KA166J

This is a long post, for the sake of answering any necessary questions before they might be asked. Sorry if it seems like a wall of text.

I've been dealing with this car overheating/leaking from various parts of the cooling system for a good bit now. I'm worried now that it might be engine gaskets.

This morning it was suddenly cold compared to the temperatures it has been up until now (52 degrees is what I would consider cold in Texas for this time of year). I started my car as normally today, after a while of cranking (with the accelerator down for a bit to cut off fuel first). Today for some reason the add coolant sensor stayed on longer than usual (it usually came on at start up and went off after just a few seconds. I attributed it this time to/hoped it was because of the cold).

After about 5 miles, the coolant temp started to get past it's usual (around 1/2, which I now know is not great for these cars), but the thermostat apparently opened just a bit after that and it cooled down again, so I kept driving. About a mile down the road, it starts rising again and doesn't drop this time. I turn it off and pull over, wait a while, and try to drive again to see if it will cooperate this time (it has in the past after something doing the same thing). This time though, it quickly heats up past where it was at previously and as I'm about the pull over (1/2 mile or less this time), the upper radiator hose pops. I immediately shut it off and that's where I stand now.

Here is everything recently done to it.

-Radiator leak on top plastic part, replaced with new, thicker GodSpeed radiator.
-Replaced water level sensor
-Replaced thermostat recently when it got stuck once on the way home. (not Mazda, just the one Oreilly's had, I now know it's heresy, I'm now about to order a Mazda one).
-Replaced thermostat housing due to leak.
-Top and bottom radiator hoses were replaced about a year ago when the bottom one broke.
-I noticed, I think around the time that I replaced the radiator (not sure though), that the upper hose (perhaps the lower also, didn't check), would bulge out and be under a lot of pressure after just a sort time having the engine on, way before operating temperature.

Since the incident today, the thermostat has replaced (still not mazda yet) along with the upper and lower radiator hoses, but it's still overheating and the hoses are still bulging. Any clues?

Not sure if it's of any relevance, but (a bit after the overheating began) my car started to seemingly flood after every time it was turned on and would take a good 15-30 seconds of cranking each time to get it to start again and then a bit longer for it to become stable. In response to this I figured it was the injectors stuck open needing to be cleaned, but ultrasonic cleaning/having all the wearable parts replaced didn't fix the problem any.

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

Your symtoms add up to a bad coolant o-ring. With the car totally cold, pull the rad cap and then start the engine. Do you see a steady stream of bubbles coming up from inside the engine? Rev the engine. Do the bubbles increase? If yes to both those questions, the chances are high that either a coolant o-ring has failed, or an iron has cracked.

Kentetsu

Check the belt that drives the water pump.

Check the radiator cap to make sure that it is designed to release pressure at the correct point.



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13beest

iTrader: (2)

yea bro you defidantly havebad waterseals, i have a 89 n/a and it had the overheating problem since i got it, one way to tell is thecoolant starts to boil in the plastic overflow thing by the radiator, since the waterseals are bad the coolants leaks into the combustion chamber and bam, you start to over heat, i got stuck in the worst places you could ever think of, but yea just buy the "o"ring gasket set and you should be good,