gijoe985 Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 1996 Outback, Manual. My friends. I feel like I should know the anser to this right off the bat, but I'm asking anyway. I'm also going to search more, but I wanted to post this asap because I want to go look at the car soon and if I don't find an answer from searching, I wanted this up for people to see. His wife called and said the car was overheating while going over a local mountain pass. She pulled over. I get there. The upper radiator hose was collapsed. And the hose going to the overflow was pinched. I opened the radiator and that fixed the upper. I played with the overflow hose and got that working too. I added 1/2 gallon of water to the radiator. They tried to drive it, got 200 yards and said it was overheating. I looked again, everything looked good, but then I noticed that the bottom heater hose was cold. Not warm at all. The upper hose was hot. He then mentioned to me that they had no heat coming from their heating system and that had been happening for a little while. Either way, he said he wanted to lift it home, I said ok, drove off, and he texted me later saying it was fine the rest of the way home. What gives? Air bubble? Bad pump? Plugged heater core? The coolant didn't look at that clean and there were some small brown looking chunks in it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john in KY Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 I would strongly suspect the radiator. The few times I have experienced a collapse top hose along with a cold radiator, it has always been a clogged radiator. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gijoe985 Posted December 14, 2009 Author Share Posted December 14, 2009 I would strongly suspect the radiator. The few times I have experienced a collapse top hose along with a cold radiator, it has always been a clogged radiator. I did not mention, he had it replaced about a year ago. He did say that is was similar when that happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john in KY Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 Those "brown chunks" sound to me like someone added some sort of stop leak product to the system. A good/new radiator plus "stop leak" usually just ends up yielding a bad radiator. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gijoe985 Posted December 14, 2009 Author Share Posted December 14, 2009 Just read this, "sludgy residue on walls of overflow reservoir" as a sign of a bad head gasket (which my local dealer confirmed over the phone.) Read it on THIS site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 my first thoughts are head gasket, sounds classic. but of course want to rule out similar things first. there's TONS of head gasket information on here, a searching would have pulled up all sorts of hits. that being said - you have to make absolutely sure there are no leaks in system, these engines (not all subaru engines, but this one) are notorious for overheating when they get an air pocket in them. they have to be properly bled...which means every single time they run low on coolant. sounds like you added a good bit of coolant but was it bled properly? also called burping often on here. that being said, head gaskets are common problems on this engine, if it was a bad head gasket though it would hvae been overheating well before it lost ta 1/2 gallon of coolant, unless that was just previously underfilled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gijoe985 Posted December 14, 2009 Author Share Posted December 14, 2009 \that being said, head gaskets are common problems on this engine, if it was a bad head gasket though it would hvae been overheating well before it lost ta 1/2 gallon of coolant, unless that was just previously underfilled. Talking to a deal mech, he said he would bet a lot that it is the HG. But pertaining to your last comment, I always thought the HG being bad caused the loss of coolant, which in turn created the overheating... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 But pertaining to your last comment, I always thought the HG being bad caused the loss of coolant, which in turn created the overheating... nope - not in these engines. these engines push pressurized exhaust gases into the coolant - so there's little if any coolant loss. and the gases stifle the flow of water causing coolant not to flow and the overheating - without coolant loss. the very strong indication of head gasket issues is bubbling out of the overflow tank after it's been running or overheating. that's the heated gas coming out. latter Phase II EJ25's (1999 or 2000 and up depending on model) leak externally and only overheat when they get low - different failure mode of the gasket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 they can get a vented radiator cap for a few dollars to at least be able to drive the car around in while they decide what to do. this will allow the pressurized gas to escape and the coolant to flow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnceggleston Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 1996 Outback, Manual. it does sound like a bad HG but check it out first. i think this car should have the 2.2L engine and bad HGs are not as common as the 2.5L engine. it is possible that it has been overheating but not noticed or not reported. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gijoe985 Posted December 14, 2009 Author Share Posted December 14, 2009 they can get a vented radiator cap for a few dollars to at least be able to drive the car around in while they decide what to do. this will allow the pressurized gas to escape and the coolant to flow. Would Schucks (kragen, checkers, Oreily's) have this? Pretty straight forward. Does it work well? I read about drilling a very small hole in the thermostat to allow air to pass through, but not enough water to make much of a cooling difference. Good idea/bad idea? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnceggleston Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 Would Schucks (kragen, checkers, Oreily's) have this? Pretty straight forward. Does it work well? this suggestion came to light, most recently, from a "repair in a bottle" website that some one used to fix their head gasket. it was offered as a "if our product does not work try this" solution. the description was to drive the car with the "vent" on the cap "open" and to close it at night when parked, all the while keeping the overflow bottle full of coolant.. the idea being that it would allow the exhaust gases to escape while driving and then with the vent closed it would suck in coolant from the over flow when cooling off. this would keep it from over heating and keep it full of coolant. you can do the same thing by loosening your rad cap while driving and tightening it at night but the vent cap is cheap and easier to use. I read about drilling a very small hole in the thermostat to allow air to pass through, but not enough water to make much of a cooling difference. Good idea/bad idea? i wouldn't, the t-stat is 12$ the cap is less, and i don't think a small hole isn't going to do much. removing the tstat will keep it from overheating for a long time, until enough exhaust builds up, BUT it will also always be cold, get terrible gas mileage, and generally be bad for your car. the vent cap would be better as a short term "fix", but only new gaskets is going to be a long term fix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themoneypit Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 (edited) they can get a vented radiator cap for a few dollars to at least be able to drive the car around in while they decide what to do. this will allow the pressurized gas to escape and the coolant to flow. if they go that route, like i did, leave the lever on the cap up, and close it so it aims at the battery so the hood will clear the lever. sounds exactly like what mine was doing.. with the lever open, it releases the gasses, and you can actually see them bubbling in the overflow tank when that is filled to its proper level. with the lever closed, its the same as a regular cap. fill and burp the system with the heat on high and the vent screw on top right side of radiator open a few turns. once all full, tighten screw, install cap w/lever up, and it should be good to go. this way here, the car will burn a little bit of coolant, but mine has yet to overheat, it runs at normal operating temp. i just check the level once a week and top it off. BTW, mine was also a random overheat, like theirs is doing.... Edited December 14, 2009 by themoneypit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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