Head Gaskets?

Apologies if this is long winded.

 

Yesterday, about 3 miles after I left my house my fan clicked on which I thought was weird because the outside temp was 24 degrees, I looked down and the temp gauge was about to the 3/4 mark. I got to my first stop and popped the hood to check the coolant in the overflow tank and the coolant was up to the very very top instead of just at the full line as it always is.

 

I left my first appointment and kept a close eye on the temp gauge. I was stop and go for about 4 miles till I hit the freeway. The temp rose and stayed at about 3/4 for a minute or two, then out of nowhere dropped back down to normal. Shortly after, I got on the freeway on my way to my next appointment and the temp stayed constant at normal the entire drive

 

About 2 minutes after I got off the freeway the fan clicked back on and the temp rose right back up again. I kept a very close eye on it until I got to my next appointment in case it got too hot, but it never got any hotter than about the 3/4 mark.

 

This happened all day, freeway driving just fine, normal street driving the fan turns on and the temp climbs. I finally realized if I turned the heater on, the temp would stay in the medium range.

 

Any ideas on this? Car is getting hot and the fan kicking on in normal driving conditions, and staying cool on the freeway. It never got to to the red part of the gauge, but close a couple times. And the overflow tank is completely full out of nowhere. There appeared to be some coolant down by the bottom of the radiator, but I cant find a leak anywhere, I think it may have just been leaking from the top of the coolant tank.

 

This, coupled with my car randomly spewing out white (not blue) exhaust at random times in traffic only, has me thinking (hoping not) it may be my head gaskets.

Yeah... sort of sounds like a HG... common sign is when you 'make' coolant, or oil. Is the coolant nice and green? or sort of brown and gross? What's your oil level look like? I'd drain both systems and take a look at the fluids... if your coolant isn't nice and green, that's no good, if your oil is watery... no good.

I'm not sure how the dealer checks them, they do some sort of pressurized test i believe.

 

I'm not hopeful about it... but it could be that you just have air in the cooling system, and it's displaced the coolant. You can try to bleed it out by taking off the turbo reservoir cap, and let the car idle for a while, and watch the bubbles come out? might be worth a try before draining all your fluids.

HG go boom

Start simple. Check your t-stat first.

Especially if you're not losing coolant anywhere. "topping it off"

The white exhaust at random times during traffic made me start thinking HG awhile ago. Two shops couldn't pinpoint or diagnose it, but the fact the exhaust was white indicated burning coolant. Though coolant levels were always constant which indicated no loss of coolant, thus no burning of coolant. And the car wasn't over heating whatsoever.

 

The coolant is normal green color, no discoloration at all. Oil seems to be normal color and consistency also. I had thought maybe a sticking thermostat, because when the temp gauge was almost to the red and I popped the hood, the engine seemed no hotter than normal. That with the fact that twice the temp gauge when from 3/4 to normal in the span of about 3 seconds.

 

But the the fact the overflow tank filled itself up is worrisome.

Air, burp the system and it should be fine

I would do the following in this order:

 

1. Replace the thermostat.

 

2. Replace the coolant temp sensor.

I don't know if the subaru has one or two. Some cars have two, one for the gauge and one for the ecu. I would replace whatever one runs the gauge. They're normally cheap.

 

3. Burp the cooling system THOROUGHLY. Buy something similar to what I have linked below, makes burping SOOOOO easy vs without.

 

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/410gKy372TL._SX300_.jpg

You could also buy the following device. IF you have exhaust gasses in your cooling system this will detect it and it's not too expensive. This test is NOT 100% but is a good test.

 

http://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/CatalogItemDetail.aspx/Leak-Detector-Kit-Engine-Block-Test-Tools-Inc-/_/R-BK_7001006_0006398563

You could possibly check it yourself by smelling the coolant. If it smells like exhaust, HG is bad. My outback was running about 3/4 up the temp gauge as long as I was moving, stop, and it would fill or overfill the overflow and run to the top.

Start simple. Check your t-stat first.

Especially if you're not losing coolant anywhere. "topping it off"

 

Could be a stuck thermostat, especially if non OEM thermostat, or non-Subaru coolant.

