Susie Posted March 31, 2007 Share Posted March 31, 2007 I posted here a week or so ago about my 2001 Forester (110,000) leaking water. I'm now having problems with it overheating. Here's the history: The car was leaking water and we added AlumaSeal in the hopes that it would stop the leak (we're fairly sure that the leak is the Head Gasket and we were hoping to buy some time with the AlumaSeal). The water leak has stopped but a new problem with intermittent over-heating has started. It seems that I can drive for about 20-30 minutes with the temp gauge at normal. After 20-30 minutes it starts to overheat. When it overheats, I can get the temp back to normal by turning on the heater full blast. We've looked at the inside of the radiator and the coils appear to be nice and clean (obviously this is only the few that we can see with the radiator cap off). We did replace the thermostat (with the belief that it is a quick, easy, and cheap fix) but that hasn't made any difference. The old thermostat was nice and clean which leads us to believe that the AlumaSeal didn't have any ill effects as far as gunking up everything. Anybody have any ideas what might be going on here? My commute to work is about 25 minutes and some days it doesn't overheat at all but then other days it does. The inconsistancy makes it difficult to decide what the problem is. And what does turning on the heater full blast have to do with it? I discovered this just by dumb luck but the last 3 times it has overheated, turning on the heater takes the temp back to normal. Can anyone explain to us what the problem might be? Thanks very much! Susie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unverviking Posted March 31, 2007 Share Posted March 31, 2007 Sounds to me like the starts of bad headgaskets... On our 01 OBW they had us use a Subaru "slime" to fix it's bad head gasket issues. They did push our warranty up to 100k on the motor... I think that you said it was over the 100k point. Keep us posted... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porcupine73 Posted March 31, 2007 Share Posted March 31, 2007 When cold make sure coolant level is full under radiator cap (not just overflow tank). Check for radiator obstructions by running warm and using point and shoot thermometer (cheap at harbor freight). Could also be thermostat intermittently failing closed or more closed than it should. Was the water pump replaced previously? The slime: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susie Posted March 31, 2007 Author Share Posted March 31, 2007 When cold make sure coolant level is full under radiator cap (not just overflow tank). Check for radiator obstructions by running warm and using point and shoot thermometer (cheap at harbor freight). Could also be thermostat intermittently failing closed or more closed than it should. Was the water pump replaced previously? The slime: We've checked the radiator for coolant level and it has been full. We just replaced the thermostat but that didn't do anything. I'm still on the original water pump. Susie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gillfoto Posted July 3, 2007 Share Posted July 3, 2007 Hi, I'd be interested to hear what was the solution here? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OB99W Posted July 3, 2007 Share Posted July 3, 2007 Hi, I'd be interested to hear what was the solution here?I certainly can't answer for Susie, but I suspect the sealant that was used partially clogged the radiator. The heater core is like an auxilliary radiator, and cranking the blower up full blast can remove quite a bit of heat from the coolant. It's likely the correct resolution of the problem would be thorough flushing, new HGs, and probably a new radiator. (If the sealant was "holding" the external HG leak, flushing/radiator might work temporarily.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uniberp Posted July 3, 2007 Share Posted July 3, 2007 I thought it was interesting, that on that label somewhere it says "linseed husk", I believe. When cold make sure coolant level is full under radiator cap (not just overflow tank). Check for radiator obstructions by running warm and using point and shoot thermometer (cheap at harbor freight). Could also be thermostat intermittently failing closed or more closed than it should. Was the water pump replaced previously? The slime: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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