hey guys, just recently my car has been running very rich. i have been trying to fix that for the past week now. i found out my air pump was disconnected and took it to my mechanic to fix (connecter was shattered and wires stripped). on my way to his shop and back i had my A/C on full blast. he connected my air pump and when i got home i opened up the hood and it was hotter than it has ever been!!! just then i heard the coolent start to bubble (very loud). i turned the key to on and turned the fans on, then the add coolent buzzer came on. the next morning i started the car expecting all the coolent to spill out the overflow tank and see tons of white smoke (as my mechanic told me would happen). the car started right up w/ no problems, no coolent spilled out and no smoke at all?! i looked under the engine bay and after one minute of warming up, i put my hand over the air pump and it was HOT!! i now disconnected the air pump because i think that is what caused it to happen but i dont know?? i checked in the coolent fill neck and i had only lost about an inch to 2 inches of coolent.

do you think my car is alright? are my coolent seals going? any suggestions?

 

does your airpump pulley spin freely? disconnect the output hose from the airpump and see if it's blowing air when it engages (plug the connector up temporarily)

or pull the upper intake for the airpump (hose on top) and see if it's sucking air...

if the airpump is seized...that could be a problem, i would think

 

Still being new, I'm confussed exactly the purpose of the air pump. I've noticed a lot of people with down-pipes removing the air pump and some people just pulling because. Is it an emissions related peice that works with the pre-cat? Is it necessary for the car to function properly?

 

nope.. airpump is garbage.. i had a old guy who used to work on the 3rd gen 7s at mazda tell me to take all that emissions **** off my car cuz that causes problems.

 

and now my car is kicking to 116k! w00t whats the record on the longest life span on a non rebuilt stock rotary

 

The air pump pumps air to the Air Control Valve (ACV). The ACV distributes this air to the main cat and to the exhaust manifold, and dumps the rest out the "noisy hose" (a vent of the air that happens to be noisy).

The air pumps can sieze, and they tend to do it sooner when you feed it hot air (like when the intake is replaced with one that sucks hot air). It sounds like yours *might* be on the way to siezure, but it may also be that it just gets hot when working, and you aren't used to that.

-Max

 

so how is my car? do you think it is ok?

i started it up today and it was smoking blue smoke at idle. turbos going?

 

if it spits out some blue smoke right at startup but stops shortly thereafter, you're ok. If it continues to spit blue smoke each time it goes back to idle, you may have some problems - likely related to the turbos.

as far as coolant goes, as long as there's coolant in the filler neck when the car is cold, you should be fine. it's possible you got the buzzer because the coolant was no longer moving and air may have collected around the sensor (from the boiling). I don't remember my air pump being blazingly hot, tho... can anyone else comment on that?

 

thanks BrianK...when i start the car i get a small cloud of the smoke (normal) but then it will continuously smoke (it will come about 1 foot out the exaust and clear up) even untill it warms up.

yes i still do have coolent in the filler neck...i have checked it every day now since then and it hasent dropped.

 

do you think that my cat could be clogged? i did some searching and i read that some symptoms are: blue smoke at idle, bad boost, stinky exaust, and center consol gets hot.

i have all of thoes, but i am not sure about the boost. (no boost guage yet, and i have never driven another stock FD)

i do remember that when i had the air pump connected that it did not smoke.

so could it possibily be my cat?

 

how many miles on the cat? Do you still have the pre-cat on the car?

 

the main cat is the original w/ 83k miles on it. i have a stock japenese DP (came with the japenese engine) w/ 45k miles on it.

 

oh and the air pump has been disconnected for a long time.

 

ya got me. The cat should still be good after 83K. No pre-cat to be clogging things.

I can think of reasons why you might be getting smoke, but none of them relate to the air pump.

anyone?... anyone?.... bueller?... bueller?...

 

83k on the stock cat with the (air pump unhooked) will clog the cat even faster. Sounds like your air pump was going bad (since being unhooked) and may be causing some problems. The air pump dosn't feed air to the precat .