 

Burp your system again, just to be sure. Fans "on" is a good sign that your radiator fan switches are working. How many miles on your car and have you always used Subaru coolant, coolant conditioner? Ask, because if not, could be clogged radiator from leached radiator/block material.

 

Check the underside of your oil fill cap for moisture. Shouldn't be any, but if there is, that's typically a sign that you have water in your oil system that is vaporizing, especially if accompanied by gunky build up.

 

Make sure that you're not leaking coolant somwhere, i.e., heater core inside the car, or somewhere in the turbo or oil cooling circuits.

 

Post up what you find.

Always start with the most simple, often overlooked solutions vs. jumping to the worst case scenario.

 

Also FWIW if you're blowing white steam out your exhaust and you think it's coolant just sniff it, if it's coolant you'll know because it will smell like anti freeze.

I had the same problem a month ago. Wound up being the HG. BUT that was after I replaced the thermostat, burped the system, and flushed it.

 

Last week, my radiator blew.

 

Word of advice, check those coolant tanks for that brown crap they were talking about earlier, and keep the heat on. Seemed to help mine until it blew up.

So you took the car to two shops and neither one of them had a HC tester...find a better repair shop.

 

Any professional HC tester can tell from a few feet away if you have HC in the overflow tank.

not true

 

 

Turbo Subaru motors often lift the head enough to cause a leak under load and otherwise show no other signs. I rarely have a turbo motor that fails the color change HC test.

Also FWIW if you're blowing white steam out your exhaust and you think it's coolant just sniff it, if it's coolant you'll know because it will smell like anti freeze.

 

It seemed thicker than and lighter in color than just steam which is what made me think coolant. I was only able to get out and try and smell it once, but by that time it had dissipated. Hard to get out and smell exhaust in traffic, as soon as you open your door, the traffic moves.

 

So you took the car to two shops and neither one of them had a HC tester...find a better repair shop.

 

Any professional HC tester can tell from a few feet away if you have HC in the overflow tank.

 

I took it to two Subaru shops regarding the exhaust issue. The first shop didn't really give me any answers besides "We don't know" so I'm not going back there again. I'm not sure if they tested for HC's. The second shop if I recall did perform an HC test and didn't find anything. The current issue I have not been able to get it into a shop. Subaru shops where I live like their weekends off. I'm going to try and burp the system tonight and see what comes of it.

 

I cannot recall if the last time it was flushed was with Subaru coolant, so I may take it in to have a full flush and refill with new coolant.

If you have lost coolant there may be air in the system.

 

If you need to add coolant make sure you burp it again.

 

I would not flush the coolant untill you know you don't have a HG issue.

Agreed...

Just got back home. Coolant in the overflow tank is still above full, but not nearly as high as it was the other day. It's lowered from the very top of the overflow tank, to about 2 inches above the 'FULL' line while sitting in the garage since Saturday.

 

I took off radiator cap and coolant seemed ok in there. Took off secondary radiator cap on the left side of the engine and there was basically no coolant in there at all.

 

Should I top that off before trying to burp the system? Is there a good walkthru for burping the system? Never done it. I also read somewhere its good to park on an incline while doing so?

Check up the right front corner of the car. Remove the cap off the turbo tank and fill it about 3/4 full.

 

Leave the other cap on, squeeze the hoses and watch for air. Add coolant as needed. Start the car with it off and turn on the heat. watch for air bubbles as the engine warms up.

Top off as needed.

BTW I use Peak Global and or Prestone mixed 50/50

Spend the $30 on the radiator burp kit I linked earlier. So convenient.

I'm assuming the right front is passenger side?

Yes

Jacked car up, took off turbo tank cap, filled a little over half way to start. Every time I squeeze the upper radiator hose I get air bubbles. Should I continue this until there are no bubbles at all? Or start the car and let the engine warm up and keep an eye for more bubbles.

 

Thanks for the help. Just want to make sure I'm doing this correctly.

Continue until no bubbles. That's how I did my new short block before I started it.