Hello, my 2007 rx8 with 72k blew a cooler line on the highway....I noticed the red oil light on, but i had good oil pressure& kept driving about 10 miles minding I had pressure.....stopped& put like half a quart of oil i had in it which barely showed on the stick ....put a pint of mystery oil in the gas hoping it would help& drove to get oil .....another 5 miles or so....put like 2 quarts in to top it off ....I didn't want to call a tow truck so I tried to quick epoxy the leak area....a steel line just ahead of the fitting into the cooler.....no way to splice it.....clamped a hose around it & hoped for the best......it still leaked by the way, I just hoped it slowed it so I could drive an hour to get home, which I did.....stopping once to add a quart more.......Is there any hope I could get lucky and not have damaged anything ....having good oil pressure the entire time????? It seems ok ....but I haven't driven it or ordered my new lines as of yet..... also any ideas on where I should buy new lines would be cool......thanks

 

Racing Beat makes a set of oil cooler lines for significantly cheaper than Mazda charges. Not sure if there are other aftermarket options. You could always try a junkyard. This is a known issue in winter-driven cars, the salt eats away at the steel line.

How do you know you had good oil pressure? The gauge in the dash doesn't connect to any sensor that reports pressure, it just on or off. However, you might be fine, the cooler is downstream from the engine, so you should have been able to maintain oil pressure in the engine... except for the times where the dipstick went dry. Depends on how low it got, there is some room for error even after that point.

Long story short, I think you're fine. You could send a used oil sample off for analysis at Blackstone labs if you want to see if there is bearing material in the oil.

 

Thanks for your reply.....appreciate it....yeah, about the pressure Guage on the dash, where does it get its input from? Why would they put a pressure Guage on the dash....is it just for show? I haven't done any research into the electrical wiring of this car, ..... I'm not being sarcastic or anything....it wouldn't surprise me if it's just for show!

 

The 'pressure' Guage on the dash was like a little way from half way......not sure what that reflects

 

It connects to a pressure sensor that only knows if the pressure is 0 or more than 0. As long as it's over 0, it will show a notch past middle. As to why it's like that I have no idea. Best guess is the test audience was confused by the oil pressure fluctuating with rpm, or the dash design was done before the electronics were finished.

 

Thanks again loki.... I think I'll look into a real pressure Guage though.....I like to know that stuff......maybe there is a kit to use the actual dash Guage with a retrofit sensor......there seems to be most anything you can think of on an eBay search!

 

Don't think there's a kit, but in theory you could intercept the CANbus signal and substitute your own. People do that to display OBD data on the center console display. But.. that's just theory.

 

Loki - Not like I ever need that information... but how does one go about doing it? That seems pretty cool.

 

There's this... GOODbox Gauges
And more of a DIY deal here: Normalexception.net - The RxDuino (RX8 Canbus Scanner)