MegDecker

04 RX-8

Pretty please help! I am in a lose-lose situation! I live in Key West and there is no Mazda dealership for 200 miles! I got the extended engine core warranty paperwork in the mail and think my issue may be covered under it, but since I hhave no working knowledge of engines I'm screwed...

After driving my far for a few minutes the engine coolant light comes on. If I shift my car to neutral it stays off for a mile or so and comes back on. My temp guage doesn't show overheating and my oil and coolant levels when checked are fine. But I know there is a problem because when I park my car I can smell that burning oil smell and the fan stays on for what seems like forever!

Are cooling issues part of the engine core system?

If not I have an extended bumper to bumper warranty that should cover any other problems but I have no idea who to even take it to!!

Help! What's wrong with my car and where do I go??

Please and thank you!!

nycgps

iTrader: (1)

Is the extended bumper to bumper warranty Mazda's Warranty, or some 3rd party company ?

Either one required you to have have maintenance record ... like receipts of motor oil, gear oil, coolant, air filters, etc. Mazda's extended warranty might be easier.

Cooling system is NOT covered under the Engine warranty unless the cooling problem is in the engine itself (like blocked path, leaky seals,etc)

u should give us more information about ur car so maybe we can figure something out for you.

MegDecker

It is a 2004 rx-8 The extended warranty I have is through a 3rd party company...
What info would help? I don't know very much about it but I do have good maintenance records

Razz1

Check your resivour. You may need to add fluid.

Or you could have a bad sensor.

samyv2

I'm willing to bet it's a bad sensor. It seems to be an issue with this car. I am currently having the same problem with mine. The light seems to come on more when I am on the highway. Yet coolant levels are fine and the engine is not running hot. I keep very good care of my car and chnage my coolant every year. I like getting anything fixxed when it is broken but I'm not worried about this issue.
I priced out fixxing the problem with Mazda and they want 250.00 parts and labour. The part itself is only 52.00 bucks so I am thinking about doing it myself. I beleive there is a DIY on fixxing that on this web site.

samyv2

Almost forgot, if your car is really warm and you shift it off your fan will always stay on for a while as a means of cooling down the engine

Silver06

MegDecker.

NOTE.... The temp gauge on the dash is NOT a real guage. It will read 'normal' right up to the point that the car is really overheated. Any good mechanic should be able to 'shoot' the engine with an IR temp gun to tell you what is really going on, however the best protection is dedicated water temp, oil temp, and oil pressure guages (note that the oil pressure gauge on the dash is also not 'real'.

Do a search for threads containing 'coolant light'. There have been several with failures of the switch in the reservoir. AFAIK, the switch is only sold with a new tank.

SobeUK

Hey there. I have the same issue with my cooling light but it appears to be fixed now. The short version of the story is (because the last one got lost in the eather).

Light comes on every time I drive. Seams to be kind of linked to the revs and temp. Mazda dealer said to set the coolant level at 10mm ubove the sensor and test. In the mean time we went for a drive over the weekend and enjoyed 2+hrs of motorway driving in traffice from 0-100mph. Stopped the the services. Tried to start the car and it turned over once then just clicked. Normally this would say buggered battery.

Got a jump start and continued on our way. At this point the ABS light was on but no cooling light. Next day expecting to hve to get a battery or jump it started first time. Drove home - no ABS or cooling light.

Today drove to work - still no cooling light - result! When to buy a battery but thought to have it tested first. Battery is fine with 12.8v. So tested alternator 13.7v. The tester said that the battery is fine but alternator may have an issue as it shouldbe over 14v to charge the battery. So now trying to find info on what voltage the alternator should put out.

So it seams the jumpstart reset the computer. This would suggest that the cooling light issue may infact be a software issue. Has anyone looked into this? Is tere a way to update the firmware on RX8s? Just a thought.

Cheers

SobeUK

Well justtook the car to Mazda to get the battery checked and the b@**** water level ight came on again. Dam. So the issue over the weekend did not fix this one.

Had it confirmed though that the sensor light only does the coolant level and nothing else, so can happily ignor it.