Air Block in Coolant System?
 

Hi guys,

I had my coolant changed about a week ago and ever since the coolant keeps decreasing. It stays full for a few days and then all of a sudden one day the coolant light comes on saying its low. I check the coolant itself and its lowered by around a pint. It's done this a few times, full for a few days and then lowers.

Could this be due to an air block?

Is it possible to be a leak and how do I diagnose it?

How common is this issue?

Any help would be appreciated!!

Claire

You need to tell us the year of your car.

If this problem occurred only after the coolant change, then someone has left a leak in the system. If I knew what year your car was I could provide more specific advice.

Sorry about the lack of info.

Its a 1992 3rd gen.

This problem is driving me crazy!!

I'm not 100% certain on what the problem could be and i don't want to give you the wrong the advice or anything but in my opinion, that doesn't sound to good.

1993 rx7 air lock problem too!
 

hI CLAIRE, I CANT HELP YOU WITH PROBLEM AS I SEEM TO BE HAVING PROBLEMS WITH AN AIR LOCK ON MY RX7 ASWELL, MY PROBLEM BEING, MY FREIND OPENED THE RADIATOR CAP WHEN HOT, CAUSING MY CAR TO CHUCK ITS COOLANT , AS I WAS OUT AND NEEDED TO GET THE CAR HOME(CANT TOW OR GET ONTO BACK OF TRUCK-TOO LOW) I TOPPPED IT UP WITH COLD WATER (STUPID I KNOW) JUST TO GET IT HOME, AS I GOT IT INTO MY STREET, THE WATER PIPE OF THE BACK OF THE THROTTLE BOTLLE POPPED DUE TO BEING OLD... I HAVE NOW REPLACED THE PIPE, BUT DO NOT KNOW HOW TO DROP THE REMAINING COOLANT AND PUT FRESH IN THERE, IE- NOT SURE WHAT COOLANT/ANTI-FREEZE TO PUT IN, WHAT MIXTURE TO USE AND HOW YOU SHOULD FILL IT UP AND HOW TO DO THE AIR LOCK.......
APOLOGIES I CANT HELP WITH YOUR PROBLEM JUST THOUGHT ID EXPLAIN MY PROBLEM AND MAYBE SOMEONE COULD HELP US BOTH OUT WITH 1 REPLY!!

ANYWAYS HOPE YOU GET THE PROBLEM SORTED!


YOURS GRATEFULLY STU....

Claire, I have owned many mazdas, not just rotaries, and many of them share this issue. First, you need to insure that the coolant is not leaking out on to the ground, put cardboard or something under it everynight and then check to make sure it's not leaking, then assuming it is not ingesting the coolant in the engine, then yes it is most likely an air bubble in the system.
There are a few ways to go about attacking this, one is to squeeze the upper rad hose and see if you can push the bubble to the top and refill. What I do is I use a special funnel from Lisle tools to refill my radiator. It allows the car to warm up and keep adding coolant. It essentially allows the car to "burp" out any air and automatically refill with the coolant mixture. With this funnel I have not had any problems with air pockets.

To the other member:
A couple of suggestions. 1. Don't use all caps in your response, it is generally accepted as "screaming" at us. 2. Break your sentences up a bit to make it easier to read.
Car related: To drain the car, there is a small plastic plug on the bottom of the radiator, and a drain plug on the bottom left side of the engine. Remove both of those and drain all the coolant out. Replace and fill with a mixture of 50% distilled water and 50% coolant. It's also a good idea at this time to replace the thermostat with a Mazda factory thermostat.
And, if your hoses are old, I would replace all of them. Why risk a engine over a few dollars worth of hoses?

I have left the car overnight and the water level is still the same, i can't see any signs of a leak in the engine bay or underneath the car.

How would I know whether the coolant is entering the engine or not? I performed the "champagne test" to check the water seal and i did not see any bubbles but is there any other way of testing this?

Also where is the rad hose that i need to squeeze, i had a little look but not sure where or what it is as I have only had the car for four weeks and i'm still learning the ins and outs of this little beast! :)

1.apologies to anyone offended by me using the capitals in my last post, i am new to this so was un aware that the usage of capitals was classed as 'SCREAMING' at people!

2. would like to thank hanman for pointing this out to me, genuinely!- not sarcastically, if you had not pointed it out to me i wouldnt have known-so thanks!!

3.about me car, just done the bleeding of the air out of my cooling system and car seemed fine, but when i turned the car off after i had warmed it up (fans had cut in), i noticed it had a 'hissing' sound to it which was coming from the metal refill cap...
just wondering if this is normal or do i need a new cap!

thanks again...

stu...

Stu, thanks for taking the criticism so well. It was meant as constructive.
I would replace the cap, as they are a maintenance item as well.

Claire, if you don't have any white smoke coming out of the exhaust, you probably don't have any leaking in to the combustion chamber. The hose I was referencing is the upper radiator hose. It is a large diameter hose. Don't do it while the engine is hot.
Also, check the overflow reservoir. Is it full? Overflowing? Empty?

I have a 2nd gen 7 and what works for me is to turn the heat to full blast. Just a second turns off the buzzer and i guess push the air away. After that i good till the next time i change. I current have a leak under my cap, there is a crack in the fill neck. I would check around your as hell.

It's possibly a leak in the cooling system. Hopefully it's just a bad cap or leaking hose and not a leaking coolant seal in the engine housings.

Rent a coolant pressure tester kit and check to see that the cooling system holds pressure. If not, figure out where it's going. That will tell you pretty simply where the problem lies.