MX-3.com

ok, so im driving home from work, and i start to smell a sweet smell from the air vents suckin in air from outside... its normal with an older car to get a little bit of that smell knowing that its coolant.... but oddly it starts getting stronger and stronger every few km i go... then as i start to pull into my appartment complex i start seeing smoke from the engine bay...

... i parked, and i poped the hood with a cloud full of sweet antifreeze steam.

does everyone know the metal coolant line that travels under the exhaust manifold and around to about the throtle body, which feeds coolant to the heater core inside the car.

Mine was rotted but still held until an hour ago. At the first T point which sends coolant into the thermostat housing there's a little hole... pin size, and its spraying me, and the front of the engine bay with rust colored coolant.

it seems that the idiot that had the car before me was a moron... since the antifreeze was pretty thick (almost as if it was a higher viscosity oil)

he said when i purchased the vehicle that he did a coolant change a month prior to the purchase back in august.

i dont think he flushed to cooling system (since the hot maple syrup was brown as if it was old and burnt coolant... but what pisses me off the most is the fact that it must be almost pure antifreeze.... i've never seen or felt old antifreeze, of a proper mix, to have the viscosity of warm maple syrup.

blah, tomorrows agenda has been changed to

- scrap yard
=> fine a new one, with as little rust as possible and take it off the donor car.

- Canadian Tire
=> buy about 4' of new hose
=> 2 3L jugs of 50/50 mix antifreeze
=> and a new serpentine belt for the alternator/water pump (its starting to fray so im gonna change it while doing work on the car)

- spend the rest of the afternoon before i have to go to work fixing it, flushing the entire system with the trusty garden hose, and then refilling it.

Good luck! I haven't had to do any work on the car yet in the engine bay but it doesn't seem like much fun. At least there doesn't seem to be much room on the V6 model.

Maybe a new thermostat while your at it.

well im fresh out of the scrap yard and i got the new line out of an mx-3 1.6 sohc that just came in to the yard and was in really good condition.


i let out all the coolant in the old line and thre in a degreasing agent and started to run her... she's still pissing but my temp fix of silicone sealant (caulking) and my old Mohawk College Lanyard held it enough to flush it all

i emptied that out again, and then fresh water again...


she's clean now, everything is clean, i took one of the temp sensors out and she was clean of gunk... so as far as the flush and removal of any built up residue in coolant lines (including the tb) have been cleaned)


now its time to degrease, clean, and lightly sand the donor piece and then spray on a bunch of white grease to the outside so she dont rust in the future....


im off to start preping it.

If you notice improper idle speed (or the engine doesnt like to stay running) when the engine is cold.. then likely you didnt get the Idle Bypass assembly fully clean. (this is the piece that attaches to the bottom of the TB) the coolant lines that attach here are relatively small and flow might not be as good as in the rest of the coolant system. Just something to watch out for anyway..

Tunes67

ok well i managed to put her back together and refill the system just before i had to jet to work.

the idle is running smoother than before, she actually seems to have a little more power, just the slightest and better response time... well, i can notice the difference, that waterpump aint robbing hp by having to work double time inorder to pump molases anymore.

one thing i have learned, when buying a used car from some one you dont know. is check everything your self.