Hey everybody I made this account for my girlfriend incase anything goes wrong with her car she can post about it here..

Anyway today she was on her way home from work and the temp gauge started to rise. Now I know it's supposed to stay in one spot and not move up at all but today it was ~110 outside, she had the AC blasting and right before she gets home it's about a half mile drive uphill. By the time she parked the car it was back at normal operating temperature.

I'm thinking this has to be ok, even my caddy will shut off the AC on its own if it's hot enough outside and I'm going up a steep incline..Much steeper and longer but the little protege is somewhat underpowered in comparison.

With all that said I really just wanna get a few replies to let her know it's "cool" she's scared to turn the air on at all now. It's a 99 protege, the cooling fluid is full and I checked to make sure both fans are operating properly. Even with the air off they'll both kick on

Thanks in advance for any replies, I really appreciate it

 

oh one more thing...has anyone installed an auxiliary cooler on one of these? Would that helped?

 

I agree with you. The temp rose a bit under severe load and came down under normal load.
That said it is a '99. Do you know when the engine coolant was changed the last time? What about any other maintenance regarding engine, trnasmission , A/C?

When you say accessory cooler you refer to the transmission, I assume? If I had a near new car I might consider one. But this one has certainly done half or more of its uselful life, so I can't imagine to get much benefit of one unless you are expecting very high loads. Also you make an inference: you think because the engine temp went up so did the transmission temp. Probably so but you don't know how high and if it was critical.
Let us know more about this car. How many miles and maintenance history.

 

Thanks for the reply tanprotege. The car just hit 100k, it was previously owned by a mechanic (which doesn't necessarily mean anything) and it runs great, seems like it was really well taken care of. I don't know when the last time the coolant was changed but I plan on getting all the fluids changed very soon.

I agree it's probly about halfway thru it's life expectancy without any major repairs but auxiliary coolers are cheap...I did have one on another car hooked to the tranny but I was under the impression the same kind could be used on the oil? Surely that would cool the engine a little. The caddy has a factory one for the oil but I'm thinking of a little 3 or 5 pass, if I can find room to put it lol

Just a little extra about the car it seems to run perfect I'm genuinely impressed and think it was a steal, noticed today it has a brand new k&n. We've had it 4 months and not a single problem or even a hint of a problem till today. Surprisingly I actually love this car it gets over 30mpg city driving and from what I can tell it's operating as good as it did brand new

 

When would be a good time to replace the timing belt, assuming it doesn't have an auto tensioning chain lol. When do they generally give out? I'm thinking it's gotta be near that time..

 

I would not worry about an auxilliary oil cooler, a tranny cooler maybe because that is the weakest part and the most expensive to fix. However you seem to be careful enough about maintenance, negating the point.

Consider this: the engine oil can easily last more than 3000 miles, the tranny fluid should be changed every 30000 miles. So why not doing the tranny every 25K and the oil every 4 K? It is almost cost neutral.

The belt should last about 100 000, but you don't know if the PO changed it. Maybe you can contact him? The general rule though is replacing it every 60000. The nice thing is that they are freewheeling engines. You could take the valve cover off and inspect the belt for cracks. I just changed mine last week at 177000, also not knowing when the PO had it done.

Yes, these Mazdas have a way of getting your enthisiasm, you are not alone with that.