radiator/coolant problem urgent

aundre-3000 · September 01, 2011, 08:12:51 PM

hi guys there\'s a problem with my rx7

yesterday i was driving down to cardiff after around 15 mins of easy driving at 50 mph my coolant light came on and i thought it was odd as my i checked it a day previously and it was full. so when i pulled over the engine wasn\'t overheating but the radiator was low on coolant i took about half a liter of water but there was a bit of water splashed over the bottom of the engine
so i drove off and it was fine all the way to cardiff.

before i drove home i checked the coolant again and it was full again after 15 of motorway cruising and the coolant light came on again it was the same story it didn\'t take as much water as before and it got home ok and the radiator was full when i got home

after letting the car run for 15mins now is all seems ok but im still worried about it ive attached some pics for the rad were i think it might be leaking but when i was running it right now it was all ok.
oh and the expansion tank was on the full marker earlier about two weeks ago and now there\'s about a quarter of a liter more water in there now

thanks guys

m1tch · September 01, 2011, 08:18:50 PM

Check at the back of the engine on the wiper motor side, at the bottom below the plugs there is a pipe going to the heater matrix, mine had a leak there and had the same issue, it was dripping on idle, so would have been spraying a bit at higher RPMs.

B.Martin · September 01, 2011, 09:22:57 PM

Off subject, what fan are you running? I\'m sure Mitch is probably correct on your problem.

aundre-3000 · September 01, 2011, 09:40:29 PM

don\'t now mate just a electric one its quite good although i\'l be looking to put a maunal switch on there for when i\'m going to be drifting or for when i\'m parking up

any way back on topic i just took it for a spin and came back and it the same problem although there was water all over the place literally everywhere but it turns out it was the cap on the thermostat was loose and was spewing water everywhere

but there\'s another problem now i swear this car is awesome haha
its not staring at all i have to push the accelerator down and then turn it over
is it because its flooded or something

m1tch · September 01, 2011, 09:42:35 PM

Did the car come up to temperature before you shut it down? it might be flooded, pull the EGI fuse out (engine bay fusebox on the right) turn the engine out with your foot to the floor (don\'t worry it won\'t fire) for about 5-10 seconds, then put the EGI fuse back in and start as normal.

aundre-3000 · September 01, 2011, 10:00:01 PM

Quote from: m1tch;785948Did the car come up to temperature before you shut it down? it might be flooded, pull the EGI fuse out (engine bay fusebox on the right) turn the engine out with your foot to the floor (don\'t worry it won\'t fire) for about 5-10 seconds, then put the EGI fuse back in and start as normal.

nope it hardly when up as soon as the buzzer came on i pulled over

ok thanks mate il try that in the morning

m1tch · September 01, 2011, 10:04:13 PM

What I mean is did the car come fully up to temperature when driving, if you shut a rotary down before it has reached operating temperature they have a tendency to flood due to the injector duty cycle being higher on warmup.

aundre-3000 · September 01, 2011, 10:21:53 PM

Quote from: m1tch;785955What I mean is did the car come fully up to temperature when driving, if you shut a rotary down before it has reached operating temperature they have a tendency to flood due to the injector duty cycle being higher on warmup.

ahh right yea it was up to temperature when i turned it off

it tends to start to splutter and then it just keeps tuning over its only happened today i\'ve had the car a month and its been ok up until now

when i get some money i\'l be doing a full service on it plugs,leads etc hopefully that will help a bit

B.Martin · September 02, 2011, 07:38:35 AM

Quote from: aundre-3000;785947don\'t now mate just a electric one its quite good although i\'l be looking to put a maunal switch on there for when i\'m going to be drifting or for when i\'m parking up

any way back on topic i just took it for a spin and came back and it the same problem although there was water all over the place literally everywhere but it turns out it was the cap on the thermostat was loose and was spewing water everywhere

but there\'s another problem now i swear this car is awesome haha
its not staring at all i have to push the accelerator down and then turn it over
is it because its flooded or something

What do you find about the engine bay temperature? Everyone keeps telling me to keep that plastic cowling over the fan (even though it looks wank) because it does a better job. Your bay looks so much better for an AM fan.

And regarding your problem with starting, you\'ll probably find its flooded. I\'m sure if you start the car with the accelerator fully pressed in, it does the same job as taking the egi fuse out. Someone might want to clarify that though, i used to flood my old n/a on a weekley basis. Always needed to fill it up on the way to work and my house was like 2 mins away from the petrol station :p

aundre-3000 · September 02, 2011, 03:00:39 PM

Quote from: B.Martin;785981What do you find about the engine bay temperature? Everyone keeps telling me to keep that plastic cowling over the fan (even though it looks wank) because it does a better job. Your bay looks so much better for an AM fan.

And regarding your problem with starting, you\'ll probably find its flooded. I\'m sure if you start the car with the accelerator fully pressed in, it does the same job as taking the egi fuse out. Someone might want to clarify that though, i used to flood my old n/a on a weekley basis. Always needed to fill it up on the way to work and my house was like 2 mins away from the petrol station :p

it gets a bit hot but after looking around that seems to be the norm with fc\'s
i was quite impressed with it i couldn\'t see how the original fan could do better tbh i really draws the air though it

its ok now but its good to now if it does happen again
i\'m already best friends with the guys at my local petrol station the amount of times im there filling up haha

m1tch · September 02, 2011, 05:16:42 PM

Im glad whoever has removed the air pump has done a good job with the pulleys

It seems that the fan cowling isn\'t over the whole rad like the OEM fan, but if its keeping the temps down it should be fine

rx-dave · September 04, 2011, 09:10:43 AM

I\'m based in Blackwood if you want me to have a quick look for you? I won\'t charge you anything and if you\'ve split a pipe or rad i\'ve got lots of used bits there :Thumbs-up
I\'ll be back in around Thursday as i got taken back into hospital again on Friday so i\'ve got to take a few days off.............again :censored::censored:
Dave.

yiug412 · September 06, 2011, 04:48:01 AM

If you have taken the hose out and put it back in with the old rusty clips it may leak a little, that\'s what happened to my old top and bottom radiator hose clips, got some good jubilee clips and sorted.
Next thing to watch for is the heater hose at the spark plug side of the engine, mine exploded last time i was on A road, they tend to get crispy over all the years. good to replace them as well if you are draining the cooling system.

Louis

radiator/coolant problem urgent

rx-dave