I have a 1987 NA.



I noticed a couple days ago that there was a sweet smell and a vapor coming from under my hood from the gaps between the fenders and the hood after shutoff. I can smell it inside the car a little bit if I turn the heat on and the fan on high. I started my car after work tonight and the "add coolant" buzzer went off. I shut the car off and added coolant and turned it back on and the buzzer kept going. once the car warmed up the buzzer shut off. It didnt do this before when I smelled the coolant but it was about 48 degrees in Orlando tonight when I started it and it smoked a little on startup (it does that if it sits for a day or so. I also have leaky injectors but I installed the fuel pump cutoff mod to mediate the leakage). After I got home and shut off the car, I heard a sizzling from under the car and noticed a puddle of liquid and it was dripping from the front diffuser. I looked under the hood and noticed a puddle of fluid near the bottom of the radiator ontop of the diffuser (see photo). Possible leaky radiator? worse? Please offer any advice or thoughts on the matter. I have the phone number of a guy who has a bunch of RX7 parts out in Sanford, FL. If it's just a radiator I can probably get one from him.



I have to drive this car to New York on Sunday and it's a 1200 mile trip. I'm rather upset that this had to arise at a bad time. I'm hoping I can get this fixed so I can at least make it home to NY.





This is the puddle of fluid I found near the bottom of the radiator.

[attachment=43473:radiator_leak.jpg]



Thanks for any help y'all can offer.



-Mike

 

Fill up the coolant, open the hood, start the car, and look for leaks. There aren't that many places it can leak from.

 

I'll give that a shot in the morning





I know this is probably a really really dumb question and forgive me for asking but...

If I kept filling the coolant, would It be okay to drive it back to NY? I noticed the coolant temp gauge never goes past about 1/3 of the way up even while I was losing this coolant, so if the gauge is good, I dont see it overheating. I'm supposed to move sunday to NY and I don't have money for parts.

 

It would be safer to fix the problem, considering you have no idea what the problem is. For all you know, you could be in the middle of nowhere in Georgia, and have your radiator hose explode, because you neglected to find where it was leaking from.



It's your call, though. If it were me, I wouldn't leave town leaking coolant.

 

Yeah I found the leak. Was the hose that connects to the back side of the intake plenum. It was split open dripping coolant onto the back of the block causing that vapor coming from the engine bay. I replaced the hose (its probably 20 years old anyways) and theres no more puddles on the ground and the smell is mostly gone. The coolant buzzer still goes off when I first start up for about 3-5 minutes while it warms up. While its at off-idle, the buzzer doesn't sound but when it's at idle, it sounds. I'm assuming there's air in the system. But thanks for your advice, I know it was kind of a dumb question but I don't know much about cooling systems so I figured i'd ask just to be sure. I appreciate your help.

-Mike

 

You probably have a tiny bit of air trapped. Be sure to unscrew the bleed hold on the passenger side, top of the radiator. Little black plastic plug with a phillips screwdriver slot. Pour in coolant until you see it come out of that hole, quickly replace the plug, then fill the rest of the way.



Anytime I HAVEN'T done this, it beeped until warmed up. EVERY time I did this, it NEVER beeped.