Overheating legacy 2003

[Nickhillier]

Hi all,

 

After a new timing belt and water pump last year I noticed occasional failure of the in car heating. Recently this is combined with high engine temperature - when the heating drops off, the temperature rapidly rises to the red but comes down to reasonable level of driven with low load (i.e. about 50mph and np on the flat.

 

There's a useful YouTube suggesting this may be caused by air in the cooling system. Apparently this is a common fault with 2003 legacy caused by orientation of the stat. . My garage is stumped but I wondered if anyone else had come across this problem.

Thanks

Nick

[wtdash]

HI,

Welcome from US to UK.

 

You're describing symptoms of the classic, infamous, notorious, ubiquitious, well-detailed, Head Gasket failure. Find another garage.

 

Very common the US 2.5 engines, aka EJ25D, EJ251/2/3, etc. I'm guessing yours may have an EJ20/2.0 variant?

 

It COULD be air in the system but whomever did your Tbelt/WP should've 'burped' the cooling system to avoid this.

 

Are Head Gaskets (HG) not a common failure on EDM/European Domestic Market Subarus?

 

BTW, every time that engine overheats, it's 'over-cooking' the rod bearings on the crankshaft, and shortening the engine's life each time. If the HG's do get fixed there's a high likelihood the rod bearings will give out shortly thereafter. May be time to look for a different set of wheels....as in Sell It.

 

 

 

 

 

Tangent: I understand the Ford Focus RS is avl.......although I also read it's already Sold-out. :-)

[Nickhillier]

That's really helpful, Thanks v much. But why is the problem intermittent. .? As in what makes the heater problem suddenly go away if air gets into the stat, causing heater to now cold? Thanks again

Nick - and greetings to the US

[Nickhillier]

That's really helpful, Thanks v much. But why is the problem intermittent. .? As in what makes the heater problem suddenly go away if air gets into the stat, causing heater to now cold? Thanks again

Nick - and greetings to the US

[1 Lucky Texan]

is a lot of coolant being pushed into the overflow? that's indicative of bad headgaskets.

 

be sure to check coolant level in the radiator - don't trust the level in the o'flow.

 

be careful of hot fluid.

 

some older subarus have partially clogged radiators and benefit from new rads.

[DaveT]

It seems to me that some versions have a tendency to trap air in the waterpump. Water pumps are notoriously bad at pumping air. So when enough air accumulates to stop pumping, you get no heater output, and simultaneously overheat the engine. Air gets in from a leak. It must be hunted and found. Overheats (over normal ) when low on coolant damage the headgaskets, causing exhaust gasses to be pumped into the coolant. Becomes a circular problem, and gets worse.