1997reduxe Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 Hi all. Anybody ever see this? It was relatively cold here last night (for Houston). I started my car this morning, and forgot something and had to go back inside, and when I came back to the car, there was a small amount of coolant leaking from or off the bottom passenger side of the timing belt cover. (Gotta look at that closer tomorrow morning), but I had to go to a job interview so I chanced it. This leaking was happening while the temp gauge was still very low on the temp, and a little ways down the road when the gauge got to normal running temp i checked it again and there was no leak. And I was able to drive it all the way to the interview and back, 1 hr each way, still no leak, no overheating. And minimal loss out of reservoir. Checked now inside the (new sube) rad cap, and fluid is right up there. It has been losing a small amount of coolant I've noticed over the past month or so, this is post my timing belt install when my guy did change the water pump and thermostat (but i used the new stant one) and i had another leak about two months ago which was the t-stat bypass hose when the shop nextdoor replaced the radiator though it was the bypass hose i found out afterward.. Can anyone suggest what this leak might be? Confused... Can't afford any more of these darn coolant problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porcupine73 Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 (edited) What year and model Subaru are you talking about? If it's ~2000-2004 2.5L those are the ones that like to drip coolant out the head gaskets (unlike the earlier models that blew the exhaust into the coolant). My 2000 Outback does that. And right, it's usually only when it's fairly cool outside, and then only for maybe 5 miles until it starts to warm up. And then the dripping stops. Then on cool down it must stay sealed up enough, because it will draw makeup coolant out the overflow tank and the rad stays full (verified by removing cap). So I just keep the overflow tank full to about an inch from the top and I check it every few days to top off. Edited November 13, 2012 by porcupine73 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rallynutdon Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 Same thing happened to me. Couldn't find the leak quickly. Looked like it was leaking out of the timing belt cover. Turns out it was the top radiator hose was leaking at the engine end and dripping down behind the rear timing belt cover so unless you looked real hard, all you saw was it dripping out the bottom. This was a 2003 Legacy 2.5 FWIW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairtax4me Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 If its coming from the water pump side it could be a failed water pump gasket, or the thermostat housing is warped. On the other side I would suspect the upper radiator hose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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