coolant hose
 

found out that the car was leaking coolant, as i decided to check the coolant tank.The low coolant light didnt come on as it was faultly and i already disconnected the sensor(and it was just last week that it did it). so much for not connecting sensor. and then I scared myself silly when i jacked up the car in the middle of the night and saw the undercarriage stained with coolant. Thought it was engine seals. later in the morning, i had a closer look at saw that it was there thermostat area, so it was thermostat gasket or the hose. Phew, not so bad after all.

Didnt dare drive it to the workshop as the rate of leak can suddenly spike and then i'll be stuck on the highway and then have to wait for the tow truck there. So called for the tow truck while i waited at home. A regular one came but we found that it could not lift the car up without damaging the rear exhaust. My car is stock and not lowered, my just a half an inch lower as i'm using 17in rims with 225/45/17. The issue was the tow bar would whack into the stock exhaust by about 1-2in. so it was decided to use a Flat-bed tow truck which cost me $100. well better this than the risk of getting stranded along the highway and overheating the sensitive rotary.

Went to the mechanics and found out it was the hose to the engine fitting that was leaking. replaced the spring clip with a screw o hose clip and cleaned up the area of baked coolant and all is well now.

So please check your hoses. my mileage was only 38k. didnt expect this to happen. I guess one conclusion i can draw is, that mazda parts quality aint that good and it isnt solely based on this incident. No wonder the rx8 is so cheap, for what one is getting. Toyota(Japan) still better IMHO.

If possible, always use a flat bed truck cos you could twist the chassis (of a normal car, dunno abt rx8) with a normal tow truck if the bugger goes over humps too fast.

Thanks for the head up. went to ck mine. there was a little leaking too... but mine was due to the broken connecting tip to the hose on the radiator. (the same hose that connect to the coolant tank... its was broken by the garage fellows when they were changing my coolant tank. :(. They double clip the hose to the broken tip but still, there's a little leak around. they said it was due to the heat that most of the plastic becomes brittle. So any one, please be advised to be very careful went working on plastic parts. now, the only way for me to fix that broken tip, is to replace the whole dame radiator...$$$ again...:(.

Disconnecting the sensor is a risky thing to do. By the way, how do we make sure that the sensors are all connected without opening the car up to check?

the coolant sensor is a dumb light and does not affect anything other than tell you the coolant is low. if you check regularly, then it serves no purpose. many other cars also run around without a coolant level sensor. there is a self test by the ECU of the sensors every time you start the car.