1986 RX-7 GXL

This last Thursday, I sprung a coolant leak. I was driving to work and the Add Coolant buzzer went off. I immediately did a U-turn and went back home. The buzzer went off. It went off and on for the rest of the trip home. It was easily off more than it was on. I know I should have just pulled over, but I think I am lucky on this one. The coolant meter never went above about 1/4-1/3.

I get home and put it in the garage and I see whiffs of smoke from under the hood. So I get back in the car, and start it enough (about a few seconds) to get it out of my garage (don't want it burning the house down). I noticed a puddle of coolant on the ground about 8" to 12" in diameter and a coolant trail under my car. The coolant trail led roughly to my driver side. After I was convinced that it stopped smoking, I popped open the hood. I observed coolant dripping from the cross member on both sides of the engine and extensive "slime" on the driver side of the engine. I tried to wipe up the puddle and at least got it to stop running down the concrete of the garage. I then called my wife to warn her to not let the cat out into the garage until I have a chance to clean things up better. At that point it was past time to head to work.

During my lunch break I came home to clean up the rest of the spill and move the car into the garage. It started freely as normal with no observed smoke from the tail pipe. The add coolant buzzer did not go off. It felt sluggish pulling forward, but I think that may have been me. A 'butt dyno' test over 15 feet is not exactly scientific. Plus my clutch has been acting funny lately, the slip point has been shifting so I may have had the clutch still partially engaged. It is now in my garage and that is where it will stay.

My plan of action:
First I will drain the coolant from the car. Then I am going to replace all of the coolant hoses in the car, whether they need it or not. I am going off of Aaron Cake's Coolant Buzzer page to find all the hoses. I am going to remove the radiator and leak test it. While I am at it, the belts could come off and be replaced too. This is also a good time to figure out why the OMP isn't getting oil into the engine. Plus I will bleed the aforementioned funny clutch.

My feeling is I got lucky and there is no real damage to the engine. I think a line sprung a really bad leak but hasn't outright catastrophically failed. I have a picture of something I have a question about, but it's still on my camera. I will upload it later, but for now Star Trek is on.

 

Sounds like you're on the right track. Did you find where the leak was coming from? There are only a few hoses on the driverside: heater hose & BAC lines. But it could be running across from the water pump housing or maybe the thermowax/top rear iron.

 

Not yet, I just removed the battery and the upper intake pipe. I am probably going to remove the battery tray and maybe the air filter box tonight then go to bed. I am trying to get myself some room to work.

 

I got the battery tray off, and the air box and upper and lower intake pipes. I thought I could remove the upper radiator hose to help remove the fan shroud since I lost enough coolant it should be dry, but the pipe was still almost full of coolant. So I think I am going to get away with having driven it home.

 

You should have keep all the stuff on the engine and filled the coolant and then started it up to see where the leak is.
Luck is gonna Bite you in the *** my friend if you decide to drive the car figuring that a Coolant leak can Mysteriously Heal up.
Clean the car up as best as you can and get it started.Fill up with water(you don't need to put any more Coolant in it,if you are gonna **** it out,right?) Run the car until it builds up some coolant pressure.That will show you where your leak is.

 

I think you misunderstood what I meant by luck. Luck was me deciding to drive it home instead of pulling over and calling a tow.

I understand what you mean, and that is indeed proper troubleshooting. However, I have decided that it is best to simply assume that I need to just replace everything in the cooling system made of rubber. After that I will do what you said and put everything back in, and use the magical UV dye.

 

I am having a similar problem but my coolant seems to be leaking out of the engine itself, could this be a blown gasket of some sort???? When i start the car and let it build of coolant pressure the tank is empty in like 30 seconds then the add coolant buzzer goes off. Please Help!!

 

I have just started owning an RX7 myself, and my leak is definitely coming out of the driver side of the engine bay. I am strongly suspecting a driver side heater hose at this point.

I don't think that such a rapid loss of coolant would be due to an internal coolant leak (someone correct me if I am wrong). It sounds like you have a burst coolant line.

http://www.aaroncake.net/RX-7/coolentbuzz.htm

This site has the locations of all the coolant hoses.

 

It is confirmed. The driver side heater hose has failed. I know this has taken me forever to do, but I have been slow and methodical about this, striving to understand fully the tiniest piece of this car as I go. That's how it always is with me. It takes me hours to do the first time and a fraction of the time the 2nd time.

Plus I am working a mere one hour a night, 3 nights a week. I can't hide myself in the garage from my wife and daughter all the time now, can I?