my car keeps over heating

[deez11550]

hey new years eve my car over heated right off the george washignton bridge. so i left it thier and then agin on the way bak the next day soo i was forced to leave it in the bronx.

wat can it be.. i just had the water pump changed and i changed the thermostate and flushed out the radiator. sooo today i was droping of my bro at work (only 10 min away) but on the way bak the car starded to over heat so i blasted the heat in my car just to reach back home wat can it be ????????? help

[httrdd]

Headgasket?!!? Seen too many threads about this problem. Are you loosing coolant? Is there any leaks present. I had a coolant leak and turned out to be the cap holder got bent. I lost coolant fast since the cap would not seal.

[deez11550]

i had a small leak but i just had that tightened when we flushed the radiator. the car was working fine since monday wen i got it fixed but for some reason it began to over heat today. it didnt reach all the way but preety close. i blasted heat and it lowerd a bit. im tiered of wasting money on this car i just spent $700 on timing belt, water pump , and main seals. how mush u estimate a head gasket to be??

[httrdd]

Well the hg are not that bad in price, but...................You need to have it installed or install it your self. That means lift out engine.

Just wait until others chime in before you listen to my assumption though. legacygt.com has some good info on overheating that I have been reading.

[deez11550]

hahah thanks thou. but i def dont know that much that i can change a head gaskett. hahah

[mrpyb]

head gasket. sorry man. how many miles are on your car? I did my own HG and it was still pretty spendy, I'd start getting some quotes if I were you.

[deez11550]

as of right now i got 91,800 miles on it. is it still posible to drive short distances. haha i got work tmoro but its only 10 min away. can i drive the car before it starts over heating??? hahah

[mike-tracy]

as of right now i got 91,800 miles on it. is it still posible to drive short distances. haha i got work tmoro but its only 10 min away. can i drive the car before it starts over heating??? hahah

You risk damaging the heads every time it overheats. I would park it and flatbed it if you needed to move it to a shop. A cheaper option might be to swap a compatible, known good, motor in the meantime. I spent $2800 getting my head gaskets replaced, on my 98 Forester, by an independent Subaru shop. That's what motivated me to learn how to do it myself, and I have in fact done the HG's on my 91 Legacy, and I haven't had a problem with that since.

(trust me, $2800 is expensive, but not for what they did, replacing every belt, hose and gasket on the engine with OEM stuff, as well as changing the sparkplugs & wires and radiator, crank & cam sensors, and a few other things I'm forgetting, and the car has been solid for the last 5 years. I only paid $1400 for the Forester so $4200 for a fully working car doesn't seem that unreasonable).

[TX_Dj]

Test your radiator cap and replace it if it's under 11 psi.

Spec is 11-14 psi, most parts stores will give you a 13 psi cap.

If it can't hold back the pressure, your boil over temp will be lower, and the system can't function right.

Another way to test if it's ok or not is to have some fluid in the coolant resevoir, put the cap on the radiator and start the engine. If you see bubbles coming from the tube in the resevoir and the engine isn't currently over-heating, you have a bad radiator cap. That test isn't 100% conclusive in all cases, but it is a quick indication as to whether to just get a new cap or take the old cap to be tested for it's blow off pressure.

[02legacygt]

mine was doing something similar, it would over heat if i was standing still, however driving or if i had the heat blasting it was fine, i thought the same thing head gasket, or water pump or thermostat.........

NOPE!

My fuse for my radiator fans went!

DUMB!!!!! Check that!

[richysteele]

I had this problem once. I took my leggy to a shop an they changed the water pump an thermostat. I drove the car out the driveway and the damn thing overheated right away. there was an air bubble in the coolant system. they flushed the system again and it ran like a champ. check your dipstick and overflow bottle. if there's oil in the bottle or coolant on your dipstick you definitely have a head gasket issue.

[richysteele]

also check that your fans are plugged up properly. I unplugged mine to replace the radiator once and forgot to plug the fans an the car was overheating like crazy. im just tryin to help you rule out smaller issues before assuming its the heads. sorry for you if it is.

[deez11550]

is it possible im gona need a new radiator, because it might be clogged. i added anti freeze and checked it agin and its low agin??? and when my car begins to over heat i blast the heat om but instead of heat coming out its cold... :smt021



helpppppppppppppppp

[legacygt420]

you get no heat cause your fluid is low and isnt circulating causing overheating. you definatly have a bad head gasket. keep fluid in there and you can drive short distances but dont push it when the needle starts going up or you will warp a head.

[Huffer]

If you want to buy some time, remove your thermostat altogether and refill the coolant. This will allow your cooling system to run ALL the time... not ideal but it can get you home.

[jey]

Make sure you've burped all the air out of your cooling system...

[httrdd]

Yea I just overheated twice today so I know how you feel! The symptoms are fluid pouring out of the cap and overflow full. I am thinking thermostat since there was no fluid coming out around heads/engine. Building up too much pressure in the radiator due to thermostat being stuck shut (or sticking). Since a t-stat is cheap, what kind of t-stat do you recomend besides oem. I want somthing that helps flow better with my n/a build.

[deez11550]

:-( so its for sure now. my headgaskets is the problem getting it fixed this weeken wat are some of the price ranges ill be hearing

[mike-tracy]

Make sure you read this thread before the HG's are replaced:

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=17194 (https://sl-i.net/FORUM/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=17194)

Turned out the poster's problem was air bubbles!

[deez11550]

yea it was a head gasket we did a preasure test and i had a leak i got it fixed .. i payed 1200 he did my head gasket new water pump, timimg belt, new radiator, tune up, and he also bore out my heads. :razz: i still gota go bak and finish paying him 200 buks more. BUT THE CAR RUNS GREAT NOWWWWW but im broke :-(

[ouch1011]

That's pretty cheap for all the work that was done.