help
 

went to go look at 3rd gen for sale today(93) and while i was driving it the add coolant light came and starting beeping. when i pulled the car back in the drive way and let it idle the car was pissing coolant from the pass side healight area maybe under the headlight. Any ideas what that can be.


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THANK YOU

Why do you want to know? You're not actually considering this car, are you?

id pass on it.

the pass side has the coolant overflow tank.

thats bad, probably a hole in the overflow tank

then again it could be good, take it back to the dealer or whoever's it is....tell them what is wrong with it and make them fix it and possibly lower the price on the car. whenever things like that are wrong with a car it is a good chance to get the price lowered and in the end it could just be a quick $10 fix.

check the hose that goes from the overflow tank to the ast. i bet that the hose is pinched.

RUN AWAY, Could be sign of BIG problems....

1. Stuck thermostat, you wouldn't think this would be a big deal, but if the motor has been overheated, it is toast.

2. Bad coolant seal, new motor is needed.

I know these are the worst case scenarios, but I wouldn't buy a car that has the slightest of these signs. If you are still considering it after what I just told you, take the car to a "experienced" rotory mechanic.

Noob...

It needs a new motor...

walk away from it

Not at any Mazda dealer I ever heard of :D

But you do have a good point.

walk away.....no Run away!! It needs a new engine.

That's classic coolant seal failure. I know......been there twice on a Hayes Piece of shit engine.

let the owner get it fixed, you're not going to convince him it's a coolant seal related failure

that is at this point, undetermined

check the basics with what you can see, like the people said, use this to lowball him :)

stuck thermostat? i don't think so wickedrx7

Actually YES IT COULD BE. Wonder how I know? Because it happened to me. My thermostat stuck causing the car to get really hot. (don' know how hot because I didn’t have a temp gauge at the time) It then dumped coolant out of my overflow tank right after I parked the car. I pulled the thermostat and it was bad. I replaced it and all was fine for 3-1/2 years until my coolant seal let go.

Whenever you have an overheating issue on any car, this is one of the first things you would check.

So please don’t say “I don’t think so” without having any proof or knowledgeable thing to add to the post. It just wastes people’s time. If I had posted that it might be a hole in the coolant tank, then maybe you could say “I don’t think so” but when it is something that is entirely possible, don’t take the opportunity to take a shoot at me.

Good day

It could be a stuck thermostat in the begining but driving the car like that much at all will pretty much toast the motor. When buying a car it would be better to plan for a bad motor and have it be a bad T-stat. The other way around will tend to damage your bank account (or credit card balance;))

i had coolant spill out before. but it was because i overfilled my res tank.

if the tank was overfilled with coolant. Then when everything heats up its possible the tank just overflowed. but if you got a warning buzzer. i would find another FD. i see plenty on autotrader... thats where i got mine.. I love my FD.. shit.. it gives me wet dreams at night.

well, runaway unless your going to get it for an insane price like 7k.

Ask if he recently flushed his radiator. This exact thing happens to everyone when they flush. Burping and over filling leads to air in the neck and coolant in the overflow. It happens to me every fall when I change my coolant.

Could be a bad motor though, test the coolant for exaust to be sure. Ask the guy to not run the car before you comeover, that way it will be cold. If it were experiencing seal failure you would see white smoke when started from cold.

not always.. white smoke on startupp is normal. If it lasts more then 2-3 mins.. then there is a prob.. now if the smoke hangs int he air and smells sweet.. then you know there is a bad seal

I had a similar issue after test driving my rex, fluid on the ground but no lights/warnings. When I came back out to look at the car, there was a stream of coolant on the ground starting just below the passenger headlight assembly. I looked underneath and found nothing deeper than that to indicate engine damage, I also looked above and saw the overflow tank had coolant over the top of it. I detirmined it had to be just the overflow, and no leaks or temp spikes since.

I would check to see if it still leaks and also look more carefully at where the leak is from, ask them to put the car on a lift for you so you can examine underneath and see exactly where it is coming from.

It isnt always bad, mine was related to the dealer topping off the coolant a tad too high. All my temps were normal during the test drive and have been normal since.

~Kris

but his coolant warning light came on... that makes all the difference.

I had a similar issue after test driving my rex, fluid on the ground but no lights/warnings. When I came back out to look at the car, there was a stream of coolant on the ground starting just below the passenger headlight assembly. I looked underneath and found nothing deeper than that to indicate engine damage, I also looked above and saw the overflow tank had coolant over the top of it. I detirmined it had to be just the overflow, and no leaks or temp spikes since.

I would check to see if it still leaks and also look more carefully at where the leak is from, ask them to put the car on a lift for you so you can examine underneath and see exactly where it is coming from.

It isnt always bad, mine was related to the dealer topping off the coolant a tad too high. All my temps were normal during the test drive and have been normal since.

~Kris

mine use to do that but i got rid of my old radiator for a fluidyne and has not over flowed since my stock radiator was clogged as hell. and i did have a pinched hose as well.

Exactly, if you notice in my original post, I mentioned that if this was the case, the motor might be toasted. I got very lucky when this happened to me, I was driving for less than a mile and it never had a chance to get "Really" hot.

You don't want to mess around with cooling issues on these cars, they don't like to overheat even once.