Coolant Issue: Thermostat going out?

[xoSubieLegacyxo]

Recently I've noticed a burning smell under the hood, and when I look down I see a small puddle of coolant under the inlet tube going towards the intake manifold. The pressure builds up in the hose, and it stiffens up, and I guess it releases some coolant once it reaches a certain pressure. Could this mean the thermostat is going bad? I guess I should also note that my temp gauge in the cluster is broken as well. lol Can anyone give me some advice?

[bulldozer24]

thermostats are not that expensive so it wouldn't hurt to change it. then i recommend fixing that temp gauge, it can be very useful.

[xoSubieLegacyxo]

I'm going to replace the sensor. If that doesn't fix the gauge I'll get a new one.

[chrish8r]

Have you replaced the thermostat with the one tino gave you yet??

[xoSubieLegacyxo]

No not yet. I'm swapping them out tomorrow morning.

[chrish8r]

Okay. That may solve it because even with a blown headgasket, a new thermostat allowed me to travel 35 miles on it

[afterbangin]

I recommend that you only use the OEM Subaru thermostat as aftermarket ones often fail prematurely and if you just take a look at the difference between the two, you can see that the OEM one is a far better construction. I believe that there is a Stant Xact-stat that is the OEM one available at your local parts store.

[xoSubieLegacyxo]

It wasn't that hard to replace, and if it goes out again I'll change it out. No biggie.