Okay, he's my issue. The car runs great. I'm not overheating....but when I stop the car I'm spilling antifreeze all over the floor from the top of the overflow tank and from the top of the AST. I'm not loosing any coolant when I'm driving and it only starts when I turn the car off to park. What could cause this? I really don't want to take this to Mazda as I would like the problem to be fixed and not charged for 2 hours of labor which accomplish nothing. Any suggestions would be VERY much appreciated. Thanx.

 

Are you re-filling it after you see coolant on the ground?

If the coolant system is overfilled, after shut down it will kick out the excess coolant.

You could also have a crack in the coolant overflow container.

 

I refill it but only because the coolant light comes on and it once started to overheat. Originally I thought I had air in the line but that wasn't the case. Also with the crack, I thought about that but the leaking stops after a few minutes and there is still coolant remaining in the tank.

 

you will need to ck all your coolant lines. also ck your cap. you can try a pressure test on your coolant system. unfortunately i have the same problem. it turned out to be a bad water seal, which means a new engine. hope its something small.

 

what is your rpm at idle at and what vaccum are you getting at idle? is there white sweet smelling smoke comming out of your tailpipe? check for leaks at the plastic ends of your radiator if you still have the stock one. are you sure the coolant is comming out of the over flow tank and not the AST tank, do you got the stock ast tank? How much coolant to water are you running? what psi cap are you running? does your coolant bubble (can you see a strand of bubbles in the radiator fill after you shut the engine off) after you shut the engine off?

 

Check to make sure that the AST and the radiator cap are not switched. I had the same problem - the previous owner switched them around. The symptoms were same as yours. The coolant was purging out of the AST. The cap on the AST is a simple deal with a rubber washer and the rad. cap has a spring-loaded valve.

By the way, nice car!

 

RPM at idle is ~800. Its an aftermarket Pettit AST, and it was overflowing from the top of both the overflow on the righthand side of the motor and the AST, as there were puddles under each. I checked where it was coming from and if they had cracked but the only evidence of spill came from the top of both of them. I am currently running a stock radiator, and about 50/50 ratio of coolant/water. That ratio doesn't seem to make a difference though as I have varied it to test that. Upon start up there is a little white smoke upon start up, but I smell the syrupy scent from the front of the car not the tailpipe. The psi on the cap is 13lbs which is standard on Pettit's AST. The car is going to go to KD for an overhaul by the end of the summer, I'm just looking to get the car running if I can so I can enjoy it for a couple month before it goes away. Anybody think radiator replacement might help? I have SRX7.com's Ultimate on the way.

 

I had the same problem. Replace your Radiator and AST cap as soon as you can. Problem fixed! And its not your overflow tank thats a problem, so you can save that ($125) for something else.

 

I wouldn't rule out anything else at this point, but that would be the cheapest route to test first.

 

i dont think its the overflow tank
i had similar situation temp went up spills after running(not from ast)
it turned out to be waterpump and later the radiator went too.