I was driving my 7 tonight after going out with my friends and when I went to drop my one friend off I turned off the car. I got out of the car and noticed a sweet smell then went inside to talk with my friend some more. I then came out and had trouble starting my engine. It finally started but had to give it gas to start. I know the sweet smell means I have a coolant leak somewhere. How much longer will my engine live?

 

There is also white smoke when I start it.

 

hmm... if its sweet then its coolant, if its white, I don't believe it should be to much of a problem.

If the smoke was blue, then it would have something to do with your seals.

 

I've had a sweet smell from mine for a while which I thought was coolant. It turned out to be brake fluid dripping out of the clutch master onto the exhaust. If you're a left hand driver the clutch won't be above the exhaust but it could be leaking from somewhere else.

 

you should know pretty quick. check your coolant every morning. if its low, you have a leak somewhere, if not look for something else.

 

Was the smell from the exhaust or the engine bay?

 

Engine Bay.

 

Did you notice a puddle on the ground or white residue cooked on any metal parts? Also, do you see any coolant puddles on any of the plastic or hoses?

 

I haven't seen any white residue or any coolant puddles. If the engine was flooded, could that have caused it to be hard to start?

 

Yes...too much fuel would make the car hard to start, at least until the fuel was gone. If you had a coolant leak, you would see puddles, or drips, or steam, or white residue from burnt coolant. Stick a piece of light cardboard under your car for a night and see if anything has dripped onto it in the morning....if there are drips, the location of the drips might help you narrow your search.

 

You may want to get under the car to check for a leak. Just look for dried white residue or green goop. Also check your coolant caps. I had a bad one that would leak coolant, but only when the car had gotten really hot, and the engine rpms were up (extra pressure from the water pump I would presume). Other than that, to find the leak you really need to get under the car and remove the undertray to get a look at the heater hoses, turbo hoses, and the lower rad hose (unless you want to take out the IC to look at that one). Oh, it may also be the TB coolant lines. Check them for bulging or hairline cracks.

I don't think your engine is gone in any way, shape, or form

 

What??? I thought white smoke=bad(seals)
blue smoke=okay(fuel/oil)

 

I would think any smoke would be bad.....

 

Well I drove it today to school and it drove well! It was the first day back to school this year and I couldn't go down the halls without someone asking if the RX-7 is mine!!!!! So I hope everything is fine. However I am going to start saving up for an engine rebuild. And If i get a compression test and it is OK, then I will work on moding it.

 

Weird, I had the same kinda thing on my car today after a few nice hard runs (hours apart).

When you face the car in the front, its on like the right side of the car, driver side.

Weird, I don't think its the coolant cause it didn't drip plus its on the other side, so I don't know what it is.

Any idea?

 

As I said: my leak, at first anyway, would never drip, and would cause a coolant smell only after driving the car hard. It just took a few weeks for the leak to start dripping.

 

I had a turbo coolant hose leak for about a month. I'd smell the coolant, looked through the coolant system diagram & decided that the coolant must have been leaking from one of those hoses to the turbos, & the exhaust heat was burning it off.

I purched 2 new hoses & waited for it to burst. It did burst, it was the front hose & once the airpump was off it was easy to spot.

I removed the Y-pipe as well, but the 8mm hose that runs down to the lowest part of the LIM up to the Y-pipe usually splits when you're trying to remove it so be caurfull & expect the worst. To replace that one hose the nest has to come out so you'll end up doing the full hose job...