Coolant Leak

[FrogBlog]

I bought a 2000 Protege ES a month ago. It had absolutely no leaks. We were looking at the fluids and my husband seemed to think the coolant looked a little low, but to be honest, it was still between the min-max marks so I didn't think too much of it. My husband ended up overfilling the reservoir. Oh well. We checked back a week later and it was still overfilled to the same amount, so it didn't seem to be losing coolant.

Yesterday, the engine overheated and the coolant reservoir was completely empty. The only thing I can think of was that on Saturday, I noticed that the car seemed to be dripping a lot, but because it was so wet from slush and melt water out, I didn't think too much of it. Yeah, hindsight 20/20. The shop it was towed to said that it is either the water pump or head gasket, but they want $120 more just to take off the timing cover to find out. I'm taking it somewhere else, but given that I had no head gasket symptoms before this and I most likely saw the coolant leaking out the bottom the other day, that this is probably a bad water pump seal/gasket? With my bad water pumps before, they gave lots of warning, slow leak. That was definitely not a slow leak the other day. Has anyone had one that blew up like this?

Thanks!

[goldstar]

Welcome to CP.

I'm sorry to hear you're having problems with your car. I haven't experienced water pump problems on my car but from your description I'd say that the water pump is bad rather than a defective head gasket. To access/replace the water pump requires that both the timing cover and timing belt be removed.

Unless you know when the timing belt was last replaced, it would also be a good idea to replace the timing belt should the cover have to come off.

Good luck with resolving the problem.

Happy Motoring!

[FrogBlog]

Yeah, I think I am going to check/refill the coolant and limp it over to another shop to have the pump and all the belts changed out (this car is at 141k, btw). I only hope that I actually didn't damage the head when it got hot. I noticed the engine temp a few ticks below the H and as soon as I shut off the engine about a minute later, it was just under the max. I didn't notice any performance issues immediate to shutoff. Does this car have a temp warning light? If it does it must not work or it wasn't enough to trigger it.

Thanks again. :D

[1Mazda323Fan]

They don't seem to have an engine-about-to-melt light. My my alternator/WP belt flew off my car once (my fault, didn't get the tension bolt tight enough), and it was only my diligent checking of the gauges that made me notice the temp gauge pegged on H. As for your overheating problem, it may not be your pump. Typically, when it goes it sounds like someone feeding a brick through a wood chipper. It might be the gasket; though if it is, then you may as well replace the pump too, since it's a pain to get at. I doubt highly that there was any damage to the head, so you should be fine there. If the head gasket was that bad, you'd have noticed. Make sure you check all of the hoses, and check the thermostat for leaks as well. Also, check the radiator for anything obvious, the end tanks too, since I believe they're plastic. Make sure the fan comes on; the car could easily overheat if that fails. Also, check on the floor underneath the dash near the centre stack (like where the radio is) for dampness. That could be a sign your heater core has gone out. A smell of syrup coming from the floor could also be a sign of a heater core leak. That, or evidence someone's been eating pancakes in your car.

[FrogBlog]

My BIL (a ASE certified mechanic) replaced the water pump this weekend. Apparently, the old one was never correctly installed in the first place which made it a ticking time bomb. We went ahead and switched out the timing belt (kit), both accessory belts, and valve cover gasket. Head gasket looks OK. Only thing left to do is the oil change and maybe a front end alignment.

There is just one more odd thing about it. Even before it overheated, the temp never quite got to the middle. Yesterday, I ran it for 100 miles on the interstate and the temp stayed glued at about one tick below stick straight in the middle. Is that normal for these cars or maybe my car has a 170 thermostat instead of 180?

[goldstar]

It's good that you resolved the problem.
The temperature gauge reading is normal; it's about what my gauge consistently reads and my cooling system is in excellent shape. It's doubtful that a competent technician would have installed a colder thermostat in any case.

Happy Motoring!

[FrogBlog]

Thanks for the reassurance about the temp. :D

[Wilyb]

yes as far as the gauge goes I am witnessing the same with my wife's car. My wife was complaining her car wasn't heating up quickly enough. After having removed and checked the thermostat and reinstalling it, I restarted the car and let it run, only to find out that the 2 cooling fans were running continuously . I removed the main cooling fan fuse and made the car heat up to 200 degrees F checking the coolant temp with a thermometer. When I checked the heat gauge in the car at 200 degrees, it was just a hair under half!

This tells me that if the car ever overheats, I would begin to worry when it gets over halfway. That being said, the reason I checked the thermostat was because the car lost it's serpentine belt during the fall and overheated (water pump wasn't turning)...wifey didn't notice...needle went right to the top...no engine damage... I figured the fail safe on the thermostat made it stick open... but it didn't... it's still good...