Scimitar
10-18-2010, 11:24 AM
Morning all,
First off, I'd like to say just how awesome this site is. I've been lurking around here for the past few months, and the knowledge gained is overwhelming. Definitely one of the most addictive sites I've been to in a long while.
Now here's my dilemma...
I've been searching around for solutions to overheating problems, and I'm not 100% sure what's causing mine
Car is a '98 2.5 GT with just under 133,000 miles. Well maintained, regularly serviced and such. I take good care of my cars, except for the occasional 4-5K RPM shift :wink:
*Warning! Wall of text ahead!*
Last Tuesday, while driving home after being on the road for about 45 minutes or so, my A/C quits blowing cold, and I can hear belts squeaking. I knew they needed to be replaced soon, so I figured one of them got thrown. I'm only a half mile from home, so I ride it out. I pull in the driveway, and smell coolant, so I jump back in the car and turn it on (not starting) to read the temp gauge, which is to the hot side, but not pegged (roughly 3/4 of the way up). I let the car cool off for about 30 minutes before driving it to my grandpa's shop, about 100 yards away.
It appears that she'd been blowing coolant out of the overflow tank, which got my old belts wet (along with the rest of the driver's side of the engine bay), hence the squeaking. My grandpa and I determined that the thermostat had somehow stuck shut, and that the water pump was pushing the coolant out because it had nowhere else to go. On Thursday we replaced the thermostat, hoses, and belts, refilled the coolant, and took it for an hour-long test drive. Everything seemed to work fine, and we deemed the car "fixed".
Friday, I drove the car to Lynchburg (roughly 4 hours) with no problems to speak of... temp gauge was normal, and I checked the coolant every time we stopped. Saturday, we drive from Lynchburg to Peaks of Otter (about a half hour away), and not 10 minutes from our destination, the gauge pegs. I pull off the road, and sure enough, it's pushing antifreeze out of the overflow bottle. I always keep a gallon of 50/50 in the trunk, so I let the car cool off, refilled what coolant was lost, and took it easy driving up the mountain (which is NO FUN in a Subaru :-( ). Just as we're about to pull into the visitor center parking lot, the temp starts to creep up again, but as I'm about to park the car, it never got to "H". I make a note to check the coolant again before we leave the parking lot, and we go for our hike.
Well, like a dumba$$, I forgot to check it (hey, if you were as out of shape as I am, you'd probably forget after hiking up and down a rough terrain trail too! :lol: ). Fortunately, despite my moment of forgetfullness, the car behaved itself for the 5 minute drive to Gross Orchard's Apple Fest. Here is where I remembered "Oh yeah! I forgot to check the coolant!" but I guess it didn't lose much the last time, as I only poured a tiny bit into the radiator before it wouldn't take anymore.
So here I'm thinking that maybe I had overfilled it, but on the trip home that afternoon, we had to stop twice for the same issue.
Now, in all the searching around I've done, this problem seems to be pointing to a bad head gasket, but here's where I'm not so sure:
After the last overheat session, I decided to keep the RPM's no higher than 2500, and we never had to stop again for the last 2 hours of the trip. I read a different thread on here about someone using an aftermarket thermostat, and it looked different from the OE version. When I replaced my thermostat, I had the same issue with it looking different. I didn't use an OE part because I get them online, and I didn't have time to wait for shipping (the closest Subaru dealer to me is horrible, and I refuse to do business with them anymore). So now I'm thinking "Hey, is the thermostat too small for the car?". ALSO, when it overheats, there is NO coolant in the upper hose, yet it's hot to the touch...but the driver side of the radiator is cool, like the car had never been started. If you relieve the pressure by partially turning the radiator cap (yeah, I know that's not too smart), the coolant that comes out isn't even warm... could that mean a blockage in the radiator?
I'm pretty lost at the moment, and I don't really want to start tearing the car apart until I have a good idea of what could be wrong.
We've already checked the radiator cap, and done a pressure test on the coolant system; none of them have turned up any problems, but I read today that it doesn't mean a whole heck of a lot if the problem is in fact the head gasket. I guess the next step is a leak-down test?
