i thought i read somewhere that you should be able to remove the coolant cap with the car running before the t-stat opens. if coolant shoots out its because the seals are shot and the engine is blowing coolant out. is that right? obviously once its heated coolant will shoot out due to pressure, but what gives? went to start the car today and it buzzed at me. resevoir was empty and there was a small puddle of coolant under the car. car doesn't smoke, starts easy, and was never low on coolant before this, hopefully just a leak or bad water pump. thanks

 

check your hoses or your radiator might be damaged.

 

yeah thats the plan, was hoping to eliminate the worst possible problem. after that i'll fill everything up and see where fluid is shooting from

 

The "bubble test" isn't completely accurate, but can be used. Check this thread:

https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generation-specific-1993-2002-16/champagne-test-procedure-298390/

 

Get a coolant pressure tester, pump it up and start looking. My last coolant problem was a little knick on the lip of the filler neck. Its leaking so it should be something simple.

 

i do have a pressure tester, and will check it out. after reading thru the scuderia site (thanks, didn't realize he had that there) it seems like a full resevoir is more a symptom of a bad seal than an empty one. the puddle i found was towards the middle of the car, close to the firewall. based on that could anyone throw out a guess at what is leaking? i'm finishing up recovering from strep throat so it'll be a couple days before i do any real wrenching. thanks again

 

Heater core hose? When this happened to my FD it was the water pump.

 

Haha, the bubbles test for me was quite a mess. Anything dealing with coolant has been a mess for me. I agree w/ the pressure tester suggestion. Do that. Quit trying to figure out if the internal seals are leaking. You KNOW it's an external leak.

 

yeah but i've been an FD owner for too long to not get paranoid. i've just started using the heater so maybe that's the leak...

 

If its on the floor by the firewall, it could be coming from just about anywhere, but the throttle body coolant lines are right by the firewall, as well as the heater core.
It could also be your turbo coolant lines leaking, and traveling down the block/subframe and dripping from there.