My MX3 is going crazy!...help!

[Daninski]

What does a compression test have to do with this probelm? Not sure where your coming from here. He has a leak and an over heating engine. No exhaust smoke. If it's a head gasket he should be seeing water (white) in his oil shouldn't he?

[Ryan]

Blown H/G can cause many things. Oil in coolant, coolant in oil, oil or coolant in cyls, bad compression because of such. A comp test would tell him whether or not his head is warped/gasket is gone because of the overheating.

If the fluid is coming from passenger side of the motor, it might be the pump or any of the hoses. Driverside is thermostat housing and sensors. Front is nothing except the bypass, and rear really doesn't have much either except heater core and such....

But thats my engine.

[marcdh]

What does a compression test have to do with this probelm? Not sure where your coming from here. He has a leak and an over heating engine. No exhaust smoke. If it's a head gasket he should be seeing water (white) in his oil shouldn't he?

As Ryan said with an overheating engine, headgaskets are keen to fail. It's just what I would do if water and oil mix was dripping off my engine. Personally I just like to rule out that the overheating hasn't trashed the HGs, it's a bit of a paranoia for me Checking for mayo in the oil cap would be a lazier solution. TBH though, I didn't read the post properly, sorry Danny

With that squealing, I'd check the waterpump for free rotation and the tension of the belt. But guessing aside, if it's dumping out that fast I thought it would be easy to locate the leak?

[TheBlackMoth]

cheers guys, the helps really appreciated. The water was dripping down from the drivers side.
After loads of water was leaking out, I put some Rads in the coolant tank whilst at work, as someone told me this could fix the leak. Since then, I haven't seen any water coming out, so it seems to have fixed the leak...but the engine is still overheating! The water is really dirty too!
Is it possible that it was the radiator and that driving without coolant once or twice was enough to push the HG into a bad state? I am still driving it, but it is only good for short trips, as after about 15 mins of driving it starts to overheat...

Oh, and I checked the oil cap, but no mayo whatsoever... haven't noticed any white smoke either.

[Mr.mx-3]

cheers guys, the helps really appreciated. The water was dripping down from the drivers side.
After loads of water was leaking out, I put some Rads in the coolant tank whilst at work, as someone told me this could fix the leak. Since then, I haven't seen any water coming out, so it seems to have fixed the leak...but the engine is still overheating! The water is really dirty too!
Is it possible that it was the radiator and that driving without coolant once or twice was enough to push the HG into a bad state? I am still driving it, but it is only good for short trips, as after about 15 mins of driving it starts to overheat...

Oh, and I checked the oil cap, but no mayo whatsoever... haven't noticed any white smoke either.

What is Rads?? Is that anything like stop leak??? If so you screwed yourself and the whole cooling system will be stopped/clogged thus still causing your overheating problem to me sounds like a mulitude of problems Had the same thing happen to me first it got hot for no apperant reason couldn't fig. why antifreeze kept dissapearing didn;t see a leak anywhere but could smell it about a month goes by and suddnely it over heats again to my suprise the top rad.hose busted,3 months later on my long journey home from work it heats again get out and to my supprise radiator sprung a leak, come to find out my thermostat was bad and sticking causing pressure to build up and overheating to occur and not to menition part failure.

Suggestions. either have cooling system pressure tested or rent the tool from a autozone,advanced auto,Orielys some where like that look for leak,replace any affected part(leaking) remove old thermostat put everything back together ,take car to a shop have cooling system flushed thuroly,Take car home install new thermostat and Never use stop leak again (if this is the case) and never drive your car if it's getting hot if you don;t have a blown head gaskett or a cracked head already you soon will.. Plus check your freeze plugs one could've popped out enough to cause a leak and be sure you don;t have any cracks in the block..