I've had a lot of motors get hot, never seen freeze plugs directly affected.
I've had I think two freeze plugs fail in all my years, you'd never know why they failed (and I've only driven in AZ, TX, CA, so you can't say rust). None of the adjacent ones looked horrible, either.
Hard to say, in my experience.
Stampie said:How does a freeze plug fail unless it freezes or rust away?
Had to be either damaged, not installed quite right, etc. where after enough heat and pressure cycles, it broke free enough for system pressure to blow it out.
Just tried to pick it up. berkeleying AC won't work now. WTF.
In reply to maschinenbau :
You have CarMax there right...
Jk they didn't push the compressor harness plug in all way. It's good now. I passed an ND at the dealer down the street....wonder if it's manual.
Well berkeley THIS berkeleyING CAR. Yes that's a trail of coolant.
Dang 
Serenity now!
No way. Can you lemon law it?
Man I love how the 124 looks but no berkeleying way would I buy one now unless I'm engine swapping.
In reply to Stampie :
I already looked and they don't make a K swap for this one yet.
AAA is berkeleyin up again too. I made it to a gas station by only running the engine for a few minutes at a time, while on hold for an hour and a half. I really need a reliable car.
Absolutely unbelievable.
Aight I'm 2.2 miles from home. AAA finally got back to me. They said they'll get back to me about a tow. Uh huh.
Oh man, I feel for you. That's just bad luck.
AAA allows you to go online and request service too. Also an app.
The average new car buyer in America isn't necessarily watching their temp gauge all the time, nor would they recognize the smell of coolant.....
If you'd continued driving until parts came out, would FCA put a new engine in under warranty? Serious question; I've never learned much about warranties since it's my job to void them ASAP.
The ND Miata will throw a light at a certain temp - 240F, I think? Since this car shares the body control and gauges, I suspect it's the same. It's one thing to miss a moving needle, another to miss a warning light. I don't know if they'll start to restrict power.
With the existence of the light, you'd probably have to do some real tap dancing to justify ignoring it.
Clearly, the answer is not a Fiata.
Is it time to look into Georgia lemon laws?
In reply to Keith Tanner :
It's a Fiat; you really think the light will work? The ELECTRIC light?
Keith Tanner said:The ND Miata will throw a light at a certain temp - 240F, I think? Since this car shares the body control and gauges,
...there exists a smog legal LS swap solution?
I'm definitely not the LS ALL THE THINGS guy, but I'm seeing a Miata with problematic engines possibly available very cheap out of warranty.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
Can confirm there is a red coolant light that starts flashing when you go past 250F. That's my signal to pull over and wait 20 minutes while trying to call AAA again. After 2 and a half hours of this routine, I finally made it home. I still have to get it to the dealer though, so I'm trying AGAIN to call AAA.
GA doesn't have lemon laws for used cars. Once it's fixed, I'm taking the Cahrvanuh offer and dumping this literally steaming piece of Italian E36 M3.
There is a little devil on my shoulder telling me to do WOT pulls up and down my street til she pops. Shoo, go away, awesome little deveil.
maschinenbau said:In reply to Keith Tanner :
There is a little devil on my shoulder telling me to do WOT pulls up and down my street til she pops. Shoo, go away, awesome little deveil.
You know, all sorts of weird things can happen when coolant temps get that high. I've even heard wastegates can stick shut!
Crap. So sorry to hear this. What unbelievable BS.
Take it to a different dealer this time?
In reply to Snrub :
There is only 1 dealer in Atlanta that services Fiats, and that dealer has only 1 Tony to fix them all.
I like where Tom's head is at.
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