hi everyone. i have a 97 miata. a few weeks ago, i was driving on the highway and my car overheated. a local mechanic where i got it towed to said that the radiator had a hole in it, and replaced it. however, the very next day, the car overheated again. this time, i took it to another mechanic, who said the thermostat was bad and replaced it. this too did not solve the problem. i then noticed something quite bizzare: the car was overheating only when idle. though it sounds like it makes sense (as long as the car is moving it's cooling from the air coming into it), the problem is that i can get it to cool (or avoid overheating, really) by simply keeping the accelerator engaged. that is, when i saw the needle going to "H" on the temperature gauge, i would simply press on the accelerator, and it would go back to normal. but, as soon as i parked, the reservoir tank was boiling, literally. well, yesterday the check engine light came on. i took it to the dealer today because it was obvious that i couldn't trust any mechanics up here in NYC. but i would love to hear some of the opinionsas towhat might be causing this??? i'm stumped. thanks all.

 

Well... there are only two parts left to the cooling system... the water pump itself and the Fan/microswitch. Look at my post below. I too am chasing a phantom heating problem that only comes up in stop 'n go traffic. I think I have mine tracked to the fan microswitch as the engine can get WAY too hot before it switches the fan on. But I may just do the whole #@*% unit... switch, fan and thermostat.

 

yeah, i too suspect it's something not kicking the fan on. one time it was overheating and i saw that only one fan was on, even though it was boiling in the reserve radiator tank. well, it's been at the dealer for two days now and they still don't know what's wrong. it really blows.

 

You may want to have the head gasket checked out. They have a gauge they measure the exhaust gas levels
in you coolant that will verify a problem with the head gasket.

 

yeah, i'm trying to avoid the head gasket talk, but i feel it's coming with my mechanic. that would really suck.