Coolant Bleeding

So, there's a TON of opinions and thoughts on proper bleeding of the coolant system.

Does anyone have a method that ACTUALLY works? The only procedure I haven't tried is putting it on ramps, and removing a hose and then filling it up. I'm getting pretty frustrated.. I've replaced both radiator caps with OEM Subaru, and the thermostat(OEM Subaru)

I've just re-bled it doing the: Open the radiator cap, fill up, cap it off. Then, opening the turbo reservoir and filling it up. Then, Starting the car on high heat full fan speed, no A/C, until the main fan kicks on. Cap it off, and in theory be happy.

The reservoir went up with frothy bubbles. Then, the level went down. I'm hoping it's just leveling itself out. Right? It's a self-leveling system? It hasn't been overheating either.

If this doesn't stick, and the coolant level is up, then down, and it overheats again, I want to try one more bleeding procedure. After that, I'm taking it somewhere for a head gasket test. Or, I'll rent one and test it. Sorry for beating a dead horse...

 

05 Legacy GT Wagon non-Limited 5MT 290hp

Last time I did it then I filled up the system, kept one cap off and squeezed one of the radiator hoses multiple times until it stopped to release air. Then repeat with the other cap off.

 

 

Only after that warming up the engine with light driving to ensure that nothing bad was going on.

 

 

 

It did seem to work fine.

Buy the spill free funnel from your local auto parts store and never hassle with coolant bleeding again, or making a mess.

 

Use the funnel on your turbo reservoir, fill with coolant, start and warm up car. Squeeze the radiator hoses until bubbles stop. Turn off car, let it cool down, remove funnel. Done.

Squeezing the hoses is important.

 

I jack up the right front corner high, fill the system with both caps off, until the radiator is full, then cap that, finish filling thru the turbo tank, start the engine...

Squeezing the hoses is important.

 

I jack up the right front corner high, fill the system with both caps off, until the radiator is full, then cap that, finish filling thru the turbo tank, start the engine...

 

I've heard this before, where do you "Jack up" the front right corner?

Buy the spill free funnel from your local auto parts store and never hassle with coolant bleeding again, or making a mess.

 

Use the funnel on your turbo reservoir, fill with coolant, start and warm up car. Squeeze the radiator hoses until bubbles stop. Turn off car, let it cool down, remove funnel. Done.

 

 

 

This ^^^

 

You won’t regret adding one of these to your tool collection

 

I’ve never needed to jack up a corner. Just put one of those spill free funnels in the upper tank. Fill the radiator, close that cap and never open it. Start the car and run it till the fans cycle. Very carefully squeeze the upper radiator hose from time to time. Keep some coolant in the funnel, when the tiny bubbles finally stop coming out, you done. It takes longer than you would think, been 15-20 min for me.

I think I'm going to make my own "Spill free" funnel, with the proper diameter tubing and a funnel. I'm sick of spending 40-60 bucks every time I look at this car.

I think the problem I had, was that I turned the car off as soon as the fans turned on. I should have let it go a little longer and squeezed the top hose. Also, whenever I turned the car off, and let it cool, all the coolant in the reservoir tank would disappear leaving it bone dry. So, I'm thinking I need to sit there while it cools, and make sure I don't get another air pocket from a empty reservoir?

Also, what's up with turning the fans on high speed and high heat right away? Is that correct? Is that necessary? So many "what if's" in this procedure.

Turning the heater on high won't hurt anything.

 

Someone did say that water always flows through the heater core all the time, you only get heat when you ask for it by opening a door in the HVAC system.

 

Are you only jacking up the right front corner ? Do you have floor jack that will left it 21" ?

 

or just the little trolley jack that lifts 14" ?

I always fill through the turbo feed lines. Never even had a single issue with a bubble or needing to bleed, but I do have the funnel as well and have also helped other people to do the RF jack up/bleed. I put the RF jack up/bleed method on my turbo installation instructions but I also state to fill at the turbo feed lines until full too.

 

The goal with RF jack up/bleed method is to put the turbo coolant tank as the highest point on the engine and then the air will eventually come to the top and go out the top of the tank.

That spill free funnel pays for itself. I used to jack up the car to bleed coolant but I stopped because it didn’t prove to do anything. A few times I tried bleeding with the funnel first, and then trying again after jacking it up. No bubbles came up. Just an extra step if you want to be extra thorough. Might get a few more bubbles but the turbo reservoir is the highest point in the system already.

Well, I did it. Hopefully this is the last time. What I did different is I squeezed the top radiator hose many times throughout the process. Also, I let the fans cycle about 3 times before I decided to shut it off. Each time, more bubbles came out, and the level of the coolant in the turbo reservoir's funnel dipped down. I let the car cool down completely and got the coolant level to "full" in the reservoir before driving it again, the next day. I also didn't "step on it" for a while. I think it's good. We'll see. It didn't suck out all the coolant from the overflow reservoir, so that's good.

So far, so good. The temperature gauge hasn't elevated, and the coolant level in the reservoir is pretty stable. Although, I haven't stepped on it(Full boost) yet. I guess time will tell..

I usually pull one of the water hoses off of the throttle body during the filling process and leave it off until I get coolant out of it, then hook it back up and continue filling. This seems to work pretty good.