paul-n Posted June 30, 2007 Share Posted June 30, 2007 Hi all I have read thread after thread on coolant problems and burping my Outback Legacy estate till my head is spinning and still unsure what to do and what is wrong with mine ? I noticed one day when the wife came back from a 40 mile run the car smelt hot and felt it from the front, it had also started gurgling when cold [ like almost straight off the drive but at that time I was blissfully unaware of burping and HG problems ]. When it had cooled down I look into the radiator and there was no visible water it took about 1.5 litres and I had to fill the expansion tank. Some googling later I came across the ' remove the top radiator bleed plug and the radiator cap and run it for ten minutes till the bubbles stop and you have burped it , well after 20 it was still bubbling up and sending small puffs of steam out of the bleed hole so I gave up. I then decided to sneek up on it and every morning before the wifes 6 mile run to work and every night when the wife brought it home [ 6 more miles ] I removed the rad bleed [ on the top opposite the rad cap ]and rad cap and filled the rad up and made sure the expansion bottle was filled to the top above the max mark ]. After a week I seemed to have it cracked I was puttng no more water in the rad and the expansion bottle needed no more topping up HURAH YOU SAY . Then she took it for a 50 mile run where it could be driven at 60-70 mph for some stretchs , and when it came home ....I had to put 1/2 a litre in the rad and the expansion bottle was completely empty :-\ !! It has started gurgling again as well. So I suspect I had finally got it burped by my unconventional method but I have a HG leak that shows once the engine gets to do some work ? The anti freeze looks ok a nice blue colour and I cannot see any bubbles in the expansion tank , also before I attempted to bleed the car the top hose never felt as though there was water in it just air that seemed better after my bleed. Is it worth a new rad cap ? I am definately at a low point with it , I have just had to pay for the fuel filler pipe to be replaced [ rusted through ] then 3 days latter the battery died it cost me £4500 26 months ago and I have just been offered <£700 to part exchange it can't afford to keep it and can't afford to sell it ! Sorry for long rant regards paul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porcupine73 Posted July 1, 2007 Share Posted July 1, 2007 Say what year is this vehicle, which engine (2.2L, 2.5L, 3.0L) and how many miles? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul-n Posted July 1, 2007 Author Share Posted July 1, 2007 Say what year is this vehicle, which engine (2.2L, 2.5L, 3.0L) and how many miles? Sorry ! 1996/7 [first year the outbacks were sold in UK ] 2.5l and 101,000 miles serviced by subaru all it's life I am only it's second owner I have probably done 10k of those miles. regards paul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted July 1, 2007 Share Posted July 1, 2007 Sounds like a HG issue nipper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WoodsWagon Posted July 2, 2007 Share Posted July 2, 2007 Is it worth a new rad cap ? I am definately at a low point with it , I have just had to pay for the fuel filler pipe to be replaced [ rusted through ] then 3 days latter the battery died it cost me £4500 26 months ago and I have just been offered <£700 to part exchange it can't afford to keep it and can't afford to sell it ! Sorry for long rant regards paul Have a shop test it for Hydrocarbons in the coolant. That will tell you if the headgasket is blown or not. If there arn't hydrocarbons in the coolant, have them pressure test the cooling system AND the cap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookie Posted July 2, 2007 Share Posted July 2, 2007 Unfortunatly HC tests only seem to work on Subies when they are pretty shot gaskets. Several folks have reported that the gasket seals up when cold until it slowly gets worse. Sounds like a bad gasket to me that is still in the early stage and perhaps easy to fix. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Setright Posted July 10, 2007 Share Posted July 10, 2007 A new rad cap is only around ten quid, and that's worth it. But it does sound like an internal headgasket leak. (Bad rad cap will allow coolant to spill over the expansion tank and slowly leak out.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul-n Posted February 18, 2008 Author Share Posted February 18, 2008 Hi all Closure on this finally and why do I get obscure faults ? My local backstreet garage where convinced that the gaskets were ok but decided to change the thermostat , before I took it in to them I had fitted a new radiator cap. Two things I noticed with the new cap it took alot more effort to get it on and off than the old one and it had a shiney orange label stuck on it with japanese writing and the pressure 9 bar written on it. When the car came back there was no orange label on it [ odd ] but all seemed well. Anyway as it was driven only 6 miles each way to work by my wife it was clear it was still not well.I could never get the air out of the system for long and there were often water splash outside the filler area even though the cap was tight. So I took the old cap and squeezed the tabs tight in the vice till it was a tight a fit as the new one had been and eventually got rid of the air and stopped the water splashing. So what was wrong with the new cap , the missing orange label ! the centre part inside the cap rotates so the cap can be tightened without damaging the rubber seal and the label seals this rotating part from water getting out and air getting it ! regards Paul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Setright Posted February 18, 2008 Share Posted February 18, 2008 Really??? Explain more. I have found that the 1.1bar caps have "bad" internal seals and begin to lose the ability to hold back coolant and keep the pressure up. New caps read 108Kpa - same pressure, but new text to indicate new cap. I would suspect that a cap with 89Kpa written on it would solve your problem Paul. And: The correct burp is to run without the cap on, until the radiator fan starts running. That means the thermostat is open and all the air can be circulated out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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