sunflow99

I've got four gallons of 50/50 back there. I guess I'll just keep on truckin.

Okay, So I got home today, no overheats. I try to drive 1.5 miles to a resturant, and the damn thing overheats!??!?! What in the world????!!!!

Yeah, setright, you're my goto guy, I knew you'd have an answer. When I checked it this morning, the level in the radiator was a little low, but the level in the overflow was a little high. What are the little vertical channels?

So you've been reading my overheating woes for the past month, and I have done everything short of pull the engine to check for bad gasket or cracked block. The delimma is, some "tests" for HG failure are positive, some negative. So come to today, I just drove the 'roo down from Washington, DC to Greensboro, NC(~300miles) with no overheat, no needle movement. When I stopped about 1/3 the way to gas up(no longer than 5 mintes), I checked the overflow, and there were bubbles in it(not like a rolling boil, but bubbles around the sides). So then I drove it the rest of the way without stopping, got home, opened the overflow, no bubbles, but little wisps of steam. So, if it were an HG or crack, would it not have acted up on a trip that long? Or did it just behave and it still could be a problem? I'm catiously happy right now:confused:

I get the same problem with my 95 legacy, sometimes it's wet, sometimes not. I know when it's closed, the back does go up. What I do sometimes is run it closed, then just crack the back open and closed with the tilt up/down switch. That's usually enough to keep it tight. Good luck!

Gotsubarus, yeah, you wouldn't think, but somewhere along the way, something happened, and everything on this board points to a headgasket or crack engine block. I would love to do it myself, but I live in an apartment complex, and I think there's something in the lease that says "no pulling Soob engines in the parking lot":) I've had the symptoms of a HG leak for over 2 years now, comes and goes about every 5-6 months, so I'm just going to keep driving her, hoping for the best, until it's paid off. I hate intermittent problems.

It's like we're living in parallel universes, I went to the dealership today to look at getting the head gasket job done, and he said that it's probably a cracked block. My car drives fine around town too, but I know I have to do some highway driving here soon, so I'm nervous. But I'm also not going to pay $800 for them to pull the engine and tell me if it's another $1600 for the gasket job, or even more for a new engine. So I'm just going to drive it, maybe thinking about unloading it at Carmax. Does anyone know the Blue Book Value on a '95 Legacy Wagon with ~168,000?

TP, if it makes you feel any better, I'm driving around with the same symptoms right now. I have bubbles in my overflow tank too, and I just got a new radiator! But the temp in holding steady. What I have found is that some of the "tests" for HG failure have pointed to yes, some have pointed to no. You just don't know, I'm waiting until another overheat before I think about getting it work on. Change the coolant, try the radiator cap(cheap enough to try it),keep an eye on the gauge, and keep driving! Follow up question(sorry to piggyback on your thread TP), can radiator caps be bad from the start? Is there an OEM Subaru cap, and would it make a difference against a generic? I just got a new radiator, and wanted to ask.

TP, I just recently flushed my own coolant, there is a great article on here posted about 2 weeks ago about flushing and refilling. I think if you follow those instructions, and ask any specific questions on the board here, you should be fine. I have also found that some places do not refill the system correctly when I have taken my car to them, so you're not guaranteed anything. At least DIY, you can know exactly what you did, so if something does go wrong(heaven forbid), you can give the USMB specific details, which will help in diagnosing the problem more accurately. Good Luck!

I was discussing a little bit in another thread, but I wanted to throw this out for everyone. When I had my radiator changed just recently due to overheating, the mechanic also believed that my water pump was bad. I had this water pump installed at the dealership in Jan '02, so it's only about 2 1/2 years old. When they installed the new one last month, they gave me the old one, and almost all the fins were eaten away down to the core. I have been told a water pump should go about 100,000 miles or better. Can anyone tell me what could have happened to eat the fins away so quickly? I didn't see the pump they put in in '02, but it was at the dealership, so I hope it was new and an OEM Subaru part. Thanks

My eyes can't move off that gauge now as it is. I saw some bubbles in the reserve tank today, so I think in order to set my mind at ease, I'm going to have the HG work done. Thanks for all the replies and help.

I did not see the pump in '02, so I don't know if it was new or not. It was at the Sub dealership, so I hope it was a genuine new part. When I took it in to the shop last month, they replaced the radiator, and it was still overheating, so they pulled the water pump, and saw what it looked like(they gave it to me to keep.) Which leads me to my next question: I am coming to the definitive conclusion that my HG is going bad, so is driving around with a bad HG going to hurt other parts(possibly like the water pump or anything else?), or can I drive it until it just won't stop overheating, as sometimes it's fine to drive right now.

