You forgot the smiley face ;) Sarcasm is lost without it....and as it seems...often with :)

no chance of glueing mine back on.. its crumbled..not even hard plastic anymore was like brittle play dough. ... so probably would of failed at some point anyway..
I'll just have to order a new one and wait for some good weather to replace it. until then poor Thing will have to stay put. ..

I was serious, no sarcasm. Didn't expect the glue to hold but he claimed that it did.

I'd recommend replacing the radiator, but easier said than done depending on your financial situation.

I actually SEEN dealer in Macau glue the radiator back... the owner doesn't even know (he had the coolant tank replaced once) it broke, I was checking his P/S harness and saw the glue

he was about to go back to dealer and bitch (they never told him they broke the radiator), but I will just swap the rad for him soon.

as i said i can pick a new one from ebay for £60.

a small price to pay to get her going again.... and see if ive fixed the coolant light too... as was my first issue..

Hmmmm ........ one minute you think a piece of plastic lost down the sump is a worry................ next minute .............. :lol2:

Bought my replacement tank online and took it to the dealer. Mechanic there is an RX-8 enthusiast, knew all about this risk and took special precautions to make sure this didn't happen. (Sorry, but I don't remember what those precautions were.)

where is the mechanic located?

That clearly wasn't the case:


.

unplugging the switch does kill the light on the dash but is it possible to spray it with wd40 if the float is still on the shaft and cant be removed? wouldn't the float block the spray from reaching the bottom of the shaft where the "crap" builds up? my switch has been unplugged for a year now

Pex exercises
 

I have a morbid fear of broken nipples so...

I haven't removed my coolant bottle yet. My RX8 is 10 years old and I have fractured a couple of plastic connectors changing my ignition coils. So I was wondering if I could just cut the hose and insert a connector and minimize the stress that way. If so what connector could I use. Depending on the size would a pex connector work? Their melting temperature is about 1700F so we are safe there, and as radiators used to be made out of brass I guess they can deal with coolants. No metal to metal connection so no ionic problems.

Any opinion?

You can remove that hose from the coolant bottle side. That way, the nipple won't break. Even if it does breaks, there is a proper solution that doesn't require buying a new rad. I'll be starting a new thread about it tonight. It's fairly long and I don't have time right now. I'll keep you posted. Good luck! :)

Quick question on an old thread... I just found a coolant tank at a local parts yard. I don't know what version it is. Can anyone tell me how to visually identify which version of the tank I have? Looking all over I can't find any of the part numbers that Mazurfer posted a few pages back. Only number I can find is "PP-GF5". That is marked a couple of places on the tank. Are there any visual indicators of old/new tank versions? When I look at the thing, what tells me that I have N3H1-15-351G/M or something else?

Thanks!

Sorry virtually impossible to tell on this one..

Except, IF you can supply me the FULL VIN number of the car it came out of I can cross check it for original part number, but it wont tell me IF the tank was replaced before.

Well, dang it. I'm not sure about the donor car. The tank and sensor assemply was only $10 so I figured I'd give it a shot since my stock bottle/sensor (2004 GT) has given up even trying to work. LOL I really hate seeing that dumb idiot light illuminated on my gauge cluster!

can someone tell me the best way to get the coolant bottle out? Also show where to unplug sensor thanks

why can't we just replace the plastic top on the radiator and not then entire radiator? You know where the nipple tends to break off why can;t the plastic across the top of radiator just be replaced?

You can replace the top radiator tank, but it's even cheaper to fix the nipple itself. Yes, it can be done :)

https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-discussion-3/%2420-solution-radiator-nipple-breaking-261935/

We've done this for a couple of cars and they've all been holding up pretty well. No leaks.

I have seen the Radiator light come on above 5K for years, but now it is waaay worse... except I went to it, and just pulled the connector from the clip at the bottle. I have NOT even unplugged the connector yet. This morning I drove in to work between 5K-8K... the light never went on!
I'm betting on poor contacts on that connector. Maybe some corrosion in that area from battery fumes, coolant? This will be interesting to troubleshoot. One other thing though, I also topped off the bottle with fresh mix the other day, so maybe it washed the sensor clean a bit???

About the sensor crud...has anyone tried a bottle of car radiator flush/cleaner to take out the crap?

I guess I have this issue... the symptoms are slightly different. I first noticed it a while ago... the 'Engine Coolant Level warning light' came on while I was driving on the Interstate, that was the first time I'd ever seen that illuminate, so I wasn't sure what it was, and I pulled over to the side of the road, noticed the Engine Temp gauge had moved a bit from it's normal temp, after a few minutes of idling, the Coolant Temp light went out and I drove quite a way before it came back on again... Over time, it seemed like I came on less often when the OAT was cooler and less when it was hot, and more often when the RPM was over 3,000 and less when it wasn't, but the Engine Temp gauge never varied from it's normal temp. After the first one or two times it happened I'd bought a half gallon of Mazda pre-mixed coolant but when I popped the radiator and reservoir caps, there wasn't much room left to top them off to their normal levels. Now, with the hot weather lately, the Engine Coolant Level warning level has been coming on more often, so I finally got around to checking in here to ask if anyone has experienced this and found this and a couple of other similar threads... this sounds like the sounds like the issue I have, the only difference in my case is I haven't seen anything about the effect of the RPMs being over or under 3,000 being a contributing factor. My Shinka came off the line on March 30, 2005, so if cleaning the gunk out of the reservoir doesn't resolve the issue, from what I've read it sounds like I need to replace both the reservoir and the sensor... does that sound about right? Any other words of wisdom about this matter will be appreciated.

