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Subaru overheating problems...


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Noticed it was hitting max temp cruising on the way back from bridlington, car reaches near max temp after idling for 10 mins.

Sent it to a garage as they said its probably the thermostat, they replaced it and its still overheating, said it could be a headgasket issue, which from subaru themselves or scoobyclinic it would be roughly £2.5k+ because it's practically a rebuild.

Tried burping the coolant system, lots of bubbles but still overheating and it was getting dark so couldn't do much more.

No hot air coming through the air vents inside, just cold...

Any thoughts?

 

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1 minute ago, Tidgy said:

2.5 headgasket is a full rebuild job inc bottom end.

 

2.5k sounds very cheap, you sure clinic knew exactly what you were saying?

kt green subaru said that, but that's if nothing else was affected, he said with possible piston damage among other things it could be around 3.5k, he also said it might not even be the gasket

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It's possible, but unlikley to be something else unless you had recently changed the rad or something similar causing the airlock. If its the same before and after coolant change then doesnt sound like its an issue with the cooling system itself . Check for any leaks on the rad, they sometimes get cacks and only leak when it gets hot, just to make sure.

After that then your onto rebuilds. Clinic can give you an idea of that as you say, but i'd look at replacing the rods and pistons while its apart. Stock pistons are pretty crap and known to suffer ringland failure, stock rods will be fine if your staying near stock power, but anything aproaching 400 and your putting them at risk. Then other options like closed decking depending on how far you wanna go and what your budget is.

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32 minutes ago, Tidgy said:

It's possible, but unlikley to be something else unless you had recently changed the rad or something similar causing the airlock. If its the same before and after coolant change then doesnt sound like its an issue with the cooling system itself . Check for any leaks on the rad, they sometimes get cacks and only leak when it gets hot, just to make sure.

After that then your onto rebuilds. Clinic can give you an idea of that as you say, but i'd look at replacing the rods and pistons while its apart. Stock pistons are pretty crap and known to suffer ringland failure, stock rods will be fine if your staying near stock power, but anything aproaching 400 and your putting them at risk. Then other options like closed decking depending on how far you wanna go and what your budget is.

yeah i've just been told it could be a possible airlock, the overflow was changed along with its cap as it was bubbling (rougly a month ago), if it is the gasket afterall, I might just get it forged while i'm at is as the engine will be out anyway. I'm taking it to someone tommorow hopefully.

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3 hours ago, Tidgy said:

It's possible, but unlikley to be something else unless you had recently changed the rad or something similar causing the airlock. If its the same before and after coolant change then doesnt sound like its an issue with the cooling system itself . Check for any leaks on the rad, they sometimes get cacks and only leak when it gets hot, just to make sure.

After that then your onto rebuilds. Clinic can give you an idea of that as you say, but i'd look at replacing the rods and pistons while its apart. Stock pistons are pretty crap and known to suffer ringland failure, stock rods will be fine if your staying near stock power, but anything aproaching 400 and your putting them at risk. Then other options like closed decking depending on how far you wanna go and what your budget is.

May I also add they did a basic emmisions test, I know it's an exhaust test but if it did have high HC PPM (which it doesn't), wouldn't that be a hint that something was possibly wrong with the Headgasket or other internals?

 

 

20190218_214317.jpg

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20 hours ago, azer_uk said:

May I also add they did a basic emmisions test, I know it's an exhaust test but if it did have high HC PPM (which it doesn't), wouldn't that be a hint that something was possibly wrong with the Headgasket or other internals?

 

 

20190218_214317.jpg

have to confess im not sure.

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56 minutes ago, azer_uk said:

Another update, took the radicator cap off this morning, has some sort of oily film on top of coolant, white smoke from the exhaust, also smelt the rad cap and it stinks of exhaust gasses, along with the expansion tank/cap.

not sounding hopefull 😞

 

get it up to clinic and get em to check it out, should be able to hopefully give you and answer one way or another

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Best way test these is with gas analyser at the radiator cap, from your remarks of oil film and smell it should conclude issue in seconds  .
It better than the chemical tests on the subarus with intermittent coolant temp fault .

