My car has been leaking coolant for a few weeks now as stated in a few previous threads. I always top her off with coolant before I take her anywhere. I've had no choice but to take the 7 everywhere since my honda is in the shop till later this week.

Well, I was driving home from a booty-call (3 am and I topped her off before I left.) when i'm about a mile away from home. Suddenly the add-coolant buzzer comes on! I'm shocked and instantly pull over and shut the car down! Pop the hood and let her cool down for about 30 min (good thing it was really cold outside). I start her up after the temp guage is almost at 9 o'clock. I'm hoping I can make her home before she warms up again (given my house is less than 3 minutes away). Before I even travel a full short block I notice my thermostat is climbing to the top! ****! I pull over and pop the hood again! This time I pushed her to the nearest gas station about 1/4 a mile away. Fill her up with water and take her home. The coolant buzzer is off and everything seems/feels fine.

What are my chances the engine overheated? How can I tell if the 7 is permanently damaged? Should I expect weird sounds/odors/engine codes? Will coolant be leaking into the engine if something is warped? Compression drop? What?!?! Someone please be kind and respond to this idiot that is me.

 

Fix the coolant leak. Get compression checked if you want. Look for more white smoke on startup (coolant burning), and look at your plugs for condensation. These signs tell you that the seals are toast, time for a rebuild.
~Tom

 

I hate to be the bearer of bad news. The fact that you have been loosing coolant for a while and seeing the temp gauge top out make it sound like a bad coolant seal. There are hundreds of threads on this topic, but just a quick summary.
A small seal leak will cause pressure build up in the cooling system and you'll have one or more of these symptoms:
1. With the pressure cap off (at the filler neck) run the engine to operating temp and you'll see small champaign like bubbles.
2. Coolant will be pushed back into theoverflow tank (front passenger side of the wheel well) and spill over and not get dawn back, causing low coolant. This is especially true if you do a hard run and stop acouple of minutes and start back up again.
3. Remove and examine the plugs after the engine is cold. If you see traces of coolant then ..oh well.

What you are describing is exactly what my car did before the coolant seal really gone south. When the seal goes completely the car will be pouring out very thick white smoke (the kind you can't see through).
I was in denial for the longest time and ran my car for almost 6 months before the seal really went and I needed a rebuild.
You can try the block weld method to push the life of your engine a little more if you want.

 

Your biggest mistake was not driving with coolant. If you know you have a leak you should have not been driving at all much less without some coolant in the car.

I would just keep an eye on the exhaust on startup to see if there is any additional white smoke coming out of it.

I recommend performing a fan mod in order to keep your coolant temps lower, before i did this i had 3 hhoses bust on me in 3 months after fan mod 0.

And PLEASE PLASE fix the coolant leak before you drive it. Remember car rental = $30 a day. New engine = $2000-$3000

 

Like I suggested in your other thread, find the leak! Don't drive it until you figure it out! It could be something really stupid like a $2 turbo coolant line, and will end up costing you $4000 because you keep driving it when you know that you have a leak.

There is a very good chance that you'll already overheated and destroyed your engine, but you won't know until after you fix the leak.

 

unles you are using an aftermarket (or linerized stock) guage you HAVE OVERHEATED your engine. the stock (unmodified) guage stays centered untill 220degF. It provides little or NO warning that the engine has over heated. I have NEVER seen my Stock guage move above center yet BOTH the 260deg temp. recording tabs have melted off my rotor housings.

 

I'll take your guy's advice and find out what's wrong. I had no choice to drive this car. I had no other available. I need it for work and such. I never drove this car everyday. Only on the weekends! I guess it was meant to happen. I guess the only good thing is I have a warranty. They should cover this. I'll look it up.

Trexthe3rd,

The champaign bubbles came out and caused the overflow and low coolant like you stated.

I'll check the plugs before I go to work today. A needed rebuild might actually be a good thing for me. I'll explain later. Thanks for everything guys. I really appreciate it. Hope you guys will stick with me on this one for a bit longer. Gonna need lots of advice soon. Thanks again.

-HeX

 

With minor coolant seal leaks the exhaust gas blows by the leaks and pressurizes the system, so most likely you will not see coolant on your plugs. As I suggested before, you have 2 options.
1. use block weld and hang on to the engine as long as you can (I have not done this so I can't tell you how long it will last), other members have reported over 6 months, who know.
2. Get your rebuild.
Good luck.

 

If you have the champagne bubbles, you definitely have a blown coolant seal. I guess there are two possible scenarios. 1) you had a blown coolant seal, it blew the coolant into the overflow bottle, and it all went on the ground. 2) you have a leaking hose somewhere, leaked out your coolant, continued to drive the car and overheated it, and blew you coolant seals. I guess either way the answer is a rebuild.

 

Trexthe3rd,

about the block weld. More info please or give me a link. I will need to hold onto the engine for at least 3-4 months. BTW, will performance decrease as the coolant seeps into the engine?

Anyone have good recommendations for rebuilds? Being a fairlly new fd owner i'm kinda glad this is happening to me now. I guess it forces me to learn the hard way (which is the best way).

I guess I better start thinking of what I should include with my rebuild. Street port? suggestions?

-HeX

 

Where are these? I've never seen 'em on my motor

 

and then there is:


seems like conflicting statements

 

I don't know it they are on all motors - Mine were placed on the side housings by the rebuilder (most rebuilders use for verifing warranty claims vs/overheating). I don't know what the look like intact - I now just have two bare spots on my painted housings where they melted away.