i have a 2004 Rx8 standard
2 days ago i went out to buy coffee and basically stayed in the car drinking coffee and talking with some friends for about 3-4 hours (with the car on) everything was good, there was no problem, but when i drove it back home, maybe like 5 minutes away from my house the heat meter went all the way up to red and white smoke started coming out from the hood and had a very weird smell
yesterday i went to go check on it, i thought maybe it was like that because i had it on for a while but when i turned it on and let it warm it just went all the way back to red line and smoke again
so i turned it off and checked the coolant (there were no signs on the dash) and it wasnt empty but it wasnt full either so i put more coolant till it was full thinking it could have been that
let the car sit for the day
and today i went to go drive it and it started out normal but after driving it for 5-10 min it all happened again and now the battery sign is up on the dash and so is the coolant sign
if somebody could plz help me on what could be wrong
did i blow out the engine?!?!?

 

Your engine is 99.9999% likely to have severe damage.

Your coolant temp needle will not start moving until about 235F, however you can sustain engine damage as low as 220F. The higher you get above 220F, the more likely you are to suffer critical and permanent engine damage. Getting all the way to red isn't something I have ever seen one of these engines survive.

The reason why you overheated is likely a clogged/stuck thermostat. It's a $65-$75 dollar part that I constantly recommend be replaced periodically, since it's cheap and a failure is almost garuanteed to kill your engine.

The battery symbol is likely because the overheating keeps spraying coolant all over the engine bay (the overflow outlet dumps onto the fans, and if you are dumping, the fans will be on), and probably corroding electrical grounding points, damaging the alternator, lubricating the belts, shorting out the battery, etc...


There are a bunch of test you can do to confirm my diagnosis. Test the coolant for combustion gases, test the oil for coolant, pressure test the cooling system, pull the plugs after the engine sits cold overnight, then you crank it with fuel cut enabled (pedal to the floor) to see if coolant comes out of the holes.

The short list of what is almost sure to need replacing is:
- Engine
- Thermostat
- Radiator
- Coolant Lines
- Coolant Bottle + cap
- Numerous grounding points or the alternator or the battery (or all 3)

If you do it all yourself, you are looking at around $4,000 in damage. Pay someone else to do it and $6,000+ is likely.

 

A question. is it smoking out of the tail pipe or just from under the hood? Rx8 dash gages are not spot on I've read some where on here that the temp gage only shows up to 195 or some thing like that and don't move agen till 230 but the engine can blow a coolint seal at 220 so if the gage starts to move past the half way mark it's all ready to late. Best thing to do is not start it agen get it to a shop fast time is important if coolint is in the engine it can do extreme damige just sitting in it. If your a really lucky person it's fixable if not new engine time. Well RIWWP beat me to it

 

when i first turn it on it smokes from the tail pipe, but as it warms up it stops, and when it reaches the red line it starts smoking from the hood

 

Yup, you have terminal engine damage from a major cooling system failure.

An engine rebuild isn't going to be an option, heat that high is going to be warping too many parts to bother reusing anything.

 

so that means new engine time?

 

Yes sorry

 

Yes, see the short list of parts that are almost certainly going to need replacing in my prior post.