HC don't have to be bad but indeed if head or pistons for example allowing some oil bypass and poorer combustion pressures then gas readings will show it to some extent. Gasket issue on these is normally always external flow and any engine damage is normally more from overheating rather than fluids mixing or burning heavily (low comps and fluids in cylinder easily diagnosed and to what severity) . Trouble is as most hard spot and still run well they get ignored and owners try function around the issue and make it bigger mess ..

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3 hours ago, Mr B said:

Best way test these is with gas analyser at the radiator cap, from your remarks of oil film and smell it should conclude issue in seconds  .
It better than the chemical tests on the subarus with intermittent coolant temp fault .

HC don't have to be bad but indeed if head or pistons for example allowing some oil bypass and poorer combustion pressures then gas readings will show it to some extent. Gasket issue on these is normally always external flow and any engine damage is normally more from overheating rather than fluids mixing or burning heavily (low comps and fluids in cylinder easily diagnosed and to what severity) . Trouble is as most hard spot and still run well they get ignored and owners try function around the issue and make it bigger mess .. 

another update, tinkered with it some more, no more bubbling from coolant, temps stay around half now (took it for a drive too), exhausts smoke seems to be condensation, but there is smoke (burning anti-freeze smell) coming from under the radiator/piping, which I'm suspecting is a leaky pipe or radiator as it only starts to smoke when the car is up to temp, maybe its burning off the leaky liquid?

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Trouble is lot of the airlocks you get could be combustion gases that forced through at specific running temp points that effect the sealing ability

Can be reason for leaks too as strains older pipes and radiator.

Everyone hopes it a leak but continuing coolant issues on the 2.5 tends end up head gasket, they all fail no exceptions even non turbo 2.5 same issue .

Main thing is not ignore issue and get to bottom of it in timely manner  ...

 

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24 minutes ago, Mr B said:

Trouble is lot of the airlocks you get could be combustion gases that forced through at specific running temp points that effect the sealing ability

Can be reason for leaks too as strains older pipes and radiator.

Everyone hopes it a leak but continuing coolant issues on the 2.5 tends end up head gasket, they all fail no exceptions even non turbo 2.5 same issue .

Main thing is not ignore issue and get to bottom of it in timely manner  ...

 

thanks for the info, a specialist is looking at it at the start of march, in the meantime i'll look for some leaky piping, sometimes when I look to the bottom of the engine bay, there will usually be a small gathering of liquid under the radiator (I have an engine under guard).

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can't conclude much from that . pretty much normal see some film on surface, They don't mix the oil normally unless issue gets severe .

If problem persists get a garage who knows what they doing gas sniff it after a run, it the best way we found on these . In early stages of failure and intermittent issue can be hard pull test results in one go so got try a few times .

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Best way test these is with gas analyser at the radiator cap, from your remarks of oil film and smell it should conclude issue in seconds  .
It better than the chemical tests on the subarus with intermittent coolant temp fault .
HC don't have to be bad but indeed if head or pistons for example allowing some oil bypass and poorer combustion pressures then gas readings will show it to some extent. Gasket issue on these is normally always external flow and any engine damage is normally more from overheating rather than fluids mixing or burning heavily (low comps and fluids in cylinder easily diagnosed and to what severity) . Trouble is as most hard spot and still run well they get ignored and owners try function around the issue and make it bigger mess ..





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Strangely enough, I had this problem on and off for a couple of weeks. It went to Subaru 🤦‍♀️. Came back as it could have been several things. 

All of a sudden it started overheating, right off the scale, no heat coming out of heater, fan cutting out but on and off. Brought it home. Other half did a huge inspection after he filled up the water yet again. Had an airlock. So thought it was sorted, alas no. Did it again, same thing. In the end he found the smallest fracture in the top of the radiator. Could only just see it, right on the weld joint area ( not the right name I know 🙈) along the top, and not visible all the time. Had to leave it running for 30 mins checking all the time for water leakage but couldn’t see any. In the end he saw it just trickling down the side. End result.....new radiator put in...hey presto, all good. 

Might not be the same but worth a good look. Would have had all sorts of things donee to it at Subaru!!! 

Edited by Anne
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went out for fuel today and drove normally for 20ish mins and the temps stayed normal, decided to thrash it for about 30 secs and temps got to 3/4 on the gauge, pulled over, no more smoke from radiator and temps went to normal after a min, seems okay now?

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