I'm at work right now... here's the story:

I just drove 10 miles [total], to go get lunch, and when I got back and parked, I saw smoke[steam?] coming out of the hood [I turned it off] - I opened the hood and there was oil splattered all over, and it was leaking realllllly bad on the ground! [Oil]
[plus it was making a hissing noise - and there was lots of the smoke coming out]
it looks like it's from the right side of the engine, near or below the spark plugs
1:30 PM
O_O Help!

 

sounds like one of your oil cooler lines might of broken???they are high pressure lines, and if it spring sa leak it can quickly shoot oil all over!! happend to me once.

 

that sounds bad......... No quick fix I'd guess?
[heh, I was planning on driving down to show it to Marc this weekend if he was free]

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So um... where do I check? and how hard/long will it take to fix?

Thanks!

 

Sorry no one replied. As low oil pressure or lack of oil is killer on a rotary, I would not advise driving it. Oil cooler lines are somewhat of a quick fix. Well couple hours to jack up, drain the rest of the oil, unbolt from oil cooler and engine, snake them out from under and over things in the way, and vice versa using new washers. I woudn't think local parts stores has these in stock. Atkins does I bet. Unfortuneately, they're closed on the weekend.......

 

i went to napa and got the right kind of crush washers... they had plenty of em in stock... cost a few cents

 

Oil cooler lines are a easy fix, but not a quick fix. New ones are very expensive, http://www.mazdatrix.com/getprice.asp?partnum=4993 = $154.70 I would get some out of the for sale section or at a junk yard. New copper washer are inexpensive, but you may not need new ones. You can re-aneal them also. My experience is they can just be reused 9 times out of 10. If you really want to spend some money you can ditch the banjo bolts and put fittings in.

I would verify where it's leaking from for sure. One oil cooler line connects to the front cover and the other connects to the back of the engine just above the oil pan. It could be an ATF line but Im not familure with that.

 

u can get oil cooler lines made locally... i got mine made for 22 bux, made to handle 300+ psi, they are super high quality, got em made at belfair hose and supply, could have gotten steel braided for a little more too... u could take ur old lines to a hose shop and they could make em right there while u wait...

 

Thanks guys ^_^

Fortunatly... I was wrong [stupid mistake - though I don't feel oil every day] - it was the radiator fluid/water [it was really brown, and slippery, so I thought it was oil]
Anyway, the rotary guy who helped me look at the car originally, came down and saw that one of the water tubes has a small tear in it [too much pressure/vibration where the tube meets the fastner]

So we cut off the damaged part of the hose, drained all the radiator fluid, put the hose back on, and filled it with clean water ^_^

[the tube is the one to the right of the rear rotor's bottom spark plug]