christi

I'm trying to get all the help I can get, sorry if I seem to be a pest

I pretty much have the reason as why it's heating up
pretty fast.. Either the clutch fan or belts. I'll be
tighten the belts tomorrow sometime...


but my other problem is, I know my car doesn't have
THAT much power, but to some extent it does. For the
past 2 days, everytime I get on it hard (relating back
to it heating) it'll rise up pretty fast once I
redline 1st, 2nd and 3rd gear, as soon as I cruise,
it's fine. Now... playing on the back roads over near
my neighborhood a few mins afterwards, the seat belt
light came on... and my power started to bog down.
Again, tonight it did the same thing. WTF?


It's frustrating, I know she is old, and has alot of
miles (~156k) on the engine, but she was taken very
good care of before I got her and up to now. I really
don't want to have something bad happen to her, nor do I want to have it blow up. It's really driving me
crazy



I will be going to the parts store tomorrow to see if
they have a factory mazda thermostat. I'm going to buy
it just incase... (or am I looking in the wrong
place!?). After I tighten up the fan belt, I'll run
that for a while to see if that's the problem. If not,
I'll replace the thermostat with teh factory one. If
that doesnt help, I guess it's the fan clutch?!




Any help, is appricated.

knight1976

And that is the automatic rx7 right??

Piranha

go to the dealer for a thermostat. They usually have all the cheap (sometimes) and little parts, o rings, brake parts, and filters.

christi

No, manual.

christi

Ok, but if it isn't the thermostat, what else could this be causing it?

What in hell can cause the bogging down on power ?? That's what is odd for me

NZConvertible

Have you tested that like I said? If it doesn’t overheat when you leave it idling for more than a few minutes, it’s not the fan.

christi

I didn't see you say leave it idle for a few mins, I'll try that tomorrow...

but I did do the 1, 2 and 3rd redline.. and that's where it started to heat up pretty quickly.

christi

I'm getting my theromstat tomorrow (hopefully) and putting it on. Anything I need to do/worry about before/after I change the thermostat?

fastrotaries

gaskets......They're a pain to remove, so get some grit paper or emory cloth which helps out a bit. Mine was doing the same thing and it was the belts slipping. So go ahead and get new belts. AT least the two that pass the water pump. Good luck.

SonicRaT

iTrader: (6)

Only at high rpms? Perhaps you are collapsing a line, does your add coolant buzzer go off at all when that happens?

christi

Nope, the add coolant has been matural lately. I am assuming it only gets hot at high RPMS because whenever I take off and red line up until 4th gear it gets hot pretty fast... When I just cruise, it stays normal.

I know for sure it isnt my water pump as I had to replace it 2months ago.

Thanks again for all your replies, it has been much appricated it.

SonicRaT

iTrader: (6)

Any leaks that you can notice? Is there anything stuck in your radiator? The clutch fan doesn't help much after a certain speed, so I don't believe that could be causing it. Check your hoses and make sure there are no holes at all, and also check your upper and lower radiator hose, do they look flat at all?

NZConvertible

Oops, sorry! That must have been to someone else. There've been sooo many overheating threads lately, I've lost track! My bad... Good, that pretty much proves it isn't the fan, since the fan has no effect at speed. Check it anyway.
The most common causes of this sort of overheating (only when you load up the engine) are usually caused by a jammed thermostat, a blocked radiator or a corroded water pump impeller (all lowering coolant flow), or air not getting through the radiator. Are the radiator fins clogged up or bent? Are the plastic covers in front of the radiator and the undertray underneath it still in place? They're important to force air through the radiator.

christi

Ok, here's where you might call me *stupid* , but I will ask anyway.

Where do I look to see if the radiator fins are clogged up or bent?

SonicRaT

iTrader: (6)

At the radiator, obviously! Just look at the radiator and see if a lot of the fins/etc are bent. There are usually two plastic little covers infront of the radiator you may need to take off to get a good look, make sure there isn't anything stuck in there (paper/plastic/bird/etc)

christi

Ok, sorry for being alittle too stupid.

I'm am going to replace the t-stat today, but one thing I'm going to do (tomorrow) is tighten up the belts, Sledgehammer thinks it could be that, might as well be. They are loose to begin with.

I REALLY appriocate all the help I'm getting from you guys. Thanks.

bcty

did you remove any of the emmisions.. if u one have 1 belt running yoiur water pump it will slip.. i have the same problem when getting on it around 200... get a dual belt setup

christi

No, I haven't removed any of the emmisions...

christi

I won't start another thread, so I'll state it in here....

Coolant... which one are ya suppose to use? The green color or Orange? At first, before we flushed the coolant when we had to put the new water pump on, it was green. We changed it to the orange stuff. Do you think that could be the problem?

christi

bump.

Manolis_D

iTrader: (2)

Green!

christi

So... you're telling me that Orange isnt good for the car?

christi

bumpy

importboi22

i heard that orange stuff is bad for the coolant seals in the motor (GM's coolant contains citrus)... no idea tho i would switch to the green stuff just in case can never be to safe you know!