Help!-Coolant Resevoir building up pressure and over flowing
 

Here's the sitch. I have a 2004 6mt rx-8. Recently I started noticing it smelled like I was leaking coolant when checking under the hook it looks like the coolant tank was spitting fluid from under the pressurized cap. I replaced the cap, then replaced the entire tank thinking there may be a fault there.

Now my car continues to build up the pressure almost seemingly at random and the coolant light alerts, again almost seeemingly at random (on and off and on etc). If I let it sit for a day or more it starts very rough, almost like it's flooded, but once I burn everything out it's fine. I don't know if that is related or not. The car never over heats though so that's good.

I'm going to flush my radiator this weekend but was wondering if anyone had any further troubleshooting or ideas? I can't remember where I heard it but someone mentioned to me in passing I might have a bad seal causing pressure the pressure build up.

Anyway if you've got any info or suggestions, please hit me up. If this is a repost, my-bad, I searched for a while and couldn't find another.

Shane:banghead:

Do the fans run?

S

Yup the fans run.

are you filling it to the correct level - there are marks on the side of the tank .

The rad light coming on is a common fault - if you have plenty of water in the reservoir and the light comes on then you have a faulty light switch .

Yup, it is being filled to the proper level.

I don't believe it to be a sensor issue because it overflows/spits out the cap when the pressure builds up which causes the level to drop. I'm guessing the pump coming off and on causes the light to trigger when the level changes.

not meaning to be an a** but it does not sound like you know much about how it all works .

I think there is a strong possibility there is nothing wrong other than an overfilled tank and a faulty switch .

Don't let the post number fool you, I've been working on cars for some time. Now my ability to articulate the issue to the forum is probably where the issue is occurring...

I know how to fill my Coolant Reservoir. That isn't the issue. The issue is that when the coolant reservoir is filled to the proper level (or even below) the tank is building up excessive pressure from somewhere and causing it to bubble over/spill/spurt out (how ever you want to describe it).

So let's ignore the coolant light. Assuming that there is the correct, or even less then correct, amount of coolant in the system; where are other points in the system where this pressure could be building up?

Is it possible that there is a compression leak into the water jacket? One of my engines was replaced due to coolant leaking into the the rotor housing.

if you stop topping up the level will it run out of water ?

Crap, that would make some sense.

I let it sit for a week when I was out of town, when I started it back up it was similar to the engine flooding, but I had some white smoke come out of my exhaust. I just chalked it up to flooding before I left.

Brettus- I'll give that a try this week and see where it lands me.

Not based on my experience with owning 7's & 8's as I've never experienced a cooling system issue with them, but it could possibly be the radiator core itself is plugged someplace. I've had cars boil over once a core gets plugged, circulation restriction doesn't allow cooler water to recirculate back to the engine. This should become apparent when you try and flush it.

May be a coolant leak in the engine core itself too as noted earlier in this thread, but when I've blown engines this way on older jalopies I've owned the white smoke usually gives the problem away long before the coolant system does.

Brettus-

Yes I run out of coolant if I don't fill it.


Anyone have any suggestions on things I should try before I run it into the dealer?

Thermostat? you said it was not overheating but maybe its not opening enough?

Is the water dirty looking.......new engine.

and bubbles in the coolant tank, new motor..

beers :beer:

my water looks clean when I drain it. but in the coolant tank it looks pretty nasty, with some brown-ish stuff stickin' on the side of the tank. blah

if its leaking, I hope it blow ASAP so I can get another engine

compression leak into the water jacket?
 

What would be the symptoms of a "compression leak into the water jacket"?

when you start up the car it smokes a lot with white smoke and sometimes fluid comes out the exhuast, it also smells sweet.