Apologies for the constant rambling, my brain is just so fried from the last 2 weeks, this definitely isn't helping :smt011
First off, I'd like to say just how awesome this site is. I've been lurking around here for the past few months, and the knowledge gained is overwhelming. Definitely one of the most addictive sites I've been to in a long while.
Now here's my dilemma...
I've been searching around for solutions to overheating problems, and I'm not 100% sure what's causing mine
Car is a '98 2.5 GT with just under 133,000 miles. Well maintained, regularly serviced and such. I take good care of my cars, except for the occasional 4-5K RPM shift :wink:
*Warning! Wall of text ahead!*
Last Tuesday, while driving home after being on the road for about 45 minutes or so, my A/C quits blowing cold, and I can hear belts squeaking. I knew they needed to be replaced soon, so I figured one of them got thrown. I'm only a half mile from home, so I ride it out. I pull in the driveway, and smell coolant, so I jump back in the car and turn it on (not starting) to read the temp gauge, which is to the hot side, but not pegged (roughly 3/4 of the way up). I let the car cool off for about 30 minutes before driving it to my grandpa's shop, about 100 yards away.
It appears that she'd been blowing coolant out of the overflow tank, which got my old belts wet (along with the rest of the driver's side of the engine bay), hence the squeaking. My grandpa and I determined that the thermostat had somehow stuck shut, and that the water pump was pushing the coolant out because it had nowhere else to go. On Thursday we replaced the thermostat, hoses, and belts, refilled the coolant, and took it for an hour-long test drive. Everything seemed to work fine, and we deemed the car "fixed".
Friday, I drove the car to Lynchburg (roughly 4 hours) with no problems to speak of... temp gauge was normal, and I checked the coolant every time we stopped. Saturday, we drive from Lynchburg to Peaks of Otter (about a half hour away), and not 10 minutes from our destination, the gauge pegs. I pull off the road, and sure enough, it's pushing antifreeze out of the overflow bottle. I always keep a gallon of 50/50 in the trunk, so I let the car cool off, refilled what coolant was lost, and took it easy driving up the mountain (which is NO FUN in a Subaru :-( ). Just as we're about to pull into the visitor center parking lot, the temp starts to creep up again, but as I'm about to park the car, it never got to "H". I make a note to check the coolant again before we leave the parking lot, and we go for our hike.
Well, like a dumba$$, I forgot to check it (hey, if you were as out of shape as I am, you'd probably forget after hiking up and down a rough terrain trail too! :lol: ). Fortunately, despite my moment of forgetfullness, the car behaved itself for the 5 minute drive to Gross Orchard's Apple Fest. Here is where I remembered "Oh yeah! I forgot to check the coolant!" but I guess it didn't lose much the last time, as I only poured a tiny bit into the radiator before it wouldn't take anymore.
So here I'm thinking that maybe I had overfilled it, but on the trip home that afternoon, we had to stop twice for the same issue.
Now, in all the searching around I've done, this problem seems to be pointing to a bad head gasket, but here's where I'm not so sure:
After the last overheat session, I decided to keep the RPM's no higher than 2500, and we never had to stop again for the last 2 hours of the trip. I read a different thread on here about someone using an aftermarket thermostat, and it looked different from the OE version. When I replaced my thermostat, I had the same issue with it looking different. I didn't use an OE part because I get them online, and I didn't have time to wait for shipping (the closest Subaru dealer to me is horrible, and I refuse to do business with them anymore). So now I'm thinking "Hey, is the thermostat too small for the car?". ALSO, when it overheats, there is NO coolant in the upper hose, yet it's hot to the touch...but the driver side of the radiator is cool, like the car had never been started. If you relieve the pressure by partially turning the radiator cap (yeah, I know that's not too smart), the coolant that comes out isn't even warm... could that mean a blockage in the radiator?
I'm pretty lost at the moment, and I don't really want to start tearing the car apart until I have a good idea of what could be wrong.
We've already checked the radiator cap, and done a pressure test on the coolant system; none of them have turned up any problems, but I read today that it doesn't mean a whole heck of a lot if the problem is in fact the head gasket. I guess the next step is a leak-down test?
Apologies for the constant rambling, my brain is just so fried from the last 2 weeks, this definitely isn't helping :smt011