rbwrx

Yesterday, while driving on 680, the temperature gauge of my 2004 WRX (134k) slowly climbed all the way up to and passed the red mark. I turned the heater on full blast but no hot air came out.

I managed to get my car back home by driving on the side streets and stopping once in a while to let it cool down but as soon as I start driving again it gets hot right away.

When I popped the hood open I noticed hissing sound coming out of the radiator and that it was steaming. I also noticed a pool of coolant on the bottom floor as well as on top of the radiator.

With that said, is this just a matter of replacing the radiator or do I also need to get the heater unit replaced? Is there also any damage resulting from overheating that I should look into? Are there any shops preferably in Fremont that would be able to help me get this issue resolved? Thanks for your help.




Thanks,

Rich

slugrx

iTrader: (12)

Hope fully you didn't compromise the head gasket
As far as radiator goes, get an aluminum one that doesn't have ****ty plastic parts that can rupture

I got a koyo radiator my self

rbwrx

Thanks. Is there anything I should look out for to see if the head gasket is damaged?

And thanks for the radiator suggestion.

STi-owns-evo

iTrader: (4)

Heater didn't blow hot air most likely because the coolant level was so low, there was not enough heat transfer to the heating unit. Once you fix whatever happened and get coolant in there, it should work.

Since you passed the red line, and with how bad the factory gauge can be, you may have damaged the head gasket, as someone else posted, or you didn't do anything at all. Check for coolant in your oil or get it tested at a shop. There's a device to see if you're getting exhaust gasses in your coolant. A popular Suby shop in Fremont in Speed Element.

The hissing sound and steam is the heated coolant and pressurized air due to lack of coolant shooting out of a small hole or crack in your cooling system. It could be as simple as a pinhole leak in your hoses or a busted radiator. Try to see if you can find any cracks in the radiator plastic end caps, near where you say you saw pools of coolant.

I don't know how long you're planning on keeping the car, but there are two options to go with a new radiator. An OEM style Koyo is about 1/2 the price of a full aluminum one. Your stock one lasted 130+k miles vs you'll never have this issue with an aluminum one. I went with the OEM style Koyo because I'm not sure if my WRX will hit 260k miles and the cost of the radiator + labor + hoses + fluids etc on a Koyo OEM was less than the cost of only the Koyo full aluminum radiator in my case.

slow04wrx

iTrader: (3)

hmm this may be bad news. Check the oil and see if it's frothy or anything.

Generally if you aren't overheating at idle it's not your radiator or fan, if your car is overheating at speed only that is bad. Usually you want more air to cool the car and speed is what keeps you from overheating. If the radiator and fan are some how cooling the car back down at idle, I would say you have got a blown headgasket or worse.

The heater on can help slow the overheating if you need to get to a safe place, however the heater should obviously be blowing hot. If there was not enough coolant for the engine to blow hot air, I don't think the car would be able to normalize it's temp idling.

Krinkov

iTrader: (21)

are you sure its the radiator thats leaking? did you check the upper radiator hose?

LifePlaza

+1 your plastic radiator lasted 130k miles

An aluminum radiator is nice and all and I highly suggest those for people who do track duty and for the sake of increasing capacity of their cooling system. If track days are not in the cards, an aftermarket OEM replacement will work just fine.

joltdudeuc

iTrader: (6)

Take it to RBMS is Hayward

RBMS Auto Care - Hayward, CA

Tell them Gagan sent ya

rbwrx

I wasn't able to find the source of the leak even when the car is running on idle. I did notice some leaked coolant on top of the radiator as well as the pool of coolant on the plastic bottom floor. The upper radiator hose doesn't show any visible cracks.

Speed Element has moved to San Jose so I'll give RBMS Auto Care a call. I've also dealt with Kevin at AHQ in the past so I might give them a call also.

Thanks, I will most likely get an aftermarket OEM one.

I really appreciate all your help guys, thanks!

Rich

strider327

iTrader: (10)

Pmed Ya.

LifePlaza

fill the system back with water. Idle the car till the fans come on or when T-stat opens

This same thing happened to me a few years ago. Upper hose was fine and sealed. Radiator developed cracks at the plastic tank at around 130k. When the coolant expanded it would leak through the top of the tank and onto my fans which were on and sprayed all over the engine bay. When it got really hot, the coolant would eventually **** through the hole.

Here's mine when it went bad:


Aside from changing the radiator and cap I also checked if there was exhaust gases in the coolant.


near the bottom of the pic you can see 2 streams of water pissing out.

stupidchicken03

iTrader: (38)

When my OEM radiator went out (around 105k) I replaced it with a CXracing all aluminum one. For my year (02) it was something like $165 shipped. They are in SoCal so I got it within 3 days or so.

Have a few friend/people I know running them and have had zero issues. I personally have been running mine for about 3 years with no issues.

Borno

+1

I had this same issue in May. Car would seem to be fine at idle and didn't show any leaks, but as soon as I got going on the freeway and the coolant had a chance to heat up it would come shooting out of the upper radiator hose onto the alternator shroud. But by the time I pulled over and got out to check it, the leak was no longer visible.

Hook up a pump and pressure gauge to the top of your radiator. If it doesn't hold pressure or coolant starts bubbling out of the seams at the top, it's time for a new radiator.

Due to the fact that you have a visible coolant leak, it's probably either your upper hose or radiator itself, but you can test if the thermostat is working by letting the car warm up and feeling the temperature difference between the upper and lower radiator hoses. Obviously the lower hose should be cooler, but not by much. If the lower hose is much cooler then you have a thermostat/waterpump issue and the coolant isn't circulating

Overbear

NO! how many times do I have to go over this, do not get an aluminum radiator, get a full brass one, with brass tanks. Aluminum is slower to disapate heat, its not repairable if you get a hole, and are far more suseptable to dammage.

Always, always go full brass/copper, yes its going to be 25% more in cost, but they will last 100% longer in time and even if you get a leak, it can be fixed with a propane torch and a little solder.

UKn00b

If your concerned regarding potential head gasket failure have whomever does the repair work run a CO test pretty much any shop should have a CO sniffer to test the PPM.