to the top and when I go out to look at the level the next day (without starting the car), it will drop about a half-inch or so. It does smoke at start up, but every other car around here is smoking heavily at start-up too, so that diagnosis is hard to use as a benchmark. (high humidity, and cold temps) The smoke does not smell like coolant, just like the car is running extremely rich. I am beginning to think that the O-rings are definitely shot, but wanted to hear from you all to see if maybe I am missing something or if there is a good way to tell. Thanks in advance!


Jon
'85 GSL-SE
'93 Touring

Sidestick

iTrader: (1)

I wouldn't worry about it. My car does it too after doing something that drained some of the coolant (replace a hose, etc.). Sometimes it just takes a while for all the air to get out of the system, then it will stop needing coolant. Just check it & top it up every cooldown cycle.

Now, if it was overheating with the low coolant warning on, hard hot starting, WHITE smoke when it starts, then start worrying!

supercell

Thanks for the pep talk, Sidestick....however, my car does exhibit two of these traits....it is harder to start during heatsoak and can get flooded really easy, and it does smoke during startup, but I have no idea how much is normal since every other car around here is doing it in the morning too, including my SE. Guess I will just have to see how this plays out. Anybody else wanna jump on this topic and give me your 2 cents, or even 3?

Jon
'85 GSL-SE
'93 Touring

atihun

I don't think you have to worry yet.

What is happening if you are not losing coolant, ie. your buzzer coming on is:

1. Coolant expands when hot, and some will go into the overflow tank.
2. When the car cools, not as much may come back into the cooling system and will cause a sort of vacuum.
3. When you open the coolant when it is cold it will drop about a half an inch or so, it is normal.

Smoking a little is normal on startup. You accumulate moisture, and are evaporating it off. Now, if you have white smoke after the car is hot, then you have a problem.

There are plenty of other reasons you are experiencing hard hot starts.
a. Leaky fuel injectors
b. Low battery charges
c. Touching the gas pedal when cranking

Good luck, and I'll pray to the Rotary Gods for ya .

PS. Just to make you feel better, my car does the same when I open the coolant fill cap. I do not have any coolant loss, no buzzer, no white exhaust after warmup, and no hard hot starts.

neuroticinsomniac

my car did that for about 3 months before finally losing the motor. it was pretty much a mystery until it finally went, but i found out it was pushing a small amount of coolant into the combustion chamber. the coolant system pressure-tested fine, and no visible smoke or odor was present...but it began to drink more and more, while exhaust and coolant temps remained normal. (FWIW this was during the winter.)

i hope this isn't too depressing, but you should start making plans for a new motor. even if it's nothing, you'll be prepared for the worst when SOMETHING breaks...and it will.

i've let my car sit for a month, and now i have a little pool of oil under it on the turbo side. it doesn't appear to be leaking too much, but i'm once again starting to get ready to spend some $$$. <sigh>

i feel your pain.

good luck.

atihun

That does sound horrible. Hopefully it wasn't a related failure. Have you checked your overflow tank? Is it at the same level, or lower?

Just to let you know, I noticed this 'phenomenon' when my car had 60k on it. It now has 94k on it.

But, yea, you should start saving anyways, good to have the extra cash around for when the car gets "hungry" .

PS. how many miles are on the car?

supercell

The overflow is remaining pretty much at the same level if I leave it alone, but as I have been adding a little coolant, the level seems somewhat higher right now. I guess I should have counted the slits in the stick before or something. (what a beauty hind-sight is) The car has 83k on it now. Right now, I'm going to take care of the small things the previous two owners neglected such as plugs and wires....the wires look like the originals....and the before I changed the belts, they looked like hell. They had missing ribs and whatnot. The idle is not what I would like it to be. It has random fits of not wanting to drop to 750 - it hangs up at around 1200-1300 frequently, but drops occasionally right down to 750 and purrs smoothly. I pulled the plugs a couple weeks ago to do a compression test, (which was actually good by the way!) and the leading plugs' electrodes looked like little worn nubs and all the plugs were covered heavily in carbon. So I think that may be why the car is easy to flood during heatsoak, and the idle can be rough. (good indication its running rich as could be too) I'll keep you all posted on how all this goes.....right now I'm mentally preparing myself for doing plug wires!


Jon
'85 GSL-SE
'93 Touring

atihun

Heya Jon,

I didn't see that you replaced your thermostat. And if the previous owner neglected to change the plugs, then I'm sure the tstat may still be original?

If you haven't done it, you should as soon as possible, as they tend to fail at high miles. Very easy to replace. Kinda sucks that you have put new coolant in though.

Saintdog

Make that 2 of us... I am afraid I tried everything to help my car (including talking with Atihun) but nothing helped, so now its time to rebuild the motor. I am going to start a thread on the steps I need to take to do the best rebuild I can for a good price.

supercell

Update:

When I went out to the car this morning, the coolant level was right at the inner 'rib' of the filler neck. I did not fill it last night, so I'm thinking maybe I just didnt do a very good job of burping the system when I replaced the radiator and water pump. (if at all) Come to think of it, I don't think I did the check and fill thing much more than a day or so after I did the work, so maybe I was experiencing the effects of not burping the system properly. I'll watch it and see what happens over the next few days. Yes, the tstat was changed with the pump. I did the hard job - I actually did the whole housing too because a shop the previous owner took it to (well-qualified for rotary) had stated that the housing gasket had a pinhole leak in it. So basically, to make a long story short, I replaced the entire water pump & housing with brand new parts from Mazda, which came with a brand new tstat and filler neck, cap, etc. Temp gauge in the car gives me a reading below halfway, but over a quarter, which seems high compared to the SE, but from what I have read here, it seems that this is the norm if not a little cooler than most people have. Could be the temperature here affecting it some too.


Jon
'85 GSL-SE
'93 Touring

neuroticinsomniac

now that i'm thinking about it, another bad sign (which fortunately you have not mentioned) was that my car would push air/steam back through the system into the overflow tank. after shutting off the motor (hot), a steady bubbling could be heard from the overflow tank...not like the ocassional gurgle it still makes sometimes on a hot Texas day, but more of a steady, bong-hit type sound (not that i would know anything about that).

so in case it starts doing that...that's a bad.
but if not...that's a good.

juliof

I think you have a air pocket,If I let my car sit for several weeks the water level in the thermostat housing stays about 4 inches from the top.I have never over heated or had white smoke or coolant buzzer go off.