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Showing results for tags 'cooling'.
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Not my car, not my problem (yet). But here's an interesting article about Thermo Control Valves (TCV) on newer Subarus. This link, from the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail, is behind a paywall: Costly repairs because of new thermostats will be a growing complaint for drivers . It may not let you in; so I've copied and pasted the text below: LOU'S GARAGE: Thermostats aren’t what they used to be. Gone are the days of the General Motors drop-in style thermostat, where you easily took off a coolant cap, reached down, grabbed a handle, pulled out and replaced an $8 thermostat in 30 seconds. Now, we have complex units referred to as coolant or thermo modules, thermo control valves (TCV) and in many cases, the common contemporary thermostat is only serviceable as a complete unit incorporating a large plastic housing. Owners of European vehicles have tolerated these costly units for at least a decade, but the rest of the automotive world is now becoming painfully aware of this newer tech. These units offer finer temperature control using rotary slide valves that direct coolant flow precisely around the engine and are faster at responding to engine load change. The engine will reach ideal operating temperature 50 per cent faster and keep it there over a wider variety of conditions. Whereas a thermostat is a straightforward valve that merely regulates coolant flow, a TCV can be thought of as a mixing valve. The thermostat is now the coolant gate keeper and the TCV is the director. Case in point is a 2019 Subaru Forester in the shop this week with a Malfunction Indicator Light (MIL) on, no heat inside the cabin and an engine that won’t easily reach operating temperature. This vehicle has a traditional thermostat, but it also has a TCV that has recently failed, leaving this vehicle with no heat. The vehicle has 70,000 kilometres, putting it just outside of its warranty period, thereby passing this costly repair onto a shocked owner. You would be too if you had just received a quote for a $882 part plus a couple hours of labour. Why do we need these units when a simple thermostat has done the job previously with very little fanfare? Well, ever-tightening fuel economy regulations have all auto manufacturers scrambling, looking to squeeze every morsel of mileage out of a litre of fuel. This complicated part does exactly that by elevating fuel economy and reducing CO2 emissions approximately 4 per cent. This may not seem like a lot, but manufacturers have no choice in the matter. This means you have no choice either. The Subaru owner mentioned above is heading in again next week to his local dealer trying to find some financial relief for this repair. In my opinion, 70,000 kilometres seems awful early for such a costly repair to be sprung on an owner, especially when you factor in that up until last week, he had never even heard of a thermo control valve. I suspect this will be a common complaint in years to come for a lot of aging vehicles. -
My '06 WRX failed to get me more than 1/3 the way to work this morning. Had a few drops or 'water' up on the winshield near left A pillar, then had a subtle hot coolant smell. Then a wisp of steam. Pulled into a lot, popped the hood. Wet all around front left. High enough that it was blowing back from the hood at the fender panel. Never saw any pinhole stream or active dripping. O'flow tank at mid level , never overheated according to gauge. Went back home. Haven't looked in rad yet - cooling off now. Pulled the snorkel and saw a little gel-booger with dried white-ish deposit 'blown-back' from center-ish area of top tank.(will try to post pic, I haven't really firgured out how to do that very well yet) Everything so far looks like a crimp leak or maybe a crack? in top of rad.? Fans are cycling so, I feel the temp gauge was properly reporting and there seems to be no sign of a headgasket issue . Kinda also wondering about best replacement rad. Denso? TYC? Other? Is there a brand I should prefer or, maybe more important, avoid? I wouldn't ming paying for quality. In Texas, I need as much cooling capacity as I can get. Not really wanting to modify the car so, drop-in prefered of course. Any other work I should do 'while I'm in there' ? I have original hoses so, I plan to replace those. Although it's been wiped away, the little 'gel-like' deposit was near that bolt-head, on the vertical surface of the front brace above the rad's front crimp area. To me, obviously associated with that white deposit. Couold have been seeping for some time.
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Hi All, My 83 Brat GL has a new issue, it is overheating during normal drives around town. It is blasting hot coolant into the overflow bottle. The main fan is running all the time, so I'm guessing the water pump needs replacement? All the hoses and clamps are good. Any help really appreciated!
