coolant warning w/no sweet smell
 

i keep having my low coolant warning go off every couple of days in the morning right after start-up. when i start the car in the morning, i get a puff of smoke but i have inhaled that cloud every day for the last week and smell NOTHING but fuel. i don't see any leaks on the ground. if anyone can point me to areas that i should check it would be appreciated. also, how can i determine for sure if a coolant seal has crapped. i checked the filler neck with the cap off. i see what i think are bubbles but they are so tiny that i need the light reflecting in the neck at a specific angle to see them. thus, i can't tell if they are the classic "champagne bubbles" or not. again, i'm not getting ANY coolant smell in the exhaust. also, the oil looks clean. any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
andy

have you flushed or drained your system lately? if its "all of a sudden" starting to do this, then id go ahead and assume the worst. the bubbles that youre seeing might be a small leak. no overheating at all?

if youve drained and refilled lately then you need to burp the system. add water every morning.

i hope its just some air in the system.

paul

Check under the front passenger side fender, that's where your overflow tank is located. If you are seeing the small bubbles then the coolant is beeing pushed out there. Check the level of your overflow tank, fill it to the proper level, after you park the car overnight look in the area I mentioned for any signs of coolant. If there is then most likely you have the begining symptoms of a coolant seal failiur.

paul,
no overheating at all. even this week under high boost in the heat (90) the temp never went up.
trex,
i will check that area. thanks for the tip.
by the way, the engine is a mazda reman with about 14k miles on it.
andy

A lot of these type of posts now that the summer is here...

You might want to check your radiator carefully. Just because you don't see any puddles underneath doesn't mean that everything is OK. I had a slowly increasing leak that didn't leave puddles until the radiator started to fall apart.

https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showth...hreadid=202084

Apparently the leak was slow enough that any coolant was dispersing by the time the car stopped. I figure that any coolant that was leaking when the car sat must have pooled in a spot in the engine underbelly pan.