I was driving to my girl's house yesterday and the ADD COOLANT light came on. I'm like WTF??!! ****!! It buzz or a couple of seconds and went away. I thought nothing of it.
I pulled into her GF's driveway and sat in my car a lil bit and the light came back on. I came outside to check under the hood. Then I saw a small puddle and trail of coolant. ****!!
I took her dad's car and went to AutoZone and grabbed some coolant. Filled it up and started the car again.
I sat it in for a lil bit and the buzzer came on again.
The coolant was leaking under the car near the passenger headlight area. DAMMIT!!
I checked around the engine bay and couldn't find anything wrong.
I figured that if I filled the coolant up and drive, it should be OK. The coolant only comes out when I stop and the car cools down a bit.
I filled it up and headed home hoping for the best. Halfway there, the light came back on and the temp needle started to rise a little bit. I pull over and tried to put some more coolant in, but it's still a little hot.
After like 5 minutes, I hear someone asking what's wrong. I looked accross the street and saw a nice CYM FD. OH ****! He came around and helped me out. Damn, his car is nice! The first thing I saw was a HUGE FMIC. He cut the front bumper for more air. It looked awsome.
He checked around the car and didn't see anything wrong.
We just filled the coolant up and I headed home. No problem after that except for the coolant dripping again after I parked.
I filled it up w/ some water this morning and everything was fine. ???? I think the hose that runs from the reservoir to the AST was loose on the AST end. Is there supposed to be some type of clamp here? I think this is why the engine didn't take the coolant back from the reservoir. No vaccuum...?
I pushed the hose in to make it tighter. Will buy zip ties later for it.
The guy in the CYM's name is Barry. Dunno if you MA guys here know him. He said he doesn't go on the forums though. Thanks for the help dude!

Sorry for the long post...

 

Hopefully you've found the problem If not best test is to use a pressure tester on a cold engine. Pump it up and let it sit. Works every time.

 

Cool. Where can I get one of those? AutoZone?

 

Still having the problem. The light comes on and the temp guage starts to rise. I keep driving for a lil bit and the guage goes back down to the middle and the ADD COOLANT light stops. It happens a few times when I drive. I just keep driving for a lil bit and it stops. Whats the deal? Bad sensor/thermostat?

 

I would not drive the car around untill you find the leak so you don't cook your motor. Fill up some coolent in the motor and let it warm up in your driveway and look under the hood to see where the coolent is comming from. Check all the coolent lines to the radiator: upper and lower, and ast, also check the water hose that goes from the turbos to the waterpump that one just blew up on me over the weekend. Hope you figure it out.

 

Your O-rings have gone bad. You need an engine rebuild.

 

If you let it overheat, your o-rings will go bad. You may just have a coolant leak. Could even be a bad radiator/AST cap.

 

WTH? The coolant would be burning and you would see a huge cloud of white sweet smelling smoke.

Id' say pressure test it. Might be a loose clamo or basically anything. Mine went bad cause a tow truck borke the bottem end tank and it wouldn't hold any water. Hope yours aint' there yet.

 

Barry is the man. Where were you when you pulled over? His CYM is nice!! T88 monster with a greddy "4" row FMIC!!

 

Yea I've just accepted the fact that my coolant seals are going out also. When you start it. Does is kinda stumble a bit and idle really low then after a few seconds correct itself? If so then most likely your in the same boat I am and will be needing a reman or rebuild soon.

 

If the coolant is under the headlight I bet the return line to the overflow is disconnected or the overflow tank is cracked. If that is the case it will leak after you shut the car off as the coolant is heating up then stop as it starts to cool back down. It also won't pull coolant back in when it cools down and you will get lots of air in the system.

 

Yup I'm having this problem. I think there is a crack in the overflow tank.
I'm gonna have it checked out.
I'm gonna buy a new radiator and AST soon too.

 

I pulled over near Fenway.
Nice car was REALLY nice man. My friend told me he works at PrimeSpeed or something like that in Malboro. I gotta go down there sometime.

 

i had a hose that was leaking going from the resivoir to the ast....it would only leak coolant when the car was warmed up enough and i would stop....then i see a puddle on the right front side.....maybe replace that hose...worked for me

 

When O-rings go bad, they also push coolant out of the system because of the exhaust pressure.

 

I'm not quite sure if this is the exact problem I ran into a similar situation a year ago. I asked the biglist. I was told to replace the radiator and AST caps, but it was most likely it was the coolant seals in the engine.

I replaced the caps, the problem went away for awhile, but I've overheated when running the AC this summer... so who knows.

My exhaust smells a little sweet at start up, but I've resigned myself to the fact that I can't smell for sh*t(chain smoker).

After talking to some rotary guys locally I believe there would be excessive smoking at startup w/ blown coolant seals. It might be worth a few dollars to replaces the caps, check the overflow tank, and hoses first...

If anything you can keep driving(for how long?) a rotary w/ blown coolant seals. Just watch the coolant level, and carry a gallon jug of distilled water in the trunk.

 

I checked the hose and I don't see anything wrong. Although I can't really see much w/ taking stuff out to get a REAL close look...
I put some coolant/water in the filler this morning and it ran fine. No coolant light or overheat.
I swear man, this car has like mood swings or something.

 

You can check that hose by going to the auto parts store. Buy about 5 or 6 feet of 3/8 fuel line and a worm clamp to fit the hose. Remove the overflow line at your AST install your test hose and clamp to the barb. Take other end of hose into a clear plastic conatainer ( clear makes it easier to see what is going on ). Start car let come up to operating temp. Coolant should flow into your container. Let car cool down and coolant should be drawn back out of container. This should tell you if that overflow line is bad without removing all that stuff. Good luck, Tom

 

I recently had the same problem with my FD. I'd been planning on changing out my radiator before the problem hit and when it did I took the shotgun method to repair. I originally thought one of the radiator hoses went bad, but when I pulled the radiator the hoses were still good. I replaced them anyway. I'd like to point out that once you pulled the radiator you can get to alot of sh*t in the engine. I also changed the thermostat, water pump and belts. Out of these parts only one belt showed some wear everything else was still good. I was not happy at all. BTW the radiator was an M2. I put everything back together with a little help from my friend. The car runs find with no leaks. I believe my problem was a loose hose to the overflow tank. Having to pull all parts off the engine has changed my list of upcoming modifications. Now I want a FMIC and battery relocation kit.

 

That's ingenious!!! And so simple!!! I gotta try it!

 

How long did it take to do that? How hard was it? I'm thinking about taking the front bumper and other stuff of to get in there. I don't know if I have the right tools though.

 

Thanks Voodu, I really hope it helps out. I used this set up to help diagnose some overflow problems I was having. It makes you feel real scientific as well. If your g/f is around have her watch and explain what is happening. Mine thinks I'm like a God or something now. Good luck again, Tom

 

Just had the same problem and changed the thermostat on behalf of some list members....Car won't currently start (think it is flooded) to test. Will let you know when I start it if changing it worked...My stat was disgusting, prolly the original....

 

I think it took about 12hours my friend has kids and his wife was not home, so there was alot of stopping and starting. Check the search for radiator install there's a great how-to on a SR radiator. It has pictures and the works.

 

I currently have the same problem. *sigh* Im hopeing that its one of the problems listed by you guys (except the blown coolant seal).

Hope you find out whats wrong w/ your car. If you find out could you post it maybe i have the same problem.