Today I froze my car.
 

I bought this 2000 NB in August in Miami and drove it back here to Va Beach. Done some work on it but nothing major, been running good its my DD. I knew I had to change the hoses being 10 years old so I planed that for when it warmed up. I does not get that cold here in Va Beach, maybe high 20's but very rarely.

Today it was 23* when I got up.:facepalm: Got in my car to head to work, made a belt screeching noise when it started but I thought nothing of it being its the 1st day it had been cold here. Drove it to work, after a mile or two I notice I still have no heat. Stopped the car to look at why and opened the hood to find coolant leaking from back of head, looked to be where the heater hose adapter bolts to the block. Felt the hoses and one of the heater hoses was froze solid. Took radiator cap off and that was froze solid too.

Well I guess they just never put any antifreeze in a the car being it was bought and resided in south Florida. I know my fault for not checking it. Its this stupid orange coolant! I thought that was what was in there, guess it was just rusty water.

So the question, what do you think I broke???

Car hood is under a comforter right now with an electric heater under the hood defrosting.

SUX!
:vash:

I froze my 99 one time. I was dumb. I had a guy feeling to check the hoses before I started the car and they were frozen and the expanding ice had pushed the lower radiator hose open and bled off some pressure and there was a lovely ice formation connecting my car to the parking lot. I left the hood open all day (40*s) and let it thaw out. Started right up, no leaks, no problems.

If you didn't push a freeze plug out, you should be ok though I imagine you may have glazed the WP/ALT belt and may want to replace it. Good luck.

This happened to a buddy on mine with his 337 and it snapped his WP impeller off...now luckily Mazda isn't as retarded as VW and we have metal impeller pumps so hopefully not much was damaged if anything. Guess the only thing to do is thaw it out and find out.

You either need some coolant or water wetter to lubricate the pump and stop corrosion.

Slightly off topic....Being from VA Beach, is it the orange NB that was on VADrag/VaDriven (whatever the hell it's called these days) that was in Miami with the busted up fender?

God I hope not. That guy wanted WAY too much for that car.

Tell em about it, I was gonna go look at it to trade him my old 240SX for it to add a third miata to the stable at the time, said he wanted like $3500 on top, I never called back, I'm actually surprised someone else remembers it.

Anyway /threadjack (although I'd still like to know :giggle: )

Nope not me. I'm on Drag-VADriven but my NA is turbod and orange and my NB is green and not turboed yet.

i was smart and put anti-freeze in mine this year. i usually get lazy/cheap and run pure water.

but my insulation covering my ecu kick panel was frozen solid if that's any consolation to you..

So its been under a cover since 9pm with a electric heater under the hood and I peeked this morning before work and saw this.

Attachment 201510

It actually pushed the hose off the radiator. DAM! Wonder what else is broke.:vash: I cant believe this is still frozen! I'll look at it more when I get home from work in a few hours.

Well after an evening in the cold I found what I hope to be the only problems. 1st I set a jet heater in front of the car and waited 2 hours than reconnected the lower rad hose and went to fill it up with coolant. While filling it up I hear coolant leaking, not good. After checking around it seems to be coming from the back of the head where head has water outlet attached. So I removed it and this is what I found.
Attachment 201473

A quick phone call to a friend down the road and I went to pick up my hew housing. I installed it and filled it up again, good news no leaks. Started her up and let it run while watching it closely with a pyrometer checking the hoses and thermostat housing. 15 minutes and thermostat not opening up :vash: removed that and put on the stove, nada. I'm learning stuff here....don't freeze a thermostat. After closer inspection the thermostat is actually bent.:crx:
Attachment 201474

Replaced that with a new one and tried again and so far it looks good. I hope thats the only issues. Too cold tonight so I will test drive in the morning.

Good night!

sure its also not frozen INSIDE the head? and it explanded and fucked something up? or when it starts and a big chunk breaks off and makes it way to somewhere not pretty?

I nearly fucked myself like this today. The temp is unusually cold here, below freezing for the last 72 hours straight, lows in the low 10's at night. I had antifreeze in the car, but apparently not enough. I was probably running 20%-30%, assuming it would be enough. Got in this morning to drive ~20 miles to sign some paper work at school, and I got about 5 miles from home and looked down and noticed the temp gauge climbing past 3/4. SHIT! I shut it off and coasted into a parking lot and heard it gargling and puffing antifreeze into the overflow. I assume it was the radiator itself frozen up and wasn't letting coolant flow through, and it was pressurizing in the head and block and bypassing the radiator core via the overflow. I had heat, so it never occurred to me that my system might be frozen. I limped it home a mile at a time stopping whenever it got around 1/2 gauge. By the time I got it home I assume it had all thawed pretty well and it cleared up. Made sure to drain about a quart and put a quart of straight antifreeze back in, as well as filled the overflow with antifreeze since it had all boiled over and got pulled back into the system. Scared me, because I can't afford to fix this bullshit right now. Next 5 days will be record breaking cold down here, not reaching above freezing and lows Friday and Saturday in the single digits. It's the god damn southeast, it's not supposed to be this cold, for this long!

Tell me about it. Look what I saw in Naples FL at 7:30 this morning.
Attachment 201471

I'm not used to this crap. Sucked working outside all day.

ICantDoRight- Mine did the same thing with the lower rad hose, but nothing else was damaged. Good to see the failures are an easy fit and were hopefully enough to relieve enough pressure in the engine to not cause other damage.


Parking in a garage FTMFW...although I do go out and let my car run on smoke brakes at work because I know I don't have enough antifreeze in my system.

This all makes me kinda nervous about my miata. I cant remember how "lazy" I was last time I pulled the motor. I think it was about 50/50... but it has also been in the teens here most nights. The car hasnt been driven in weeks, maybe ill check it today.

For common ethylene glycol (Prestone, Peak, etc):

30% antifreeze will freeze at 4°F
40%................................ -12°F
50%................................ -34°F

Damn.

That sucks man :(

Drove it. Looks to be running fine but the radiator seems to have cracked too, seeping slowly. So whats the deal on NB radiators now? Off to search....

It's been freezing on and off for weeks here now, luckily I manage to keep the store at around 45F. There is anti freeze in the cars this time of year though.