My maita sprung a coolant leak :(

[Fenixgoon]

I managed to get it home in the garage, but it was boiling off fluid the whole way. It was only a mile, thank god.

Will be doing some wrenching to find out the cause. Hopefully just a broken hose/clamp or something, as opposed to say...a blown gasket of sorts.

As far as I can tell, the leak does not appear to be coming from the radiator. Needs further investigation :hmm:

 

[Via]

I kept thinking "maita". Sounds like an Indian dish, but why?

Ahh, of course: raita.

 

[yhelothar]

Is it boiling out of the leak or boiling into the reservoir?
I had mine boiling into the reservoir when the fuse to the fans were blown.

If it's a hose, you might want to consider swapping them all out, lest you might end up playing whack-a-mole with the hoses with a ~20 year old car(unless you have the NB).

http://parts.arlingtonmazda.com/products/COOLANT-HOSE-KIT-%28PKMIAD1004%29.html
http://parts.arlingtonmazda.com/products/COOLANT-HOSE-KIT-(PKMIAD1005).html

 

[JCH13]

Is it boiling out of the leak or boiling into the reservoir?
I had mine boiling into the reservoir when the fuse to the fans were blown.

If it's a hose, you might want to consider swapping them all out, lest you might end up playing whack-a-mole with the hoses with a ~20 year old car(unless you have the NB).

http://parts.arlingtonmazda.com/products/COOLANT-HOSE-KIT-%28PKMIAD1004%29.html
http://parts.arlingtonmazda.com/products/COOLANT-HOSE-KIT-(PKMIAD1005).html

^ Good suggestions.

My overheating/coolant loss adventures had two causes:
1) Slipping water pump drive belt
2) Failed intake manifold gasket

The first is more likely in your case I would think.

 

[unokitty]

I managed to get it home in the garage, but it was boiling off fluid the whole way. It was only a mile, thank god.

Will be doing some wrenching to find out the cause. Hopefully just a broken hose/clamp or something, as opposed to say...a blown gasket of sorts.

As far as I can tell, the leak does not appear to be coming from the radiator. Needs further investigation :hmm:

Many good online resources for Miatas. For example:
Common Miata Cooling Problems.

Best of luck,

Uno

 

[thedarkwolf]

I've blown the
1. radiator twice on two different miatas
2. heater hose, bit of a pita to work behind the head
3. oil cooler, even more of a pita to work behind the head plus a huge PITA to work around the oil filter. I bypassed it and just ran a hose over the top of the intake manifold lol.

 

[Fenixgoon]

a coworker of mine has a friend who's dealt with miatas and said one of the cam components is notorious for leaking oil on to one of the coolant lines and compromising it.

will be interesting to see what i find tomorrow! in the meantime i'm riding my bike. things could be worse

 

[tamm]

Just dump an egg it`ll plug any coolant leaks

First off nice car. What year?
Are the coolant lines original? If the lines are cracking and/or showing signs of wear its time to go ahead and replace em. Nice time to do that coolant flush and replacement.

Good luck

 

[Fenixgoon]

Just dump an egg it`ll plug any coolant leaks

First off nice car. What year?
Are the coolant lines original? If the lines are cracking and/or showing signs of wear its time to go ahead and replace em. Nice time to do that coolant flush and replacement.

Good luck

1996 - i have a rollbar, oversized tires (205mm Dunlop ZII's on 15" wheels), and flyin miata stage2.5 rear supsension, and FM little big brake kit installed.

still need to do: rear brake pads; brake proportioning valve; front suspension; headlights (i have all the parts, just need time to install)

 

[tamm]

Nice setup there.Do you track your car at all?

 

[thecoolnessrune]

My car just got stuck due to catastrophic coolant loss. This little guy shattered near the top of the engine: http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/251379083550?lpid=82

Now just waiting to get that little thing replaced and then replace all the coolant / bleed the system. Problem is that the car ended up that way 90 miles from home. Quite the stranding.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Nice setup there.Do you track your car at all?

that was the gameplan (autocross), but i don't have any real garage space out here, and i just found out today about a group of guys that do moto-gymkhana. it was pretty cool

 

[yhelothar]

that was the gameplan (autocross), but i don't have any real garage space out here, and i just found out today about a group of guys that do moto-gymkhana. it was pretty cool

Ohh you're in LA. Can you share more info about this moto-gymkhana?

 

[tamm]

Your setup is ideal for autocross, but yea I get the whole garage space. Hopefully you get it done and try once

 

[Fenixgoon]

well it's definitely not a coolant leak - i removed the plastic undershield and started the car up and nothing dripped.

i let the engine warm up to nominal temperature and saw that the radiator fan was not rotating, so go figure that the fluid boiled off

so the most likely culprits now are:

bad thermostat
bad coolant temperature sensor
bad fan/motor

will probably check around christmas time

 

[Fenixgoon]

well it's definitely not a coolant leak - i removed the plastic undershield and started the car up and nothing dripped.

i let the engine warm up to nominal temperature and saw that the radiator fan was not rotating, so go figure that the fluid boiled off

so the most likely culprits now are:

bad thermostat
bad coolant temperature sensor
bad fan/motor

will probably check around christmas time

just following through on my update - it is most definitely a coolant leak!

after draining the radiator and coolant reservoir and replacing the coolant temperature sensor and thermostat, i refilled the radiator with fresh coolant.

DRIP DRIP DRIP.

apparently by the time i got the car home i had lost too much coolant. this time there was enough fluid in the system that i could ID the source of the leak. the offending piece is a coolant hose at the back of the engine. so glad it's readily accessible :whiste:

 

[tortillasoup]

replace radiator cap if you haven't already done so. You also may need to replace the thermostat as well.

