I was just leaving my girlfriend's earlier this evening, when I was stopped in a queue of traffic and I noticed steam coming from underneath the car.

I pulled over and popped the bonnet to be confronted with more stream from around the radiator area. I checked the coolant, and it had dropped the lot of it.

I refilled the coolant, and tried to carefully drive back to the girlfriend's house, but after a couple of minutes, there was more steam, and the temperature gauge was on its way to the top

Again, I pulled over, stopped the engine and popped the bonnet. The coolant was still there, but it was boiling

I'm now hoping it's the water pump and not the radiator that's failed.

The car's a MY01 WRX

Any thoughts?


Cheers, Mike

 

Start with the basics:
1
Remove the thermostat and drive the car. If it happens again...
2
After a good 'blast' is there coolant everywhere around the battery?
Are there small continuous bubbles in the filler tube right in front of the battery?
Does the heater blow cold even though the temp gauge shows almost normal?

If so then the head gasket's have gone.
3
No bubbles?
OK, then maybe a simple split in one of the plastic end 'tanks' will be the problem. A good rad show will pressure test for you.

Let us know how you get on!

Graham.

 

mate i had a similar problem recently and mine was an air lock in the radiator the coolant kept going when i filled it up and my heaters blew cold, if its an air lock cost you about £20 at a garage unless you no how to do it

 

Cheers guys.

Yeah, the coolant's bubbling in the filler tube, and then some time after this, it spits the coolant out.

I'm keeping everything crossed that it's not the head gaskets

Will have to wait and see what my local friendly dealer says

 

Had a simaler problem, turned out to be blocked hose under the header/expansion tank.

 

Dont want to go round scaring you, but I had same problem on 01 bugeye. It was initially the bottom hose which had split. Having read stories of head gaskets I asked the garage (a supposed subaru specialist !) to do a head gasket check. They said head gasket couldnt have caused it and never bothered with the test. 2 weeks later the internal heater matrix blew. I took it to a small back street garage who performed a head gasket check and as I originally suspected the head gasket had gone.

What happens in these circumstances is combustion gas from the cylinders leaks into the coolant system at high pressure through the crack in the head gasket causing the coolant system to overpressurise, which finds a weak spot in the system to relieve the pressure.

I would strongly suggest that on fixing the problem you have a head gasket check done. It's a simple process which consists of some blue dye liquid which will change colour if combustion gasses are detected in the coolant. Any decent garage should do it in 30mins for you and it instantly allows you to rule out the head gasket causing the problem in the first place.

I would also suggest NOT to do a coolant system pressure test before checking head gasket as when you wind the pressure up if you do have a failed head gasket guess where some water could end up - yep, one of the cylinders. Oh and head gasket failure in newage engines does not automatically mean you'll get any oil contamination, in fact the garage said it's rare.

Dont think I'm scaremongering, spreading the 'subaru are crap' voodoo. It's just my experiences. If I'd have caught the problem when the hose first went I'd have saved myself the expense of a heater matrix replacement. Anyway it's all fully rebuilt now by a proper scooby specialist with replaced heads, full competition gasket set, competition studs etc so its stronger than ever now and never missed a beat since (happy ending..)

 

Thanks for the replies.

I spoke to my local Subaru dealer this morning and booked it in for thursday.

Thanks for the advice Funkyspider, I will ask them to do the head gasket check.

It's not looking too good is it?

Will just have to wait and see though.

Mike

 

You can do a diy head gasket check but you need a methane meter (pen type).
Any methane coming out of the coolant expansion tank and your head gasket has gone as there shouldnt be any in there at all (mixture of oil/water).

Tony

 

Dont get too disheartened just yet, it could be as simple as a corroded hose clip etc. I was all miserable thinking the worst that it was the head gasket.. In the end it was, so maybe not a good example, but I had 3days of extra worry when it might not have been ! lol

If it is more serious then I'd suggest API Engines or another specialist depending on where you are rather than Subaru dealer to be honest. I think you'll get a better price for the same job.

Ask around on here for a recommended specialist in your area (in NorthWest I cant recommend CotComp enough, superb service and advice !)

 

Im near Watford, so the only specialist I know of nearby is Power Engineering, and I'm not convinced they're particularly cheap (someone correct me if I'm wrong).

Thanks again for people's input


Mike

 

The car goes in tomorrow.

Fingers crossed.

I'll let you know the outcome


Mike

 

Got the car back yesterday.

It turned out to be the radiator hose that was split. They still found a way to sting me for £214 though

Still, its a big relief that it wasnt the head gasket as I'd have been looking at a bill for 5 times that by all accounts

It would appear that bubbles in the coolant does NOT always indicate head gasket failure then

Oh, and the best upgrade for any scooby driver is to drive around in a 1.1 for a week, then get back in the scooby. It'll feel like a rocket!


Mike

 

[quote=4stringMike]Got the car back yesterday.

It turned out to be the radiator hose that was split. They still found a way to sting me for £214 though

What was the hose made of ? Titanium. You can get a set of Samco hoses for less, I think. Even if it's the bottom hose all that is needed is to lift the car remove the undertray, if fitted, remove and replace the hose and replace the coolant.

 

i have noticed mine dropping the past few weeks

i first noticed it when the heaters would not blow any warm air

checked the header tank and there was some in, topped it up, all was well, few weeks later i thought the heaters were blowing cold again

relised it was the fricken climate control keeping the incar temp @ 22 degrees

although there was a slight drop once again in the tank, no visible leaks at the moment, i will keep an eye on it and do something about it when i can actually find something wrong

all coolant hoses are samcos so they should be fine, headgaskets were done 9 k ago as part of a full engine rebuild so they should be fine as well.

i hate problems that just **** about, if your gonna break, then fooken break and get it over and done with!!!!

 

360, the hose cost 12 quid, the rest of the bill was frickin labour!

They had to pressure test it to find the leak. then replace the hose and road test it.

They also (supposedly) found a bolt that sheared when they were removing the hose so they had to drill it out and re tap it

I think they replaced the flux capacitor while they were at it

 

I was getting cold air coming through the heater vent even though it was switched to warm as well as water boiling in the header tank whilst standaing in traffic. I also have samco's, The samco under the header tank has a black hose inside the silicon pipe and this had delambed, twisted and had blocked the pipe.

Simple to fix, just replaced it and all has been okay since

 

Consider £214 a happy ending when it could have been head gasket lol

 

Oh believe me, I do!

Mike

 

left mine ticking over today with theaircon on cold for about 35 mins

and had a good hard look at the engine
finaly spottted a few tiny "wisps" of steam coming from the O/S/F headlight area, had a look around and could not see exatly where they were coming from, but i would bet that the radiator is on its last legs

there was a very small pool of water down by the bottom of the rad/front cross member area on the O/S which must have came from the rad, as i had driven 10 miles to work in the dry, so there is no chance of it being standing water IMO

all hose clips looked in good order, i did crash last year on the O/S/F which damaged a wing and knocked the tracking out quite a bit

so maybe the rad had a little wiggle about and broke

was quoted £98+ vat for a rad today from the local motorfactors and they can get me one within 2 hours when needed

i dont think there is anything else down in that corner that has water in it?