MSP 2005-5 Overheating, need help!

[Syonix]

Hey there everyone, i'm hoping to get struck by lightning here and get an
answer to my query. As this car is not super well known i cant find any
damn shops around the vancouver washington area who can answer my
questions.

I've got one of the Fermica Yellow 2003.5 Mazdaspeed Protoege,
production #1082

it's got 52,000 miles on it..original water pump, thermostat
and timing belt. Last week, i noticed after driving for 10
minutes that the car started to overheat.I waited for it to
cool, checked the fluids and everything seemed ok.
I let her sit for the weekend and fired her up monday,
the same thing happened. I asked around at some local shops
and alot of people say its the water pump, or the thermostat.
I have taken this baby to a local shop and its currently
sitting there becasue they dont know what kind of water
pump it is, and are having a heck of a time finding out ..
can someone point me in the right direction here. When i
checked my coolant i didnt see any oil or signs of a blown
head gasket, and there is no_ irreagular smoke coming out
of the tailpipe, the engine basiclly starts from cold.
you can let it sit for a long time in idle without it
overheating, yo ucan drive it around the block ok,
when you take it on the road, 40 or more,
for a few minutes, then it starts to overheat.
any help is appreicated.(sick)

-Jake

Edit: We have performed a pressure check and its not losing pressure so hopefully i can cross off the headgasket.. Also the coolant seems to be clean without oil or that milkshake white "your screwed" color.

Question #1: Does anyone have a picture of the specific water pump or know if its got a plastic or metal fanwheel inside?

Question #2: Where can i find a shop manual so i can replace the thermostat, water pump and timing belt on my own?

Last question: Can someone point me to a thread discussing this or a place where i can learn more, i'm desperate as this is my own transpo to work.

I'm in vancouver, Wa btw.. and i would be eternally greatful for an answer, fer realz

[Syonix]

one more thing..

if your thermostat is busted, wouldn the car overheat at idle? I am only overheating once i put some load on the engine, after some road driving, say 3 or 4 miles on the road in 3rd or higher gear...

again.. no oil in my coolant that i can see,
no visible leaks under the car
no f-ed up noises coming from my water pump area
52,000 miles, original t-stat & pump
argh!

and one more thing .. I have been reading three fourms on this for now 5 hours and nuttin, so tomorrow i dont want a bunch of "hey newbie jackass, use the search button" kewl? ;)

[Syonix]

6 hours of reading and my head hurts. I would think someone somewhere has had this exact issue before.. it's gotta be fairly common, i must be missing a post somewhere.... (enguard) (bang)

[BOOSTR]

Do you hear the cooling fans come on as the needle approaches the halfway mark? Replacing the t-stat is a piece of cake. Just follow the hose, two bolts to remove it. Reuse the gasket on the oem t stat if your replacement doesn't come with one. Belt and pump require a bit more skill, but its not impossible if your mechanically inclined. No books outside of the service manual exist for the MSP.

Try to avoid driving to the point of where the needle gets close to H. Its real easy to warp an aluminum head. A warped head can cause it to run hot after being driven a few times and not show traces of coolant in the oil. You'd see signs of coolant escaping if that were the case particularly near cylinders 3 and 4 (the farthest ones from the w pump) when its overheating.

Turn on the A/C to make the fans come on when diagnosing it later on today if you don't hear the fans come on right before the halfway point on the temp gauge.

[Syonix]

Yeah the fans definatly come on around the half way mark. the car is definatly getting overheated as if i let it get closer to H then i get my overflow starting to boil like a mad man. I have not pushed it that far except the first time it did this as i dont want to warp the head. the few times ive started it up since then when it starts to overheat i shut her down right away.

i am going to pick up a t-stat at lunch and pop her in. I would think that i would still overheat if the tstat was broken if the car just sat and idled, right? I can leave it for an hour at idle without overheating, but when i take it on the road it starts to overheat..

i'll let you know what happens when i replacethe tstat, thanks for the reply man i REALLY do appreicate it. (band2)


Do you hear the cooling fans come on as the needle approaches the halfway mark? Replacing the t-stat is a piece of cake. Just follow the hose, two bolts to remove it. Reuse the gasket on the oem t stat if your replacement doesn't come with one. Belt and pump require a bit more skill, but its not impossible if your mechanically inclined. No books outside of the service manual exist for the MSP.

Try to avoid driving to the point of where the needle gets close to H. Its real easy to warp an aluminum head. A warped head can cause it to run hot after being driven a few times and not show traces of coolant in the oil. You'd see signs of coolant escaping if that were the case particularly near cylinders 3 and 4 (the farthest ones from the w pump) when its overheating.

Turn on the A/C to make the fans come on when diagnosing it later on today if you don't hear the fans come on right before the halfway point on the temp gauge.

[Shadow102]

all the parts such as water pump, t-stat, and everything else are completly interchangable with any other 2.0L protege. With a good knowledge of working on cars you can do the timing belt, water pump, and such on your own. As suggested take care of the t-stat first. It is the easiest and cheapest thing to do right now. Also you may have a air bubble in your cooling system which will also cause it to over heat

[protojason]

I'm sure this may be common sense for the car gurus out there, and it's not a mechanical fix;

I had a over heating problem with a car once and was able to get to a safe location/destination by turning the heater on full blast. Heater sucked heat from the engine and the temp needle dropped down immediatly.

Just buys time though....good luck with the fix.

jason

[Shadow102]

I'm sure this may be common sense for the car gurus out there, and it's not a mechanical fix;

I had a over heating problem with a car once and was able to get to a safe location/destination by turning the heater on full blast. Heater sucked heat from the engine and the temp needle dropped down immediatly.

Just buys time though....good luck with the fix.

jason

yeah your heater core basically acted as an extra radiator.

[Delivery_Guy]

For sure do the T-Stat before anything else. I was having overheating issues just a few weeks ago, and that was the culprit. I'm not sure, but it's possible that the T-stat might be only partially opening, thus cooling enough to not overheat at idle, but not enough while under load.

[Boosted03MSP]

My mazdaspeed has been overheating. But thats because i had a hole in the radiator. Getting that and the tstat replaced tomorrow.

[peajay]

I'd say the t-stat is a good guess make sure nothing is blocking air flow between your condenser and radioator too, that can cause overheat while driving. good luck.

[monkeymsp]

tstat when on mine at about 65k miles. Got the part at autozone for less than $10 and soem RTV and it took about 10minutesd to replace, it is really accessible. You can testy the old tstat in boiling water or just push on the center part. Mine was siezed closed.