 

[The Stigenator]

glad it got fixed.. lets do a christmas morning run up muholland?

 

[slugg]

Oh the timing. My girlfriend's '96 Miata also has a coolant leak. We caught it when the car was cool and parked, so no biggy. In our case, it looked like water pump failure, so I went ahead and bought everything for the front of the engine: timing belt, water pump, idler, tensioner, front crank seal, cam seals, thermostat, and all gaskets. The whole thing is torn down right now; the water pump definitely failed and looks like its gasket broke. In the process of putting everything back together now.

Best of luck.

 

[Squeetard]

Solution:
Remove radiator cap. Put replacement car under said cap that is not a Miata.

 

[deadken]

1996 - i have a ... flyin miata stage2.5 rear supsension, and FM little big brake kit installed...

Can I ask about your Flyin Miata rear suspension?
After driving one or two Miatas I was wondering why they rode as if the rear suspension was mounted on BRICKS instead of springs. Well, I bought a 1996 and have been doing research (yes, buy the car first, worry about problems later....). I saw that some of the FM suspension kits have 3" more rear travel when compared to the stock rear suspension.

So, I'm considering dropping another $1000 into this Miata, but I really wanted to ask a guy who has that kit:

1) How he likes it?

2) How much of a difference it made?

3) What he doesn't like about it?

BTW: From what I've read it is only the rear that gets the different shock mounts and longer suspension travel. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Perhaps now would be a good time to mention that my Miata is still waiting for a head gasket / timing belt / water pump / all hose replacement. It ended up right after I bought it, a great car for my daughter became available, so I bought that and swapped the plates, insurance, time, money, and effort off of the Miata and onto her car. Now that my daughter is home from school, I have to get her car finished before she goes back to college in late January. Hopefully, after paying the next tuition bill, and recovering a little from the heavy holiday spending, I can buy the suspension kit for my Miata (ohh yeah, my engine for my Volvo is supposed to be done soon (which took about 2 years), so that'll cost me a bunch more money too). Sheesh... So many projects, so little money and time...

 

[thedarkwolf]

Were these stock miatas? Lowered miatas if still on the stock bump stops and shock mounts will be basically sitting on the bump stops which will make them ride like ass.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Can I ask about your Flyin Miata rear suspension?
After driving one or two Miatas I was wondering why they rode as if the rear suspension was mounted on BRICKS instead of springs. Well, I bought a 1996 and have been doing research (yes, buy the car first, worry about problems later....). I saw that some of the FM suspension kits have 3" more rear travel when compared to the stock rear suspension.

So, I'm considering dropping another $1000 into this Miata, but I really wanted to ask a guy who has that kit:

1) How he likes it?

2) How much of a difference it made?

3) What he doesn't like about it?

BTW: From what I've read it is only the rear that gets the different shock mounts and longer suspension travel. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Perhaps now would be a good time to mention that my Miata is still waiting for a head gasket / timing belt / water pump / all hose replacement. It ended up right after I bought it, a great car for my daughter became available, so I bought that and swapped the plates, insurance, time, money, and effort off of the Miata and onto her car. Now that my daughter is home from school, I have to get her car finished before she goes back to college in late January. Hopefully, after paying the next tuition bill, and recovering a little from the heavy holiday spending, I can buy the suspension kit for my Miata (ohh yeah, my engine for my Volvo is supposed to be done soon (which took about 2 years), so that'll cost me a bunch more money too). Sheesh... So many projects, so little money and time...

1) the FM suspension is just as comfortable as stock.

2) seeing as i haven't autocrossed it yet, i can't really say. but it handles quite well overall from the various on/offramps i've taken

3) installation of the front suspension is much more difficult than the rear, and i have not done it yet

Were these stock miatas? Lowered miatas if still on the stock bump stops and shock mounts will be basically sitting on the bump stops which will make them ride like ass.

the FM kit replaces the rear shock mounts (with nice shiny purple FM ones!) and includes new bump stops.

 

[deadken]

Thanks for the replies. I was afraid that I should have created another thread. I think darkwolf was asking if the Miatas I drove were lowered, because lowered cars (without the FM kit) would have even less suspension travel and likely be completely riding on the bump stops. They weren't lowered as far as I knew. I was test driving a car or three before finding the one I bought and I don't believe them to have been lowered. If they were, they weren't lowered much (IOW: It wasn't obvious). I live in NY and our roads aren't quite as compatible with lowered cars as you guys who live elsewhere.

As I said, I haven't driven mine much, but hope to get started with it in a few months. So far I've replaced the battery and tires. I've also bought a left front fender (black like my car, I just need to take off the pinstripe) and everything I need to swap a manual transmission into my car. It was the nicest car I saw in my price range and surprisingly unmolested. Perhaps that's because it is an automatic. The manual transmission, flywheel, driveshaft (not needed for the swap), power plant frame, master, slave, pedals, and lines cost me $400 (from a 95 car). I found a M at a local junkyard and offered them $400 for the LSD, they said they'd give me it for $500. I'm thinking I'll get that at the end of January if they still have it. A co-worker has a lift in his garage. I'm thinking that I'll get the FM frame rail braces and install that at the same time as the manual swap. I might just do the repairs and maintenance and enjoy the car over the summer. Then worry about 'upgrades' next fall / winter. Thanks for the information about the suspension.

 

[JCH13]

The FM frame rails are worth the effort on a first go-around. One of the best mods I've made to mine chassis-wise. I've also got a FM stage 2 suspension, it rides awesome and does well in autox.