Munchy

iTrader: (2)

Sp I'm on a road trip with my car so this is sorta freaking me out...

Yesterday I was driving on the highway and the coolant level light went off but went away after 2 minutes. It cam back maybe 20 minutes later but went away again. Mind you it's 34 deg celcius outside.

After that I could feel my car bogging at hard accelleration or WOT. Eventually the next time we stopped, the car had trouble idling and wanted to stall out. Even when I restarted the car, I had to give it gas to prevent it from dying out.

Finally, later on I came to a stop light and gave it gas in first to go but it went up to about 3k rpm and then died out, went into second and kept going down to zero and stalled.

It wouldn't start any more, just crank. Pushed it into a parking lot and opened the hood to let it cool down. The coolant level was fine too but I was reading that the sensor is pretty shitty. Either way we waited about 20 mins and added a bit of water to the coolant and she started up again.

Got to my destination from there on driving with windowa down and heat at max to vent the engine bay.

At no point did my engine temp needle move away from anything but normal.

Car is a 2004 GT with 64,000 kms on it. Moda are only a K&N intake.

I'm guessing it stalled because it was running for so long constantly at 4-6k RPM on the highway for so long and it just got too hot... Aby more advice would be appreciated!

Thanks!

wcs

iTrader: (2)

Ouch
Temp gauge didn't move and yet the car seemed to be overheated?
Ouch again

BTW get rid of that K&N intake ... that is not helping anything at all and may just well be some of the problem sucking in all that really hot engine bay air.

Maybe the water pump is failing.
You know about the bad sensor already.
Could be bad compression.

I'm sorry can't offer you anymore than that.
Keep us posted please

Cylestyne

Hate to say it but your engine is dying, classic sign of low compression. Your coolant is most likely slowly leaking into the engine. Try looking for bubbles in the overflow bottle, that will probably confirm it. The only way to be 100% sure is to get a compression test.

monchie

Another 04 in trouble. Anyway, just do a compression test first then let us know the outcome.

Munchy

iTrader: (2)

Fyi i drove it about an hour today and no problems

Im on vacation, i still need to drive 7 hrs back home

wcs

iTrader: (2)

Wow ... won't agree with the "classic signs" but yes a compression test would be a good check on things.

IMO lots of things can cause these symptoms.

Now like mentioned ... bubbles in the overflow bottle would be a very bad sign.
You did mention the loss of coolant fluid ....... not good if you can't find a leak somewhere.

Munchy

iTrader: (2)

just got home from Jersey back to Montreal

drove 7 hours and not a single problem with the car, runs mint!

gonna get a compression check done anyways, also check the cooling system and do a coolant flush

sh0gunshin

thats good news mate. good to hear you made it back safely

Munchy

iTrader: (2)

UPDATE (for those who care):

Did a coolant flush with WaterWetter.
Did a pressure test on the coolant system, came out good.
Got a compressions test on the engine today, also came out good.

Guess it was just way too damn hot.

wcs

iTrader: (2)

Good news
Thanks for the update.

Still .... keep an eye on it

1.3_LittersOfFurry

iTrader: (4)

Could be your fuel pump failing.

dgutierr90

iTrader: (2)

I had the same light on my 2005 RX8 at 60,000 miles. It's the Coolant Resovoir Sensor. You have the change the Coolant Resorvoir itself it comes with the sensor. That light would go on and off back and forth whenever it wanted to. I spent around $400+ to get it done... just do yourself a favor and buy the resorvoir somewhere else or from someone or even rotaryfx.com they have the reservoir there for half the price I got it for.

dgutierr90

iTrader: (2)

I had the same light on my 2005 RX8 at 60,000 miles. It's the Coolant Resovoir Sensor. You have the change the Coolant Resorvoir itself it comes with the sensor. That light would go on and off back and forth whenever it wanted to. I spent around $400+ to get it done... just do yourself a favor and buy the resorvoir somewhere else or from someone or even rotaryfx.com they have the reservoir there for half the price I got it for.

jamesog

Having the exact same problem as op. Has happened twice so far but after it stalls I wait about 3 minutes and it starts and has no problems afterwards. If you find a solution let me know, I'm really leaning towards a faulty fuel pump in mine.

bluegeisha111

I have a 2004 RX8 that has been doing the same thing and had gotten worse yesterday also. For mine, it's the compression problem. 2 of the chambers has no compression. I am hoping it is not a fuel pump going out or something on top of that. I am getting rid of this baby in the next 3 months, if it lasts that long. I bought mine at 56,000 miles. It just rolled 80,000 after 2 years. I have taken care of it and was married to a mechanic for a few years (learned a lot). Thus, I am pretty familiar with car repair and maintenance. Of course, Mazda says the car is too old to be covered and included in the recall they had for similar problems. It's a gorgeous car...sad.