We just bought this car a few months ago. I started overheating occasionally so we stopped driving it. I thought it was the coolant overflow bottle but we replaced it and it doesn't seem to be the problem anymore. The oil is at a good level and there is coolant. Is this a typical problem with this year? Also, the fan doesn't kick on like its supposed to. I plan on getting it looked over at a subaru dealer but thought I'd ask here as well. It has 156,000 miles on it and the last owner really didn't have much information about it's past. It has never been overheated(to our knowledge), we always catch it before its too late.

I assume the coolant level in the radiator is filled up................

 

A good starting point is to replace the thermostat and radiator cap. See if doing those two things fixes the problem.

well, non-functioning or intermittent fan could be the cause of overheating - particularly if the overheat events seemed limited to stops or very slow driving.

Edited July 1, 20169 yr by 1 Lucky Texan

You just have to realize that 95% of the time, the overheating is from a defective HG.  Make sure that the coolant bottle and the radiator are filled to proper levels and then look for bubbles in the overflow bottle during idling and after driving.  You can change the cap, thermostat , and the even the radiator.  You might get lucky.