Engine Noise and Overheating

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2002 Mazda Protege5
Hey Gang,

Luckily, for the past year or so I haven't had many issues with my 02 protege5 and it's now approaching 100,000 miles.

Recently, I noticed there was this constant rapid ticking noise coming from the engine. It almost sounded like a lawnmower noise and it would occur at low rpms and when driving on the highway. At first I thought it was something wrong with the timing belt but a friend of mine said he thought it might have been the lifter valves just getting misaligned..

So I pushed off getting it fixed and now something else occurred. I was driving last night and noticed the AC stopped working... then I noticed the temperature gauge on the dash slowly creep up... Eventually it creeped up to max engine temp but luckily I was close enough to home that I was able to park the car. As soon as I turned the car off I could hear what maybe sounded like coolant boiling... I popped the hood and also saw that the coolant reservoir tank was completely full and as the engine temp went back down so did the coolant level in the reservoir tank.

Does anyone potentially know what is going on? The radiator appears to be working fine and the fan still works. I didn't smell anything weird and I couldn't visibly see anything under the hood that looked out of place.
 
Overheating could be cause by a stuck closed thermostat or a failing coolant temp sensor and luckily both are a cheap fix. Are you losing any coolant? Could also be a bad headgasket.

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Did you check your a/c-p/s belt and alt/water pump belt, I broke one which spat the other off a while ago which did the same.
 
+1 on the thermostat... Your temperature sensor is probably OK because the ECU did turn on the fan and temp gauge did move.

And yea... Make sure you've got two belts.
 
Did you check your a/c-p/s belt and alt/water pump belt, I broke one which spat the other off a while ago which did the same.

I did check those and they are fine. I actually had those replaced not too long ago.

I am going to purchase a coolant thermostat and radiator cap since they are both so cheap and start there. I'll check back with you guys and let you know how it goes!
 
So I successfully replaced the engine coolant sensor and the radiator cap. I did not replace the temperature sensor just yet. I think it's too soon to tell as to whether that fixed the engine over heating issue because I haven't driven the car enough.

The engine is still making a rattling/lawn mower sound when accelerating/driving and it definitely sounds like it is coming from where the timing belt/water pump is. Both the rubber belts on the outside are completely fine so I know it cant be those. Does anyone have any ideas what it could be from?
 
When you say engine coolant sensor, you mean this thing right (part #3 ... thermostat)...

That's most likely the cause of your overheating.




Don't know what your noise is ???
 
Just an FYI... If you're driving around and your car starts to overheat, turn your heater on in the car full blast.


You don't want to warp your head.
 
Yeah, I just replaced that. I drove the car for a total of 2 hours between when I did the replacement and today and didn't have any overheating problems so I am confident that's been resolved. I am just curious if whatever the noise is in the engine caused something that lead to that... maybe it's just coincidence with the timing though.
 
I had a rattling noise when I drove my car, it was driving me CRAZY! My brother put it on a lift at work, it was a the shield by the exhaust pipe from the Cat,. Also found out the heat shield by the shifter arm was loose also. Might want to go under car and check all the exhaust heat shields. Just a thought, might help.
 
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