fortunately, the car did not overheat on the way to family vacation, but it did E36 M3 the bed 96 miles from home on the way back from family vacation. AAA Plus FTMFW for 100 miles free towing.
I will confess to not noticing the temp gauge while i was driving, until the TCS and Check Engine lights came on. temp needle went to full hot, then plummeted when i turned on the heat. heat pumped hot air for the first minute, then not again. temp gauge went Max - Min - Max - Min until I got to the next exit, then spit and sputtered out the overflow on the reservoir for a while. i let it cool a bit, then filled the reservoir and started the engine. it ran fine, no sweet smell or steam out the exhaust. no milkshake in oil or in coolant reservoir. both fans ran on high when the A/C was on, and one or both ran when the A/C was off, depending on temp sensor. hose from engine to rad was hot. hose from reservoir to wherever it goes was not hot. i suspect thermostat.
Questions:
- what say you, Mazda6 / Duratec V6 gurus, re. weak links in these cooling systems, likely fault, etc?
- is there a special bleed / burp procedure for these cars?
it's almost midnight, I just got home. sunburn on the tops of my feet, which sucks, but vacation was excellent, so i guess i can't complain too much. apparently didn't hurt the engine, because i drove it to where the tow truck could pick it up and i drove it around the block when i got home a few minutes ago.
Oh, it's a 2003 in case that matters. Also, the coolant was pink. WTF? I was expecting ethylene glycol, and that's what i used (50/50) to top it off.
KATYB
Dork
7/2/11 11:31 p.m.
it is pink coolant extended life however not dexcool!!!!!! that is interesting to me.... altho thermostat sounds possible. or a leak preventing proper circulation. to burb. fill system. start car let warm up, shut car off top off resevoir leave cap off as it cools. fill again when cooled done. also the cars will use a lil coolant.... when the coolant temp reaches 240 the waterpump will seep from the weep hole. this is "normal"
now that i've slept on it, i'm thinking water pump but haven't looked into it yet. do these OE water pumps lose the impeller, ie quit pumping, or do they typically fail by losing the seal and killing the bearing, so they still pump but they leak and are noisy? because this one was / is dead quiet.
Diagnosis: water pump quit pumping, because the bearing in the water pump belt tensioner pulley siezed up, which melted the plastic pulley and let the belt just kinda hang there. it's a known failure with these cars, and this is the OE part with 146k miles on it. in fact, in later years they deleted the tensioner and just went with a short belt. reason: the tensioner was putting too much side force on the front exhaust cam, prematurely wearing one of the cam bearings. so all i have to do is get the short belt, fill the cooling system, and i should be mobile again in an hour or so.
KATYB
Dork
7/3/11 5:13 p.m.
ahhhh yep apologize ive never had that failure.. 145 k on mine and still ok but gone through 6 regular tensioners.
KATYB wrote:
ahhhh yep apologize ive never had that failure.. 145 k on mine and still ok but gone through 6 regular tensioners.
well, now you know how to update your water pump belt drive to the latest specification, LOL. delete the tensioner and use the short belt -- i believe they call it a "stretch fit" belt because there's no adjustment, it goes over two fixed pulleys. i installed it using the Jonny Pruitt method (so named because he taught me how to do it). put the belt around the small pulley and as far around the big pulley as it'll go. then put the trans in gear in first or reverse (only works with stick cars) and rock the car back and forth. every time the engine turns a little bit in the right direction, it pulls the belt on a little bit farther. works great with old-school V-belt, is a little tricker with the multi-rib belts but worked just fine with the three-rib water pump belt.
KATYB
Dork
7/3/11 9:18 p.m.
ya ive put the short belts on cars before.... pull fuel pump fuse and bump starter to get it on.