Last Friday, my wife rang to tell me there was a patch of coolant on the garage floor in my car space. It proved to be from a slight leak from the upper hose.

Took the car to my dealer (Grand Prix Mazda Aspley in Brisneyland), and they just replaced the hose clamp for a grand total of $1.35 incl. GST. I had told them to go ahead and replace the hose too if they wanted, however they said it wasn't necessary. They spent nearly 2 hours on the car, and didn't charge for labour or coolant. To put it into context, I was about 4 weeks and 1500km out from my last (60,000km) service, so they could have argued that it wasn't an oversight from the service inspection.

I was amazed. I didn't have to jump up and down, and I don't even have the dealer principal's personal business card with his direct phone number!

 

They must like the cut of your dustcoat......

 

Actually I was kitted out in my Lab Rat shirt and Lab Rat hat, items that were featured in the latest collection of designer lab wear.

 

labrat, just keep an eye on this. I had exactly the same problem, with initial repair as you have stated. I then drove it for about another week, when it again dumped coolant on my garage floor.

This time, I rang the dealer and they sent a truck to collect (actually, they asked me to call Mazda Assist!) The problem was the thermostat, and herein lay another problem: at the time (last June) MA did not have another thermostat for the 8 in the country!
And that was despite the dealer principal jumping up and down, and showing everyone his personal copy of the MA CEO's business card

Moral: check your thermostat if you experience these symptoms

 

Happy Birthday Labby, cut loose with some sodium and a beaker of water on my behalf....

 

Yep, have a good one, try experiments involving the effect of cooling fermented liquids

 

Happy Birthday Labby.

Try inhaling...

 

Thanks for the good wishes guys. Apropos playing around with Na and H2O; there are old chemists and there are bold chemists, but there are no old, bold chemists. Sheer and utter craven cowardice is a fine attribute for working jack bench chemists like myself.

However, I am given to the odd taste of dilute ethanolic solutions derived from the fermented juice of the grape; but purely for medicinal purposes you understand. I think I'm going to feel a bit crook later today.

 

Thanks so much for the tip, Timbo. I'll keep an eye on it. However, I kept an eye on the temperature gauge all over the weekend before I got the car serviced, and it seems to be operating normally. Did your temperature gauge look OK?

 

Yep, didn't move at all -- just lost coolant, which I only discovered by the puddle on the floor...

 

You got me a little panicky, so I just went out to the car park. Everything looks tight and clean, but I will check it regularly from now on. They replaced the original clamp with one of the screw type ones.

 

Sorry, didn't mean to panic you, but the symptoms (and process) sounded so familiar. I'm sure it will be fine

 

No, I apreciate the tip. I'll keep an eye on it on from now on.

 

You know Labby, if I did a search on the word "apropos" I don't reckon it'd show up anywhere else on this forum.

I love that word, I'm gonna use it three times today and cement it in my vocabulary...... I'm about to head off to the supermarket to impress the young chicks with my verbal prowess....

 

Yeah, it's sad when that's all you've got left to impress 'em with, eh 'mez?

 

I can't show them the moths in my wallet anymore either....I'm running two rotarys and a V8 Falcon!!

 

I guess I'm showing my age. I went to school at a time when they taught English.

 

Amen!

I think current texts are just that - texts!