Thanks Setright for all your help. Let me ask this, can those air bubbles around the water pump cause the fins of the pump to corrode or melt prematurely? The reason I ask is when I got the water pump, radiator, t-stat changed about a month ago, most of the fins were completely eaten away. I had gotten that water pump from a Subaru dealership in Jan of '02, which means it only lasted about 2 and 1/2 years. Is that the usual life of a water pump, or could air around it keep coolant from getting to it, and it getting too hot and melting the fins? Thanks.

The last time it did overheat, the overflow was fuller than normal, but not overflowing. I checked it this morning(after doing the bleed and burp yesterday and driving it around 15-16 miles), and the overflow was actually a little low, as was described in the bleeding post. So I don't know. Your scenario of overheating after long trips happens to me sometimes, and sometimes not. My question is, why sometimes does it overheat, and not other times if a HG leak is always there?

PS just for information, I have a 95 legacy wagon, 2.2L engine(don't know the model).

Update: I did all the bleeding and "burping" today as per instructions. Tonight, I drove it into DC from Alexandria, about a 7 mile one way trip. Was in stop and go, and no overheats. Coming back, same. So, if it were a headgasket, would it be overheating all the time? If it comes back(the overheating, that is), what can I think then? Thanks for all your help, maybe they should make a new forum called "Subaru Cooling questions", seems like there are enough scenarios out there to warrant it's own space.

I am using a 50/50 mix of coolant I got at Advance Auto(I know it's probably not the best, but it was there and I needed something cheap at the time.) It's brand new.

I tried bleeding today, but did not get much coolant in the upper hose when it started to overflow. I let it idle, with both the bleed valve and rad cap off, not much movement either place. The level was pretty constant on the rad cap side. So then I capped the bleed valve, started it up again, and had some coolant sorta blurp out of the rad cap, is that the burp? After that the level was still pretty good, so I capped it, and drove, no problems...yet. One other thing I noticed last night was after it started to overheat, I checked the overflow reservior, and it was pretty full. I came back this morning, it was still at the same level. Can that happen because of an air pocket? I've heard that is a sure sign of bad HG, but I'm just trying to save my sanity. Sorry if these questions seem juvenile or have been answered before, I'm a newbie.

Thanks Wayne, I have been doing everything in the world to make sure it's not a headgasket. I thought I had won when I changed the thermostat, and found the one the repair shop had put in was upside down and smaller than the OEM Subaru. Bleeding is my last hope.

When I changed out my thermostat, I just refilled the radiator with coolant with the bleed valve on the radiator off. My car has started to overheat again, and I think it's because I have air pockets. How can I bleed out all the air with coolant already in the system? Is it a matter of doing what someone has just described recently in another post, or is there something more?

I found the leak this morning, a hole in one of the hoses, and a mechanic cut it out and reattached, so all is well, no more leak.

Well once again the USMB has done it. Checked the tube coming out of the radiator, and sure enough, it was leaking. Took my sister in law to get her exhaust system worked on here in town, and the guy there looked at the leak, cut the hose at the leak, and reattached, no leak, no charge. Mike in Alexandria, my hats off to you.

Thanks, will do that first thing tomorrow morning, and will post update.

Thanks to all those who responded to my last post about cooling, I replaced an upside-down, aftermarket thermostat with a OEM Subaru rightside up and it stopped overheating, imagine that! Anyway, now I go to look under my car, and I find some reddish oil around the bottom of the front of the car. It drips, not a whole lot, but enough to make me notice. I imagine it's either transmission fluid or power steering fluid, but why would it be under the front, right under the headlight area? I checked the levels, and they seem fine, should I be worried, or just keep the fluid levels up? The car is running fine, by the way. Thanks

Thanks for everyone's advice. I decided to try the least expensive route and change in the thermostat. I bought an OEM from Subaru, got down in a puddle of rain this morning and went at it. Found that the thermostat the shop put in was smaller, but more importantly, they had put it in UPSIDE DOWN!!! Needless to say, I am hopeful that with the new OEM and correct alignment, it will work well. Unfortunately, I broke off the bleed screw, so that's a new problem I have to fix. Will keep you updated. DIY all the way!