Hi guys,
Was dead excited today as i finally drove the car after having had it for a day, was driving it the the MOT centre.

At the lights just outside, massive amount of steam rised up throught the bonnet vents and the side of the bonnet.

A quick call to the RAC and 4 hours later, he arrived and left, telling me the seal had gone on the expansion tank. Was pi**** it out of the top and dropping onto the hot engine, which was causing the steam...

I was just wonering if there may be other things wrong, or could it be just the expansion tank...

How expensive are these tanks aswel.

Thanks

 

if ur car is a wrx with the plastic expansion tank u need to get a metal one off an sti same year ish they are about 30 quid on flebay

 

i believe mine is a 94 Turbo 2000.

Is that the same as the wrx ?

The one on at the moment is an aftermarket one i think

 

same tank should be plastic

 

yea thats the one, so anytank from a '94 will do..
Will any other years fit it? ?

 

Pukka Forge replacement: Forge Motorsport | Alloy Fabrication. You can prob get it cheaper off eBay... or an even cheaper pattern item.

Was the AA man's diagnosis just an educated guess? Because it could have been the rad cap on the header tank that opened due to too high coolant temp (therefore pressure). I had this happen to me just the once . Thought my head gasket had gone, but hasn't done it since ...... GOOD!

 

True i recently had a small problem like that and found the cap wasn't sealing properly so i could hear bubbling and it would push the coolant out.

 

Well i could see the fluids pis**** out of this tank..Around the seal.

He did open the other capsule..Is it the rad cap one?? but couldnt see anything wrong with that...He didnt really know what it was for, so poured more water into that one aswel. (I didnt know either) (Only had the car a day)

Hopefully it is just a leaky seal on the header tank

 

If the cap wobbles or moves (not as if you're undoing it obviously ) then the cap may need replacing.

Thing at the bottom (in the middle of the piccy) is the expansion tank obviously the only other place for coolant is the yellow cap near the battery.

So what else did he open?

 

well you see the 2 bolts on the right hand side of the expansion tank, it was all coming out from the seal just above that...

That is the only tank he opened really.

Thats where it was coming from so i guess there was no ned to look anywhere..

From what i can remember the cap wasnt moving...Was a tight fit.

Im just worried that it may be head gasket..But as the coolant was "bubbling" more swirling, i think im worrying too much

 

That will mean a replacement tank i'm afraid i would ,if you can, get a metal one as suggested earlier.

I've had the tank go which wasn't nice as i had the same worry as you and the cap once again the same worry because i could hear bubbling the garage did a 'sniffer' test and all was well.

 

lol it stank everytime i stopped because of the burning coolant..
I have heard of moddifying the brakcet to make the STI alloy tank fit, but sounds like a lot of hastle.
tbh ill probably just go for the standard one

 

if u put a standard plastic one back on it may do it again . u only need to make a small braket mate im sure sumone on hear will have pics

 

Well i've had my new standard plastic tank on for about 3 years now and it's fine ,it's just when the get really old the plastic gets fragile starts to leak as you've found out.

 

happened to mine i put a standard new one back on been fine now for 3 years although standard ones are about 70 quid i think i paid from subaru

 

yea its been sat for a while, and what with the cold and then all of a sudden the heat from the engine...No wonder is leaked tbh...

Thanks for your help guys...Now just need to find out what model i have lol

 

Agree with the others... plastic item is fine from brand new. They last for about 10+ years before they harden up enough to potentially split under pressure.

 

mbwrx, did this happen just the once then, prior to replacing the cap? Or a lot of times, etc.? Did you lose a lot of coolant e.g 1+ litres, or so?

 

When mine split i got a forge one like above for cheaper then an original and its a hundred times better and looks the nuts

 

Only once but it must have been getting worse over time.

First thing i knew was when the car was parked up and i was faffing about getting something out of it i heard an odd noise from the engine bay,popped it open couldn't see anything amiss but could hear the noise put my head near the tank and could hear bubbling,left it to cool down then investigated and there was no/very little coolant loss.
I made sure i checked it every few days (temp gauge was fine ,heaters worked)and everything was fine but about 2 weeks after i was giving it the beans down a dual carriageway i had to pull into a petrol station,whilst waiting for a pump i noticed a large amount of smoke/steam coming from the drivers' side vent which was disconcerting,popped the bonnet loads of coolant all over the tank,drove home (about 2 miles) quite carefully and left it to cool.
Checked it later and the tank was empty,so i refilled it with a mixture of water/antifreeze ( it took quite a lot as well i would say more than a litre) drove carefully for the next few days ,no problem when giving it the beans it happened again went straight to local subaru specialist did the sniffer test nothing indicated.
Luckily another impreza onwer was there and had a look and noticed the cap was wobbly compare to his so replaced it and compared my old one to a new one (both exactly the same manufacturer etc) and found the old one the entire shaft,spring and seal didn't seem connected to each other (i.e. the spring could move without the rest moving) where as the new one the spring etc moved as one.

I had this previously on my cap (aftermarket one) when i first got the car and it had a button that you pressed and it would release the pressure so you could check the coolant even when hot

Sorry for the long story but i though i better explain in relative detail

 

No that's great - more info the better . I had the exact same thing happen after hooning off a roundabout. And it was definitely the cap that opened - coolant overflowed out of expansion bottle by battery, etc. Thing is, my cap seems okay .

Anyway for the sake of a few quid, I've just ordered a replacement at the std 0.9bar pressure rating - I'll see how it goes ...

Really hope it's not HG - which i don't think it is as, like yours, it doesn't overheat or lose coolant when driving normally .

 

Stevie, brand new plastic replacments here:-

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SUBARU-IMPREZA-RADIATOR-WATER-BOTTLE-PLASTIC-BNIB_W0QQitemZ170290752490QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Ca rsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM?hash=item170290752490 &_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2|65%3A15|39% 3A1|240%3A1318

 

whats that statement based on?