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Hey all, Recently I've been discovering posts about changing the location of the thermostat from the bottom of the engine, in front of the water pump, to the top radiator hose right after the coolant exits the engine. This is supposed to reduce cavitation, and I've been having problems with an ej25d overheating. Ive ordered new hoses, radiator, and thermostat, and I'm thinking about doing this inline thermostat mod. Am I wasting my time thinking about this mod? I've always had a hard time burping the ej25d system so maybe this would help? This would also be easier to replace, and in theory reduces cavitation at the water pump. Has anyone done it? What are some experiences with it? -
Hi Everyone, It’s been 2 months now of researching, reading every thread I can, trying, monitoring with no success; I am now totally stuck and don’t see what else I can do to solve my issue, and this is driving me mad ^^ ! I have a Subaru Impreza Hatchback 1998, EJ15 GF1, manual, petrol, with now 190,000 km. Small engine, pretty well maintained, I change all filters and oil every 10k since I have it, the previous owner was taking care of it and I bought it after the cam belt and water pump were changed professionally by a garage., around 170k. So one day (around 187k) I noticed the car smelled a bit like overheating engine. I checked under the bonnet and noticed that the fans were not working. After more in depth checking I noticed that the lower radiator hose was cold and there was no pressure in the radiator. So bought a new thermostat and gasket (original Subaru) and new coolant, tried it with the new one and didn’t change a thing, the damn thing stays closed. Tested both thermostats in hot water, they both work fine. I then tried to run the car without the thermostat, I get good pressure, the coolant is flowing, I could properly burp the cooling system and I could see the radiator was not clogged, but surprisingly the fans still did not turn on. So I bought new temperature sensor and sender and tried again, but nothing changed, the fans don’t turn on. I checked all the fuses, under the steering wheel and under the bonnet, tested the relays with the test wires under the steering wheel and both relays and fans work fine. (I also bypassed the relays with fuses and this turns on the fans, no problem). The very weird thing is that when the thermostat is installed and the engine running, the temperature gauge comes up to the optimal position, slightly below the middle, and stays there, even though the engine keeps heating. I don’t have an infrared thermometer but I can tell by the smell and the heat, and the fact then the thermostat stays closed and fans stay off, that something is wrong and that the engine is too hot. It really smells like overheating engine and the hoses and engine are reeeeally hot. Before this began happening, when it worked well, the fans turned on and off automatically and I could tell when the thermostat opened and closed, it was all fine. I tested all sensors, new and old, with a multimeter and they all work fine, even the thermostats in hot water both open and close correctly. I contacted a mechanic friend who checked everything, he used a pretty strong product to clean the cooling system in case there would be some kind of stop-leak or stuff clogging the system, but nothing, the circuit is clean. I even used a thin brush to try to clean possible depot around the sensor areas, but nothing came out, all is clean… I also cleaned the cooling system with my garden hose, I know it's not recommended but I was out of options, I confirm that water flows through everything and came out clean. (I rinsed with demineralised water several times after this and put new coolant). I feel like I did everything I could, I don’t see what else to do. I am not sure this could be related, but (I think) this began happening the same month that someone tried to steal it, or at least I noticed this cooling issue like a month after. No big issue from these unskilled robbers, who just broke the door handle and damaged the ignition, but it took me like 2 weeks to fix this, but during this time I removed the battery from the car because I could not close it and I don’t have a garage. So the car stayed quite a long time without a battery. I thought this could have done something to the ECU (I have nearly no knowledge about this part of cars) but anyways, this should not impact the thermostat which is a purely mechanic part. So Guys, I don’t knot what else I can do. I am pretty sure that the radiator is fine, I have been driving without a thermostat since, the engine takes longer to heat and the temperature tends to decrease at high speed and increase at idle and low speeds (no fans working, remember) which seem logical to me. Also the heater core seems fine, heat turns on and off, no problem. If you have any idea what might be going on I’d be super keen hearing your opinion, this is getting so frustrating. Cheers guys, thanks for reading ! Oh and it's not a head gasket by the way, already checked, oil and coolant are fine, I changed both.- 41 replies
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Hello, I read a article from a builder that recommended using a water pump that cooled better because the fins were more closed off than most that you see. He said that with the Closed Fin style, the cooled was forced into a more narrow patch/direction, versus the open style with allows the coolant to kind of cavitate and stay stagnant. Do they make a Closed Style for the 60 Legacy 2.5i non turbo? Thoughts? See Images below -
Neither of my soobs get close to the miles of use 'normal' folks get. But, in Texas, rubber and fluids DO go bad with time. The wife's 2003 H6 OBW has it's original hoses. Only 93K miles, but 13 years old. Just wondering if you guys think a burst hose is imminent or if I can somewhat reliably get a few more years out of them? Do they burst/split, or usually 'pinhole' ? And, If I were to preemptively replace hoses, should I change just the large rad hoses? or rad and heater....what would you change? Is Gates OK or would you spring for OEM ?
