05' Impreza WRX advice please

[EviWRX]

Hi all, new member here.

Looking for a little bit of help/advice please. Just bought my first Subaru ('05 Impreza WRX) at the weekend (privately) and have a feeling a may have been a little shafted..

All seemed well on the test drive and looking under the bonnet. Previous owner said he was selling due to personal reasons and hadn't driven it too much lately/in the past few months. Drove it home on Sunday, there was a smell of burning every now and then. Nipped to a family members and noticed that the coolant reservoir looked low, topped this up and drove home. Hit 50 miles (fully journey from picking to car up to pulling up on the driveway) and the check engine light pops on.

Luckily I've got another car as a daily driver, got home on Sunday and had another look under the bonnet and spotted what looks like an oil leak around the engine (First image is towards the top, final image is towards the bottom) and on one of the hoses (see attached). The coolant is also back down to halfway between the max and min markings, having filled it to the max on Sunday before I drove the 15 minutes from the family members house to home. On start up, will struggle a little at 4/500rpm, jump to 2k and then go back down to 1.4k rpm.

Worth noting that it has a back box delete and sports cat fitted, pretty sure this could be irrelevant though.

Just wondered if people had any clue on what this is, has caused it and any advice/whats the best way to go about sorting this out and getting it fixed in general? (Any sort of price range that I could expect would be appreciated too!)

Thank you

[Linx]

Welcome Spanner. I'm not sure where the oil leak is coming from. Looks like maybe turbo. You'll have to do a sniff test on the coolant and if OK, get it set up in a dyno.

[EviWRX]

20 hours ago, Linx said:

Welcome Spanner. I'm not sure where the oil leak is coming from. Looks like maybe turbo. You'll have to do a sniff test on the coolant and if OK, get it set up in a dyno.

Cheers mate, will probably have to get this booked in to be looked at then. Will plug the old code reader in tomorrow to see what the check engine light is saying. 

Thinking either the head gasket or turbo?

Pretty unfortunate buy on my behalf if so - even though I do love the car and how it drives!

[David Wilkinson]

Hi mate 

sorry to hear you are having problems. It’s good advice to do a sniff test.

 I have had a similar experience with a Mazda 6 where the gearbox has gone 2 months after buying it second hand… and it doesn’t drive as well as my Impreza 🙈 

[EviWRX]

On 8/4/2022 at 10:42 PM, David Wilkinson said:

Hi mate 

sorry to hear you are having problems. It’s good advice to do a sniff test.

 I have had a similar experience with a Mazda 6 where the gearbox has gone 2 months after buying it second hand… and it doesn’t drive as well as my Impreza 🙈 

Cheers mate, will probably look at getting one done. Pretty unlucky with the Mazda purchase!

Found that the coolant level actually rises to the max line when warmed and will drop when cooling and cold. 

Been told that the leak is from the rocker cover gasket from one or two people on another forum/Facebook groups.

Slowly getting round to things one by one - the CEL is still a mystery though!

[EviWRX]

Update - have managed to get the car booked in to be looked at so will hopefully have an idea of whats what pretty soon. 

 

Thanks all for the help 😁

[Siluro]

The coolant is only an overflow not a reservoir, there is zero pressure in the overflow tank. As the water expands it overflows into the container and when it cools it sucks it back in again. In the winter it will drop even further if working correctly.

"Found that the coolant level actually rises to the max line when warmed and will drop when cooling and cold." is correct behavour if not using any.

Get a OBD2 scanner to see the fault code.

Good luck

 

 

 

 

[EviWRX]

8 hours ago, Siluro said:

The coolant is only an overflow not a reservoir, there is zero pressure in the overflow tank. As the water expands it overflows into the container and when it cools it sucks it back in again. In the winter it will drop even further if working correctly.

"Found that the coolant level actually rises to the max line when warmed and will drop when cooling and cold." is correct behavour if not using any.

Get a OBD2 scanner to see the fault code.

Good luck

 

 

 

 

Cheers for the response to the thread mate, learnt quite a bit with these cars over the past week or two. Overflow tank looks to be working as it should👍

The OBD2 Code Reader is what I have, picks up no codes for the engine management light. Will get it looked at anyway.

Where I've got it booked in is about an hour or so away, fair bit of smoke from under the bonnet when driving now after 5-10 mins (assuming that's the oil burning from the leak, that OR it is overheating). So debating trying to find somewhere closer now.

[EviWRX]

Also; on a quick note, on the phone call to the specialist, he said that it could be a faulty MAF sensor which could be chucking the engine light on.

Just remembered that the previous owner mentioned that the original cat had been stolen and he'd put a sports-cat in. This is bringing up some curiosity as the Battery was 'flat' when I went to view the car and pick it up. Pretty sure this masks the engine light for X amount of time/miles? Will get underneath the car and have a look, if not, get it looked at to see if a de-cat could be chucking the light on.