Please Help, Going out of my mind

[rx7veilside]

if u overfill the system it will come out of the plastic tank u mention
i think u should let a pro look at it for peace of mind.i am not having a go but there are a lot of amatuers who offer advice(that includes me)but we can never diagnose without seeing and running the car and could point u in the wrong direction.i would pay for an hours labour approx 50.00 and get the knowledge needed

[davegttph1]

Who do you call a pro though because Ive dealt with pretty much every garage in town and had a bad experience, if its leaking coolant like I think/thought it was I darent start a 2 hour journey to get to Pip or anyone else for that matter with fear of it overheating half way there. So basically Im left with not much choice to try and fix it myself... And anyhow its good for knowledge.

[RobbieRX-7]

i can see what rx7veilside is saying by let a pro look at it, he is just playing it safe,  but if you keep this in your mind forever,you are going to keep taking it to a pro for everything aren\'t you?? Basically try your very best, and then take it to a pro if you cant fix it. There is a rubber pipe that runs underneath the intercooler and airbox. If it is a stock airbox, remove it and see if the pipe is chaffing against the chassis, buy the correct ast cap from one of the vendors on here such as clive or gary and see how that does, if no change then take a closer look at the expansion tank. Remember to never fill this tank though, because it will only overflow. you should only fill the middle metal cap on the engine and use distilled or clean rain water and green coolant. Also take a look here http://www.rx7club.com/showthread.php?t=555734

[Jonathan_F]

Millspeed, I checked the cap before and thought aha its coming from there but then I remembered Id only just topped it up so thats probably why it was wet, I dried it off whenI did the champaigne test and couldnt notice any leakage.

Jonathan, Ive not had the car running hot although I do run the car constantly with the Air Con on once I hit 84 degrees, I dont like it going over 90degrees and my fans dont come on til quite high so thats why I run the air con. Where is the stat? top hose I presume? I also just run 100% coolant and antifreeze (the stuff for £15 from Halfords for 5litres) Dont put water in it unless Im stuck at work and it wants topping up which I only did once. Think theres a chance like you say that its a small pin prick hole in a hose that only leaks on high revs... Still intrigued as to why it was starting on 1 cylinder the last 2 times I used it but started perfectly fine on the test I did at lunch, flooding in one rotor perhaps?

NEVER RUN 100% COOLANT. It does not have the latent heat capacity to carry away the energy and you will get hot spots and localised boiling of the coolant. The coolant will boil, it only achieves its propertiesw when mixed with water. Use a 25% mix in the summer. You may have damaged your engine doing this.

Jon

[davegttph1]

ok then, now I get told, Im always reading contradicting posts here and there.... I was told never to put water in the car, not a mixture or anything like that, was told to always run coolant :rolleyes: great.

Anyway took the car for a spin this morning, 10miles up the A1 and it never over heated, never lost any coolant, drove home at dinner and back to work again, no coolant loss. almost like its sorted itself out now :confused: although there is still bits of coolant around the AST cap... think this is my culprit to be honest.

[Jonathan_F]

Yes. I made the same mistake when I was younger.

Get new caps. And swap some coolant for water. Good luck.

[Jovic82]

dave sound slike you have the almost exact same problems as me! im gonna take mine to carl i think, but i thought it may have been down to the very hot weather we have ben having recently aswell.

[davegttph1]

Its driving me crazy, used it yesterday and it drove perfectly and seemed fine, couldnt see any external water loss this time even with motorway driving. Had to pop to the Post office after work switched it off. When I started it up again after 5 minutes parked up I got a bit of White smoke (first time Ive seen this) and sounded a tad rough upon start up.... Once running though it seemed fine again :rolleyes: Got a new AST cap coming from WGT hopefully be here today. If so I\'ll swap it over, give a full coolant change on the car and run it for a few days checking it out, the second I think theres something still wrong Im gonna have to drive it up to WGT to have it checked out but if there is something wrong Im worried it wont make it to WGT Think I might end up getting rid of it after Ive sorted this out now. Sick of being so far away from anybody Id trust with it.

[Jovic82]

hmmmm the starting a bit rough doesnt sound too good in my opinion, and if have seen white smoke, im sure someone said that is burning coollant being thrown in the exhaust gases (someone please confirm though as i may be wrong). I too am ****ting myself about what it could be but have now prepared myself for the worst, so if it does turn out to be something simple i will be happy saving for a little while longer until the engine does go. the coutdown begins!

[davegttph1]

98% confident a seal has gone now. got the cap, fitted it, topped the water up 9only needed 1.4 of a pint again) loads of white smoke and running on one rotor... took it 50yards and the second rotor started, seemed fine... drove it a few miles into town, parked up did some shopping and started the car again (started and drove fine :mad: ) Im at a loss with it now, if its knackered its defo  not going to make a 2 hour journey to a tuner. So I dont know what to do cause if I understand it correctly its better to try and fix it now as parts are going to be re-useable. if I use it til the engine dies its going to be a more expensive rebuild....

Is that right? Tempted to have a go at rebuilding it myself... Fairly competent with a spanner although Ive never gone as far as a rebuild before.

[nikp]

if its knackered its defo not going to make a 2 hour journey to a tuner

Not nesaccarily - When i finally came to the conclusion that my seals had gone, i was at my girlfriends parents. A 3 hour drive from Bristol via a motorway. I was able to make the 3 hour drive by keeping a careful eye on the temperatures. If you have a PFC (And even better an aftermarket gauge as well) then you should be able to make the journey by keeping a careful eye on the temps and turning the air con on to keep the temps low.

[davegttph1]

You think it\'d make it? Not going to cause more damage?

Im worried that I get one hour away from home and it starts to overheat. WTF do I do then? lol

[nikp]

Dunno - difficult to say. But mine made it. Mine only spat the coolant out once i had come to a halt, or if she was sat in traffic for long periods.

I took lots of water with me, so i could top up if necassary. Also, do you have AA membership? If so, they should be able to take you the remainder of the way if you do break down.

[davegttph1]

Ahhh thats the thing you see, I cant even put my car on the drive let alone on the back of a tow truck so theres no point me even thinking of going down that route.

[Kash_]

I cant even put my car on the drive let alone on the back of a tow truck so theres no point me even thinking of going down that route.

you would be surprised by the different types of trucks they have in the AA, all you have to do is tell them your car is low. They will ask you how much clearance you have from the ground and send a truck which can get your car on. My friends car has about 3 inches ground clearance and he got onto one of those flatbed trucks from the AA