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Hi. I have a 1993 Subaru Loyale 1.8L SPFI ea82n/a. The fan in the picture is always on. Is this correct? If you are standing in front of the car, the fan is located somewhat driver side of center. I believe it's a belt driven fan? Not sure. But if the car is on, the fan is always on. I'm wondering if this is correct and if it is not correct, what should I do to fix it? Thanks
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Hello All, I have an issue with a 2001 Subaru Outback that I have never come across before. In the middle of moving from Albuquerque to Hawaii my Outbacks air conditioning dyed at the californai state boarder in route to Los Angeles (about 100 deg. at time). For ~ 2 months prior to this trip the check engine light would come on, but would turn off usually after I removed the gas cap then put gas cap back on... figure old cap not keeping pressure. Okay, fast forward from california boarder to three weeks later after picking up outback it now has check engine light on continuously. Week after that (~ 300 miles on car since air conditioning went out), I noticed when car was stopped at a stop light or in a parking lot still running, the temperature gage would begin to rise toward the red zone (over heating)... when I could drive the temp gage heads back toward the normal temp operating range... At this point you might be thinking, relay?, fan?, plugged radiator?, makes sense. The car is NOT over heating, infact the mechanic actually took the radiator cap off while the cars temp gage was "red lining", and of course we could hear/see that the fan is kicking on. Now stuck in traffic, you can put the car in neutral and rev the engine to "kick on" the coolant pump, and the temp gage would come back down to normal temp range, you can open the vents, crank up the hot air (do not have working ac at this time) and buy some time before the temp gage crawls up to red line.... My problem here is... what on the planet can cause a car to read like it's overheating without it overheating? Yet, causes the air conditioner to stop working, since the check engine light (read cooling problem) was cleared the car has continued to repeat the above issue without triggering the check engine light... With the age and milage I would just let this go as a unique quirck, however Hawaii is hot, I have a 2.5 year old, and AC would be nice, but why spend money on recharging etc... if this problem might just kill it again? The mechanic thinks it's electrical, but does not do electrical. Other than the temp gage reading like a perfect fan/relay/plugged poblem and the AC dying nothing else is wrong with this car. This is a tough one, any ideas my fellow subinites might have will be greatly appreciated.... Thank you! -
I just became the proud new owner of a Rio Red 1999 OBW, EJ25D, 4EAT, that's had a fair amount of work done by its previous owners, including the timing belt & tensioner, headgaskets, and a full trans service. So far, it seems to run pretty well, but the one weird quirk it has (so far) is that both the Main and Sub Radiator fans seem to be a bit overactive and will often stay on when the car isn't running, but the key is in the ACC or ON positions. The weird part is that when I drove around today in the heat (mid to high 80s) today with the A/C off, the fans didn't stay on, but as soon as I drove with the A/C on on my way home from work, the fans stayed on when I got home. Then, tonight, driving home with no A/C, the fans stayed on again. What I'm trying to figure out is what could be causing this. Bad/unplugged Coolant Temp Sensor? Is the relay getting stuck on sometimes? Are the fans themselves faulty? When I did research on these things before I bought one, I never found anything relating to this topic so I'm kind of at a loss here. I just bought this thing so I'm hoping it's not something catastrophic, as the car runs pretty well other than this weird gremlin. Any help would be appreciated, just go easy on me since I'm new to this whole "Subaru ownership" thing -
