I have a 2002 wrx 5speed . 16g , injectors , fuel pump, sti top mount, tune and all that good stuff..... I am 80% sure I know what the problem is with 1 of my symptoms but I am wondering if this could be contributing to all of my symptoms. My car idles at what seems to be a low idle and has trouble maintaining a steady idle. on a cold start it is above 1k like normal but seems to be stuttering a bit. at warm idle it really stutters. When the car is at operating temp and i am driving under 2500 rpms I get no heat out the ducts with the heat turned on high. I only get hot air above 3k. Also, at times, my temp gauge will spike very high and then seems to go back to normal after only about a 30 seconds or so. My first thought is my thermostat needs to be replaced. Now I am thinking after some research that maybe a clogged radiator? If it is just my thermostat, could that be the contributing factor to ALL of these symptoms? Please help me out guys. I want to get this fixed cheap and fast, if possible. ITS COLD OUT!
I would definitely start with the thermostat for sure. You may want to have the radiator and cooling system flushed as well.
also what temp lvl anti freeze you running and what mixure lvl possibly freezing up a little as well??
I did check the level and it was fine. I have no idea what the temp level is. The last time I did anything with my coolant it was at the subaru dealership so I assume they used the correct coolant.
I am going to swap out my thermostat and do a coolant flush tomorrow. Is the OEM thermostat in an 02 wrx a 195 degree? I will report back.
All done! Finally getting hot air out of my ducts and the vehicle seems to be allot happier. Only problem is, when i was putting the thermostat housing back in, I snapped one of the bolts from it by using too much force. Yes, I am retarded. Any ideas on how to get it out to put a new one in???
Sears has kits you can buy that will hopefully get it out for you. They are pretty cheap and work pretty well. Drilling and tapping it would be tough.
Seems to me that the guy said it wasted 30 minutes of his time, gave him a check engine light and disabled his cruise. Sounds like a wonderful idea!!!
An easy out should get the bolt unstuck. Sea foam is not a terrible thing. I have had good luck on older engines with scuzzed up sensors and the like, but I doubt it does much for carbon deposits. The piston soaking method can help with sticky rings, but that doesn't work on boxer engines. You are better off using a quality fuel, with some good additives in it and cleaning pre-engine components by hand. FYI, the "burn off" the video lacks is not carbon deposits being evacuated, but the sea foam itself burning. You can achieve the same result using water or almost any other liquid. He didn't get any, because he took forever to administer it. 1/3 of a can usually takes me under a minute at roughly 3,000rpm. That introduces it fast enough to have the smoke show sea foam is famous for.
Awesome. Thanks for the info. I am concerned with using an easy out as I dont want metal shavings to get into the coolant hose. Any pointers?
You can shove rags or paper towels in any open passages and they will catch any shavings. Then just pull them out when you are done. There really shouldn't be a need to change your oil after using sea foam as demonstrated in the video. It is not a bad idea, but not necessary. when ingesting it in to a running engine only a small amount will get past the rings in to your crank case, even less so on a boxer (gravity isn't helping it). It is also less necessary if the engine is properly warm when you do it (as it should be). It IS necessary if you use it in two other common ways: 1. You soak the rings by putting a teaspoon directly in to each cylinder (as mentioned above, not possible or useful on a boxer) or 2. you add 1/4 bottle to the oil to clean passages. In the case of the latter you want to change your oil pretty quickly after adding it. I have heard numbers ranging from 30 miles to 100. I would probably do even less.
