Last Tuesday after dropping off some items at work I noticed that there was a bubbling noise in the engine and the engine started popping. The popping noise sent shocks all the way down to my clutch and gas pedals and I immediately knew something was wrong.
I turned down my system to hear the noise again and it sounded like the final stages of a kettle on the boil. I looked at the water temp gauge and saw it shoot from normal operating temp to about 30 degrees over in a matter of seconds. I quickly pulled over just metres from where I had entered traffic. Yep... I was broken down on Pitt St at peak hour. Fxxx.
So I sat in the car... waiting for it to cool down and rummaged through my glovebox to see if my NRMA membership was valid. It had expired in April 2007. Double fxxx.
After 15 minutes, I popped the bonnet to see what was going on. It was at that moment that I saw my baby bleed:
Radiator fluid everywhere... it didn't look good. When I opened up the bonnet and looked in, it looked like all the fluid was coming out of the radiator overflow bottle.
A few months ago the water bottle for my window washer nozzles had cracked with age. My car is now bordering on 17 years and with the heat in the engine bay over time, it has made the plastic bottle brittle... enough to split it in half. My first diagnosis was that it was the radiator overflow bottle that had been cracked... no biggie... replacement should only cost $25. But it didn't explain WHY my car was overheating.
So I called a tow truck to tow me to one of my regular mechanics based over in Artarmon. Almost 2 hours after logging the call, they arrived and towed my ride to my Artarmon mechanic.
After outlining the above to the mechanic, he did a few tests to see if the radiator fans worked (and they did after the engine warmed up). Now that he had crossed out the radiator fans as a problem point, he concluded it was a combination of:
1) a busted radiator
2) old hoses that may be leaking
3) faulty temperature sensor
As he didn't know which one was at fault, he suggested I change the lot and leave the car overnight with him. Not happy Jan.
I pleaded with him to see what he could do and pressured me into commiting towards all the parts so that he could order it and install it that evening. At a total cost of $900. That's a lot of McHappy meals.
So, with his quote in my head I decided to call up MX5 Mania up in Hornsby and they confirmed that they had all the replacement bits in stock as well as the manpower to definitely get the job done by COB today, at a much more reasonable price. Problem was getting my car up there without paying for another tow truck to pick me up. The mechanic naturally advised against me driving it up there but I told him I had no choice and risked it.
The drive from Artarmon to Hornsby seemed to have taken an eternity but in reality it was only 25 minutes. I was constantly checking my engine temperature and it hovered at the normal operating temp. I drove up like a nanny on Pacific HWY just to be sure that I don't exert too much on my ailing engine. When I finally got to Mania, I pulled up and kept the engine running... Temperature still normal. It was at that stage I was thinking to myself \"WTF??\"
One of the guys from Mania came over and checked it out and it seemed normal. When I told them my regular mechanic recommended a new radiator/hoses/temp sensor... the bloke I was dealing with basically told me to hold my horses and performed a quick pressure check on my radiator (which my regular mechanic didn't perform). What do you know... the pressure was normal which indicated there was no leak. The radiator/temp sensor/hoses aren't the culprit.
We were scratching our heads for a while, until suddenly the penny dropped. The Mania Mechanic checked the oil dip stick and what do you know... It's as dry as the Sahara in there!
The engine was overheating because there wasn't enough oil in the engine to lubricate all the moving joints. Which led to greater friction resulting in excessive heat.
The wierd thing was that my car hasn't left any oil marks on where I've parked so there was no indicator of a leak. I had also recently had a service done by these guys as well and all the oils were changed at the time. Either way I've booked a slot for the Mania team to look into it next week but for now everything is running smoothly again with all the fluids topped up.
So, moral of the story:
If a mechanic tells you to change your radiator because it's busted, get them to do a pressure test first.
MX5 Mania saved me $900 that today and they didn't even charge me for the top up oil. I've got nothing but praise for that mob.
