Hello,


I took in my Forester to my local mechanic shop for 4 things: alignment, tire rotation, steam coming from radiator area and replace a section of my muffler. After the repair (last wednesday), my girlfriend and I went on a drive to Toronto, Canada for weekend getaway. As soon we drove back to Rochester, NY - car started to show strange increase in the car temperature (above average) when I sped my car in 70+ mph range. It fared without any increase in car's temperature when I maintained the car at 60-65 mph range. I took the car back to the same shop for check up. The shop figured that I might have a defective t-stat / coolant hose. They replaced it under warranty. On the same day, mechanic and I drove around and it seemed okay. Until I decided to drive aggressively on my own - I certainly noticed a big change in car temperature. It doesn't handle well with aggressive driving or driving uphill. I would've taken it back to the shop but the shop was closed. I figured that I'd post here to see what could be the possible scenarios.

Here is the write up note from the mechanic from first car shop visit:

"-FOUND BROKEN SECTION OF EXHAUST SYSTEM WHERE REPAIRS HAVE BEEN MADE IN PAST, REMOVED OLD SECTION THAT HAD ROTTED OUT AND INSTALLED NEW SECTION OF PIPE. INSTALLED NEW CLAMPS. EXHAUST SYSTEM NOW FIXED, NO MORE LEAKS FOUND IN SYSTEM. -($75.00)
-PRESSURE TESTED COOLANT SYSTEM FOR ANY LEAKS. NO LEAKS FOUND NEAR RADIATOR ASSY, FOUND SIGNS OF LEAKS AT ONE POINT IN TIME AT THERMOSTAT HOUSING ASSY, REPLACED STAT AND GASKET, REPLACED UPPER AND LOWER RADIATOR HOSES AS WELL, HOSES WERE OLD AND STARTING TO GET TO POINT OF POTENTIAL PROBLEMS, FILLED WITH BLEAD AIR FROM COOLANT SYSTEM. NOTE HEAD GASKETS ASSY STILL SEEPING ALITTLE OIL BUT NO COOLANT. VERY SMALL LEAKS AND CUST SHOULD HAVE CHECKED EVERY ONCE AND A WHILE. NOTE NOT A MAJOR PROBLEM AT THIS TIME JUST WANT CUST TO BE INFORMED OF THIS, MAY LAST A LONG TIME LIKE THIS. -($150.00)
-ROTATED TIRES -($25.00)
-COMPUTER ALIGNED FOUR WHEELS AND CENTER STEERING. ($82.50)"

Pricing for parts:

Exhaust pipe> $36.16
Muffler Clamp> $8.26
Upper Radiator Hose> $24.62
Lower Radiator Hose> $19.68
Thermostat> $12.90
Gasket> $2.37
Antifreeze> $18.00
Hose clamp> $3.88

Total cost: $542.50 (Labor: 332.50 / Parts: 169.81 / Tax 40.19)

After the trip to Toronto, took car to shop for second time and they replaced the T-stat and refilled the coolant. That is covered with the warranty. I noticed bubbles in the coolant tank before I took in the shop and the temperature almost hit to red part of the temperature. I had to pull over and shut off the engine to let it to cool off. I thought it was strange that I had to drive slow to maintain the correct t-stat. I never had this problem before. It's frustrating and very costly for me. I am definitely feeling like I haven't done anything right with the car.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. For your information, I'm absolutely noob with the car and I wish I could do more with the car repair. I'm not even sure what I can tell the shop to look/fix. I'm deaf so I can't tell if the car is running right or not. Only can tell if the car's acting up or not by visually or vibration.

Thanks in advance for any help offered.


Car Mileage: 68.273
Steam came from radiator area ( top radiator ).

 

My Forester had a leak somewhere, and it turned out to be a bad radiator and radiator cap (which actually was on the little metal reservoir near the engine on the XT).

Bubbles in your coolant reservoir? Maybe they didn't bleed it enough? Head gasket seeping oil? That's not good. It could be blowing combustion gases through the head gasket. I'd check for proper bleeding first. The Forester XT is hard to bleed completely because of the surge tank and the little fill tank and no way to fill up the radiator directly without removing the top hose.

Can you see where the steam is coming out from with the hood open?

 

Something is very wrong here - are you sure the radiator fans are working? Seems like a simple enough thing to look for, but your experience here is very strange. My WRX is coolest when it is on the highway at 80 MPH (192 degrees) and heats up the most when it is standing still (201 degrees) - this is normal, because at a standstill air is not being forced through the radiator by your forward movement. If I have the A/C running, the temp is even lower on the highway, sometimes as low as 186 degrees. Try running your A/C and see if that changes your overheating threshold. But this is my third Subaru, and faster = cooler radiator temps is normal, not the other way around (unless you are in third gear banging off the rev limiter).

 

Seems to me like a blown cylinder head gasket.