Hey Guys, have a problem that maybe some one can at least direct me in the general direction. One of my coolant lines (actually the bypass line I had for the throttle body) had worked loose, and coolant began to obviously squirt out of the line. I had pulled over and esstenially alowed the car to cool down. I then had walked to the nearest auto parts place and purchased a new hose and clamps (even though the hose worked loose, I did not want to trust the connections and the hose itself again due to possible damage from the hose touching the manifold). I reconnected the hose and topped off the fluid (which looked to be down about a quart's worth) and made sure the connections did not leak. Now here's the weird part, the stock water temp gauge show the temp to rise to about 4 fifths up the dial, this takes about 5 minutes of running to get this high. Not a quick rise, but a rise nevertheless. Also the overfill tank does'nt appear to lower in fluid level, but I did see a couple of air bubbles in the tank, almost like it was on the verge of boiling. Makes me think that I might have blown the head gasket, but there was no smoke or water vapor any where, no leaks or oil in the coolant. Although my oil temp did show a slow heating of the oil which makes me think that there is a problem in circulation of the coolant, at least from the overfill tank. I have scheduled an appointment tomorrow to visit my local Subaru dealership to have them look at the problem, but I wanted to see what possible causes this may be as I don't want to get snowed by the service bay for unnecessary work. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

- Henry

 

You probably still have air in the cooling system and/or stuck thermo.

 

Hmmm... a stuck thermostat was one of the things I was thinking might also be a problem, and if air is trapped in the system, ie from the exposed hose, short of a drain and fill, what other method could be used to purge the air?

- Henry

 

It's most likely just air. Take off the radiator cap and run the car for about 20-30 seconds, turn it off, top off the radiator with coolant, repeat as necissary (you'll see the coolant 'pop' air out of the filler if there is any that worked its way to the top). Beware though, if you have alot of air it could get a little messy as the coolant wants to rise out of the top of the radiator.