Just got to work in the underground parkade right now, opened the hood up and noticed a faint smell of coolant, and saw that the underside of the hood on the left side of the engine bay had coolant/water/some liquid without much smell, on it in one area, right behind the battery and AST tank. The top of the AST, fuse box, and IC piping to the TB have a fine mist of the liquid on it as well, my PFC water temps were fine, and I didn't notice anything until I opened the hood, anyone have a clue to what it would be? I can't check anything because theres almost no light in the parkade, and I'm at work right now. I should add, I heard some occasional gurgling sound coming from somewhere in the engine bay when I checked now as well.

 

check your ast connections. the stock ast is prone to cracks and splits over time. its ****; if you ever get the chance to change it out for an aluminum one, do it.

if its not the ast..check the pressure cap on the main filler neck

 

hoses do crack....particularly around the clamp!

Top off the system and keep a close eye on the temps!!! the moment you go over 100C shut down...you can push it past that and still be ok but y risk it!
DO NOT TRUST THE STOCK temp gauge! these cars run way TOO HOT with the stock fan settings. If you see the needle move youre most likely subjecting the engine to over 110C!!!! Way too much for sustained operation and not expect a coolant seal failure.

Its happened to me more than once!!!!!!!!!

 

I have an aluminum AST tank, not a stock one, and a PFC + Commander, so I can monitor my water temps. I'll check on the connections, any other suggestions?

 

is the gurgling new?

were u able to confirm that the liquid is or is not coolant?

if theres a mist its possible that whatever it is dripped to the radiator fans when they were on. so if its coolant check your ast hose around there i guess.

 

Check the AST pressure cap, as well as your radiator hoses.

 

now why didnt i think of that

 

I'll check the caps, whats the cost of a new filler cap and AST cap at the dealer? An OEM one should fit on an aftermarket AST, or is it gonna be a different size? Oh, and the gurgling is what I heard when I popped the hood the first time and saw the coolant everywhere. Maybe I have air in the lines as well?

 

for OEM cap fitment it depends which aftermarket AST u have. I want to say all aftermarket AST use OEM caps except for the Petit AST, which uses something bigger.

yup having a leak in your cooling system will introduce air to it.

the caps are something like $14-16 each from malloy mazda if i remember correctly. i may be wrong

 

Alright update, just drove the car home after warming it up and looking for leaks. Almost everytime I stopped at a light, the coolant beeper would come on, then turn off within 30 seconds, PFC was showing water temps constantly of 78-80 degrees celsius so everything was obviously working, as my temps were fine. I guess I'll look more thoroughly tomorrow in the daylight.

 

Oh and I heard the gurgling sound again, sounds like its coming from right in front of the block occasionally, then followed right by what sounds like hissing of air escaping from the filler cap, or near it.

 

thats not good. there is a very slight chance that there is a split in the filler neck somewhere. that would explain why there is coolant mist all over the place. as the coolant gets hotter and expands, it could rise up the filler neck and spray out of a small crack.

i'm not saying this is what happened, so dont freak out. just something else to check...

 

Alright I found a crack right near the filler neck, in the hose that runs from the AST to the filler neck, made sure it didn't leak anymore, added a bunch of coolant, and everything seems to be good right now, time will tell haha. I still don't understand where it sprayed out of though, it couldn't have been the leak in the line that I found, because that is on the other side of the engine bay almost, from where the spray actually was.