Yep. Just replace the coolant bottle. Sensor is set inside the unit. Issue sorted. It has lasted you well.

Thanks for the confirmation XDragon8.

Radiator
 

Hi. My question is: I have an 04 mazda rx8. On the bottom right of the radiator, there is a plug. You twist it and take it off, and the coolant comes out. Is this what we should be using to drain coolant, or is there another plug?
I am doing another coolant flush. My coolant light came on and my engine overheated.

Thanks, chad

The plug is on the driver's side of a LHD car, so if you are facing the front bumper, it is on the right side.

Anyone know why the top of the radiator would be leaking distilled water when I fill it?

Thanks

Chad

Where did you add just distilled water to the system? Distilled water (0.997 kg/L) is lighter in density than a coolant/water blend (1.07 kg/L) so if you added distilled water straight it might not fully blend and would immediately travel up (akin to making a black and tan beer with lager and a stout).
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...faed5dbfa8.png

Nice. Yeah, it's smoking from the radiator. I think that's why. Any idea how much coolant goes through the system? I put about 2 gallons in it, the coolant light is on, and the coolant bottle is empty. I did use distilled water (4 gallons), per the diy write up. Is that wrong?

(I see you're in Wilmington, MA - where I work. I live in Metro West Boston).

Normally all RX-8's use premixed Mazda FL-22 and that's the only type I've used in the car. I've never added just distilled water and with ~ 60K on the odo I've done two coolant replacements that included the engine block drain. I was also told to change the coolant and replace with fresh coolant on a slope with the engine (front) at the highest point (for the latter burping procedure).

The coolant takes 10.0L from the S2 manual (below) but needs to have a warm up engine on period to ensure the system gets "burped". See that coolant level procedure below the diagram

Engine coolant capacity (approx. quantity)
MT: 10.0 L {10.6 US qt, 8.80 Imp qt}
AT: 9.8 L {10 US qt, 8.6 Imp qt}

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...a22a5658b1.png

7. Refill the engine coolant into the coolant reserve tank up to the F mark.
8. Install the cooling system cap.

CAUTION:
If the water temperature gauge rises too high, stop the engine and decrease
the engine coolant temperature to prevent overheating. Then, verify the
malfunctioning part and repair or replace it.
9. Start the engine and warm up the engine by idling.
10. After the engine warms up, perform the following steps. At this time, be careful of the
engine coolant temperature to prevent overheating.
a. Run the engine at approx. 2,500 rpm for 5 min.
b. Run the engine at approx. 3,000 rpm for5 s, then return to idling.
c. Repeat step (2) several times.
11. Stop the engine, and inspect the engine coolant

Water by itself in the RX-8 will have local boiling issues (and local boiling leads to steam generation that leads to nearly zero heat transfer at that spot). If your cap isn't holding pressure the boiling point decreases as the pressure decreases to atmospheric pressure. I did write up something a while back on why it's important to get the coolant type, %, and pressure right to prevent overheating - below:

https://www.rx8club.com/new-member-f...eating-270453/
https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-tro...o-i-do-258334/

Thanks everyone.

Hi everyone. I didn't see any smoke, but the engine temperature is going to the top after 15 minutes of driving. Any thoughts. This is what it was doing with smoke before the coolant change. Is it the atmosphere?

Thanks.

Chad

Not sure what it could be. When I fill the coolant bottle the coolant comes right out of the radiator. The coolant light is on and the coolant bottle is empty. I have read.

Anybody?

My guess is the nipple where coolant enters the Radiator from the header tank is rotten,leaking and about to fall off. New radiator required.

It's time to upgrade to an all alloy radiator. There are a few good brands around that should drop straight in. Most peeps that have had 8s for a while have already done this at some point. The plastic factory head and foot tanks break down due to heat and age. This is when the pipes bteak off and you are stranded. Dont bother trying to repair it. Your 8 will thank you for going alloy rad.

Ok. Thanks.

I just installed a new radiator, and the engine temperature is fine now. Furthermore, it is holding coolant, which it wasn't. But, the radiator is smoking and the fan is not running. Should the fan be running? When does it kick on?

Thanks,

Chad

Does anyone know why the new radiator would be smoking? after 15 minutes the radiator is smoking. The fan isn't turning on. Anyone?

Thanks,

Chad

The fan isn't turning on, even with the A/C on. The A/C is hot not cold. I'd appreciate any help