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Maintenance & Repair Cooling Systems -- Problems & Solutions (Radiator, Fan, etc)
561 messages, Last post on Nov 12, 2009 at 1:37 PM
You are in the Maintenance & Repair Forum. Your Host is mr_shiftright
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Replying to: briggs (May 06, 2005 3:16 am) 
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Replying to: briggs (May 06, 2005 3:16 am) You can test these sensors pretty easily but you may need a wiring diagram to figure out how your system works. |
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Car is 92 Mazda 323. Replaced the radiator last summer (due to crack at the top) and left to drive to Fla. Noticed it running hot almost to redline on the way there. Had to drive with the heat on to keep it in satifactory range under highway driving. It was OK around town and fine highway as the weather cooled off. Now of course it is hot in Fla and I have same problem. I figured thermostat must not be opening all the way. Now I have to drive back north home from college. With no tools or a place to work on the car here in fla. I took it to Firestone and asked to have thermostat replaced. They are giving me a song and dance saying it is the water pump? I don't see how that is possible. AFAIK the water pump is either broke and you are overheating or leaking (not my case). I have never heard of one that works under certain conditions. They wanted over 400 to replace the pump and thermosat. or 153 to do just a themostat!!! Of course if I had them do the pump and themostat and it was just the thermostat problem would be fixed to the tune of over $400 to replace a $4 part. needless to say I left. Interesting thing was they had taken the thermostat out and where going to replace it even though I declined the work at $153. Then the realized they did not have the gasket which I had sitting in my car but they would not use. So they put it back together with the old thermostat and gasket. Took them about 20 Min to put back together. They charged me $16 for "looking at it". Now it seems to be running hotter. I am going to take it to another mechanic tomorrow who I hope will not be out to rip me off so any thoughts would be helpful.
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| if the oil isnt changed on the mazda, is it possible that the car can overheat??? and what should i do after the oil is changed? i noticed tonight that my gauge was going towards hot, and everytime i pushed down on the cluth and brake my mph gauges some what jumps from 2 to 3 what should i do??? | |
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Replying to: sschmid (May 23, 2005 8:12 am) 
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (May 04, 2005 11:34 am) You might remember me from the tranny forum with a k car that had a bad tranny. I junked it, and found a '98 Explorer for cost! through my brother's friend in the car biz. Anyway, the coolant in the reserve tank was brown and foamy. I assumed the rest of it was as well, so I flushed it in front of my parent's house (and left a decent sized stain in the street in the process - when my bucket didn't catch all of it). Much to my surprise - the coolant in the radiator was green. It was consuming a lot of coolant too, and I could smell coolant while driving. My temp is slightly cooler than the middle of the gauge, and both my heat and A/C are working. I added some stopleak in the radiator to alleviate the smell assuming there was a pinhole leak somewhere. It seemed to stop the coolant smell and maybe the use of so much coolant, but I am not sure yet. It could be too early to tell. I have new coolant in there now after the drain and fill last night. Although, I never drained the brown stuff out of the reserve, and it used it since I only poured 1 gallon mix in the radiator after the flush, and it takes 1 3/4. I refilled the reserve, and drove to work this morning (16mi ride). I looked in the reserve and spots of brown again. The oil dipstick looks OK - a little high - but looks like oil nevertheless. The tranny dipstick looks good, and appears to just have tranny oil on it. There's no white smoke...should I just ignore it?
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Replying to: dodgekbad (Jun 02, 2005 8:14 am) As for possible oil in the radiator, you could have a leak in that part of the radiator that helps cool your transmission fluid. You could also have your cooling system pressure tested for leaks. This can often spot not only leaks but head gasket issues perhaps. But yeah, just keep an eye on things. Can you see inside the radiator. Does it look plugged up or are the outside fins corroded and breaking off?
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Jun 03, 2005 4:40 pm) It's too late for flushing that reserve. I didn't put enough coolant in the radiator after draining it, so it just took the brown stuff from the reserve. I had to refill it. Even with the new stuff, it looks like little, oil deposits, are in the coolant. It could be the stop leak I put in however. That was brown in color also. I looked in the radiator with the cap off, before I flushed it. It was pretty dark in there, so I could not really see if anything was plugged up. Although what is strange when I first flushed it - cold coolant started coming out of it, but then it paused. A little while later, a new wave a very hot coolant just started pouring out of the thing, leading me to believe something could have been clogged up in there. It looks like draining the coolant was NOT wasteful at all, like my family said. I feel relieved to get that first step out of the way. I am tempted to just ignore it however. The smell is gone, and the reserve coolant is relatively clean now. Plus I don't have temp problems. The tranny fluid is red as ever on the stick, so if it were mixing, wouldn't be red/greenish on the stick? I am starting to think it was the stop leak that didn't circulate. As for the fins on the rad, they look relatively good compared to most I've seen. Thanks
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Replying to: dodgekbad (Jun 04, 2005 5:56 am)
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