After replacing my radiator I started with a distilled water/white vinegar mix, then three rounds of water flushes. On the water flushes I used the factory-preferred method and had some pretty interesting results. Before I explain what happened, let me tell you what did NOT happen:The engine did not overheat. The temp gauge didn't budge above normal at all after reaching operating temperature. I attribute this to massaging the radiator hoses a whole bunch before capping the system each time.The check engine lamp never came on. As in, not once. Not even a flicker.I did not change throttle position at all when the phenomena began, until noted in the video.It was repeatable enough to happen on three consecutive "burps." So, what did happen? About 6 or 7 minutes into my 10 minute burp procedure, I would lose control of the throttle. Mind you, this is a drive-by-cable throttle, and I hadn't changed the throttle position at all. When this happened the rpms would drop down to about 1,250, then up to 1,750 rpm and repeat until I either floored the throttle, or backed out and let the engine idle. What the hell is going on? -
I had to replace my engine on my 2003 legacy, (long story) The short version is never let anybody change your oil. When I go to recharge the AC the bubbling shown in the attached occures, What do I need to replace, Thank you. subaru2003legacyAC.MOV
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..And probably one that has been asked before, but after a couple hours of searching here, I haven't found an answer. 1992 Loyale has original all-metal radiator that actually doesn't leak, but the fins are mostly corroded and have flaked away, thus not cooling well. Does alright most of the time, but pulling a hill during the summer requires full heat on to keep the temp in-check. This is a fairly low mileage engine and I'm not willing to let this slide and risk it anymore. I'm finding both types of replacement radiators available: All-metal (CSF Model #933), and Aluminum-core with plastic tanks (APDI/ProRad Model #8010935). I know there are pros and cons for each type, and I've read various opinions on other forums, but I'd rather take advice from a more vehicle-specific point of view. There is only a $40 price difference that I'm not terribly concerned about. Thoughts? Opinions? Experiences? What would YOU do, or what have you done? Thanks.
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Hi fellow subie lovers! New to this website Having an issue with radiators or hoses? Easy to change the radiator yourself. Myself and my 17 year old son have just done this today with fab results Biggest issue was getting the crusty old hoses to come off but with the help of the pruning shears we managed...... going well. tackling the oil leak next
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Hi all! Recently my BumbleBeast developed a Weird noise, a Rattle Sound that was only noticeable at idle; So I checked it and I originally thought that it had Worn A/C Compressor's Ball Bearings... (as you can read ~► Here ) ...but the A/C kept working fine. So, I was about to install my Brand New SJR Lift kit for the front only... (as you can see ~► Here ) ...and I decided to Remove the Weberized EA82 engine from my BumbleBeast to check it carefully and make the lift install easier, also, I got Rid of the Timing Belts' Covers at all... (as you can Read ~► Here ) ...Because I thought that the Weird Noise source could be a Worn Timing Belt Tensioner's Ball Bearing. Then with the Engine out, I Discovered that the Source of the Weird noise was the Main Fan, the one attached to the Water Pump's Pulley, also known as "Mechanical" fan; so my BumbleBeast's A/C compressor is fine. A Little bit of Background History: The Fan clutch it had, failed around year 1993, so I decided to Fix the Fan by Drillin' a 1/4" Hole thru the Fan clutch and insert a 1/4" Twisted wire into that hole and Welded the wire to the Fan's Base. It worked good since then... but now, several years later; the Hole I Drilled on the Fan Clutch's area, became Wider and the Welded wire is Loose, also the Fan is Loose, so that thing is Ruined... I Need to obtain a New Fan for that, I'll Like to Keep the original fan setup, but here comes the Question: is there any Fan that fits the Pulley on my EA82 that comes without Fan Clutch? I Really need one, ASAP... Kind Regards.
