2006 Legacy hot air on driver side, cold air on passenger side.

[bheinen74]

Thanks for providing the details on page 3, that you put in Bars leak stop.

yeah, thats yours problem, dont use that stuff. the Holtz conditioner is kay to use, not BARS leak stop.

 

this thread has been solved.

[nipper]

The subaru goo is a stop leake. You now have used two containers of stop leak.

 

Bad.

 

 

nipper

[Fairtax4me]

I use Bar's Leak and the Subaru conditioner ("blue goo") in the antifreeze. What do you think about the possibility that the Bar's Leak has plugged the end of the coil. That would be the passenger end of the coil (where the flow would be the lowest)?

I'm thinking about doing a super flush and seeing if it helps any.

 

That could very well be the answer.

What made you decide to use Bars Leak in the first place?

[ericem]

^^^ same question LOL thats insane your car will need insane amounts of flushing to get it all out. It was difficult to get mine out with just ONE bottle eek!!! Why on a new car anyway?!!

[Pinegrovesubaru]

Before everyone condems Bar's Leak let me tell you more of the story.

An old time mechanic recommended Bar's Leak to me thirty years ago as a way to prevent miscellaneous leaks and to lubricate the water pump bearings.

I have been using it at every change of antifreeze on every vehicle I have had since 1980. I never had this problem on any vehicle, including the 95 Impreza and the 2002 Legacy.

 

The 2002 Legacy was consuming antifreeze slowly, about a pint a month. I know the history of head gasket leaks on Subaru's, but didn't want the time and expense of doing the heads.

So I added a second bottle of Bar's Leak.

Then I added a third bottle of "professiona"l Bar's Leak.

Then I added a bottle of Subaru Blue Goo. After a month the leak stopped. I know it is hard to believe but the heater and radiator are working fine. This was about 50,000 miles ago. The engine just turned 202,000 and besides a small oil leak it is doing fine.

 

Now back to the 2006 Legacy problem. Two weeks ago I drained the antifreeze and replaced with new. And I only added the 4.4 ounces of the Subaru Blue Goo (no Bar's Leak). If I take the hoses off the heater coil could I use a garden hose to back flush the heater coil? Would this work sufficiently to blast out the Bar's Leak? Or should I use a radiator flush concentrate to try to loosen it up before back flushing?

 

Today I talked to a Subaru mechanic at the Subaru Dealership. His opinion is that he thinks the coil would plug completely, not just the back half of the coil. He thinks it is a damper problem.

 

And finally, could air be trapped in the back of the coil? I bled the system by running the engine at 3000 rpm for five minutes. But does that really get all the air out of the coil?

 

Thank you everyone for all your input on this!

[nipper]

I love bars leak.

 

I dont love two of any stop leak/conditioner in a cooling system. And i dont beleive this is the cause of the problem either, as it would cause redced heating of the air all across the board. The OP said he was getting no air flow out the right side, which is not something that bars can cause.

 

 

 

 

 

 

nipper

[nipper]

Today I talked to a Subaru mechanic at the Subaru Dealership. His opinion is that he thinks the coil would plug completely, not just the back half of the coil. He thinks it is a damper problem.

 

 

Its a door not fully opening (damper).

 

 

 

nipper

[ericem]

How does bars stop leak look? Is it milky or like antifreeze but a additive??

[johnceggleston]

Today I talked to a Subaru mechanic at the Subaru Dealership. His opinion is that he thinks the coil would plug completely, not just the back half of the coil. He thinks it is a damper problem.

 

 

Its a door not fully opening (damper).

 

 

 

nipper

+1 , i've been thinking this for2 days, but i have zero experience with "things behind the dash".

 

but you still need to flush that stuff out of the cooling system.

 

.

Edited November 2, 2009 by johnceggleston

[nipper]

Well what you do is disconnect the door arms and move them manually to full stop.

 

 

One of your damper door motors are not fully moving.

[Pinegrovesubaru]

How does bars stop leak look? Is it milky or like antifreeze but a additive??

 

"Bar's Leak" is a brand name of a cooling system additive/conditioner.

It is mostly a black liquid with black pellets. I think it is a good additive and I use one bottle every time I change the antifreeze.

Now that Subaru recommends 'Blue Goo', I'll use that instead. But I'll still use the Bar's Leak in the Dakota and the Jeep.

[bulwnkl]

I have this same issue on a 2005 Baja.

 

Well what you do is disconnect the door arms and move them manually to full stop.

 

 

One of your damper door motors are not fully moving.

 

Same procedure on the Baja? The temp control knob feels like a manual connection to me. I do believe the directional control is electric.

 

Now I just have to try to get the O.P. back and see if he'll post some pics. Even though the Baja is the previous-gen Legacy platform, surely there's enough similarity for pics to help me find out what to take apart and where to look?

[Pinegrovesubaru]

UPDATE. I went to a junk yard and looked at a junker that already had half the dash pulled apart. The damper door is on one shaft but it had four plastic pieces molded to the shaft (one for each duct). Just for grins and giggles I tried to break this unit. I couldn't, not even with a pry bar. It is crazy strong! So I believe the likelihood of one of the pieces to break off the shaft is minimal.

I checked with the dealership and had a pleasant 30 minute discussion with the Subaru certified mechanic. He had no additional ideas. But he did say to get to the heater core does require removal of the entire dash and more. He's done a few and it usually takes about eight hours. I'm sure my taking apart the dash would result in broken trim pieces and since it is my wife's car, I decided I would not attempt it. But to have the dealer do it would be over $700 and I didn't want to spend that much on this problem.

Having no other options I decided to try the one last thing; I decided to back flush the heater coil. I disconnected both lines and using a garden hose and the hottest water my coal burner could produce flushed the coil. I did it in both directions and about a dozen times.

And believe it or not, this fixed the problem! I'm not sure how the Bar's Leak clogged only the passenger side of the coil, but it appears that is what happened. The air coming out of the driver's side is about 120 degrees F, the air on the passenger side is about 110 degrees F. Not exactly the same, but much better than only 90 degrees F.

I'm happy, my wife is happy, and a happy ending!

[bulwnkl]

<sigh> Well, if that's what fixed yours, I'm in trouble. This thing has only ever had Subaru's own branded idiotic version of Bars Leaks. Even that only once, and not for a couple years, and it's been flushed with regular radiator flush (citric acid, I think those products are?) a time or two since.

 

Did you get any visible junk or crap out of the thing when you were flushing it?

[Pinegrovesubaru]

I too had 'flushed the radiator system' prior to this too and it did not help.

This time I backflushed just the heater coil. Having the garden hose on the return side of the heater coil pushed the obstruction out of the coil. And yes, the first few seconds the liquid was very dark (which is why I think it pushed out the Bar's Leak as just the fluid is a lighter green).

I encourage you to use this method. Don't rely on just 'flushing the system' because that won't push the obstruction out the opposite direction as how it accumulated.