Hi all

mishmashmosh · Post by **mishmashmosh** » October 16th, 2007, 5:00 pm

I'm a new MX3 owner, I can't type a smug grin but since stepping up from other peasant makes of cars it seems to be growing everytime I drive it.
I picked up a 92 V6 24v DOHC for £1250, 17" ripspeed alloys, new rear brake calipers, timing belt, custom 2 tone red and silver paint job but it's developed a water leak. I'll be honest with you guys this car scares me !!

I've hardly any knowledge of V6 engines that includes the complexity of this awesome machine from what I've read from the posts. I really want to build on the previous owners hard work and finances permitting get it up to the standard that you guys have.

Some of the symptoms I'm getting are once started it idles at around 1500rpm and as the engine gets warm the revs go up to around 2500rpm, then after a short while the revs drop and starts bouncing between 1000rpm and 2000rpm (the heating in the car is cold at this point), after about 5mins the revs drop to a normal 600rpm and she purrs. The heating in the car gets a little warm after 20mins but my temp gauge starts creeping up past the normal midway point and a steady drip of water comes from the engine somewhere (helpful I know !), I can do about 30 miles before the expansion bottle empties under the low level mark.

Greatful for any advice you guys can give me on where to start.

Anybody know of any South Wales MX3 meets ? I'm keen to see what mods are possible, pics are good but seeing the real thing and talking to people is far more beneficial for an MX3 virgin !!

mazdags94 · Post by **mazdags94** » October 17th, 2007, 10:46 am

I'm not the most experienced MX-3 owner here by any means but I remeber when purchased my first MX-3 GS a while back. My idle seemed rough and over time, my GS was leaking as well. For your situation, I would take a look at a few things (I could be wrong but maybe this will give you a place to start), look at your thermostat, water pump, heater core. When the water pump is worn out, it will start spewing coolant under high pressure (after the car's running for a while). If you're having heating problems, check you heater core. Again, I'm not an expert by any means but I've read many posts here from veterans and have experienced some issues with my V6 as well. Hope this helps.

mishmashmosh · Post by **mishmashmosh** » October 17th, 2007, 11:17 am

Thanks mazdags94. Thats my weekend planned out.

mishmashmosh · Post by **mishmashmosh** » October 24th, 2007, 4:48 pm

Just to close this thread off, took my mx3 to the garage and the mechanic found the water pump had died. This is probably causing the coolant temp sensor to act crazy and make the car over rev. I know the pumps are around £30-£35 but he said it's a 4 hour job !! ......... dreading this labour charge !!

Thanks mazdags94. Shame I couldn't find the fault myself.

shameem · Post by **shameem** » October 24th, 2007, 7:39 pm

maybe replace your thermostat first and see if that helps.... if it doesnt then go for the water pump and timing belt (generally its a good idea to replace water pump and timing belt in a old car anyway).

chertel · Post by **chertel** » October 24th, 2007, 8:21 pm

Depending on what your plans are for your mx-3 you should concider swapping in the klze? Completely different car, a guy pulled up to me the other day in an mx-3 and we were talking about how the stock v6 sucks and that got me thinking how much the klze makes the mx-3 feel like a new car. Just a thought. I just enjoyed my mx-3 before swapping in the ze by the way it looked so good.
Later

mazdags94 · Post by **mazdags94** » October 25th, 2007, 7:12 am

I am glad you found the problem. Replacing it is a bear, but you will be happy when it's done. When I did mine, it took a looooong time, only because I live just south of Buffalo, NY and I worked on it in the middle of a snow storm (I was dedicated

) If your gs is a manual tranny, put it into gear before attempting to remove the crank pulley, mine was auto and I had to stick a screwdriver in the flywheel to keep it from moving (I could have tried puting mine into "drive" but that wasnt a thought until later. Also, working on this problem will help you realize the LIMITED space there is to work with in the engine bay. Good luck with your work.

hharb · Post by **hharb** » October 25th, 2007, 9:43 am

it is kinda normal for the revs to be up or play around a little until the car warms up... as long as when the car is warm and ready to go there should be no variation in idling and it should idle somewhere below 1k, as for the water leaking, it could be something else as well, im not an expert here but i would think twice before replacing the water pump, labour is gonna be a killer on that one. and always consider all full ze swap, it will be worth it. goodluck

MX-3.com

Hi all

Hi all

Problem found ..........