Hi all,

I am really hoping someone might know about a problem I am having with my 02 WRX.

Last Friday, the car suddenly overheated and virtually all of the coolant leaked out in a big green waterfall.

About a month ago, I had my oil changed and at the time the service guy showed me that the coolant reserve was near empty, which seemed odd...I could see it being low, but not near empty. We topped it off and that was that...then last Friday's overheating occurred.

Before towing the car into the dealer, I topped off the reserve tank and radiator and ran the car for about three minutes to see if the temp would stay low (per the dealer's advice). It did not. I look in the coolant reserve and see there's a cloudy white-grey-black stuff floating around in the reserve. I called two dealers and they both told me the same thing-it's probably a blown head gasket. When we got it to the dealer, all the coolant I put in it was gone but no fluid leaked externally. Again, the dealer said blown head gasket.

Today, after looking at it, the dealer claims it was not oil in the reserve, but instead some nearby lubricant that got in there and the leak was due to a bad hose. They said there was no engine damage and I don't like the fact that the first thing they told me was it was probably a blown head gasket.

For some reason, I just dont believe that because the first thing two dealers told me was it was probably a head gasket issue. This is the second time my engine has had to be torn open to fix something internal in 30K (it had all 4 pistons redone at 30 and has 63K on it now). I've already had the engine practically rebuild on SOA's bill and I suspect they dont want to dump more warranty work into it.

I am really concerned and unhappy with my WRX having problems like this in just 63K. Can anyone tell me if they've heard of a lubricant getting into the coolant reserve? Can a bad hose cause all that to happen? And why was there no external leaking after I topped it off?

I'd totally appreciate anyone well versed in WRX engines to chime in. Please.

Thanks-

 

To find out if it is a blown head gasget, you can do a compression and leakdown test. It will MOST LIKELY tell you if the gasget it busted or not.

 

I believe they already did that. The dealer said they aren't sure what got into the coolant reserve and it still doesn't explain were a large amount of coolant is leaking to...there's been no leaking on the ground at all, so where would it all go if not outside of the engine?

 

This probably is why they told you the headgasket was the culprit, however I thought only the oil turned cloudy/milky as the coolant would leak in through the jacket, not the other way around

 

Hmm...well thank you for chiming in. It's kind of a mystery it seems, so I asked them to clear out the reserve tank, add clean coolant and I'll just have to watch it for a while. They couldn't explain what it was. One thing still bugs me is that they said the radiator hose was cracked, but if it was already loosing coolant in the reserve tank, then why was there never an external leak of coolant with a bad hose? I think the hose busted Friday night and there's possibly something else wrong they didn't find.

It sucks too because I just paid the car off two weeks ago and for whatever reason, all the cars I've paid off have all decided to get crappy right after.

 

Overheating is usually head-gasket or thermostat related... not much else causes it.

I'd be willing to bet it's a head gasket since it's already been torn into once... do you know if they added cooling system conditioner when they did it?

 

I believe they added the conditioner around the time they redid the pistons at 30K.

The service guy described it this way:
The foreign stuff in the reserve tank was not oil, but the conditioner. The top radiator hose cracked probably Friday and the leak may have been very small before that happened.. He said the reason there was no puddles of coolant when I'd have it parked is because the pressure that would build up due to driving would cause it to leak from the top down while the car was running for a while. When the coolant got so low, it blew the hose Friday and that's when the green waterfall happened. I asked about the coolant conditioner not mixing with the coolant in the reserve (the stuff that looked like dirty cotton, white grey cloudy). He said that the conditioner coagulates when it hits the air and when the overheating occured, the pressure must have pushed the conditioner into the reserve, exposing it to air thus causing it to coagulate.

Ever heard of that?

SOA wont cover the hose either. They think the car is fine and wont approve anymore work. The dealer first replaced the hose and coolant, and then did the leakdown compression test and stated all pistons were firing fine and there was no hydrocarbons present.

Thanks for chiming in guys. This really helps me get things straight with the dealer!