I seem to have fixed my previous misfire problem, but today while driving I noticed smoke coming from under the hood and the temp gauge was spiked. We opened the hood and it looks like the coolant sprayed out the top of the coolant overflow and hit the hood, spattering all over the inside of the engine compartment. It looks like there was sediment in the coolant that sprayed out with it, and some of it is still left in the radiator cap opening. The coolant overflow is also bone dry now. The sediment almost looks like fine sand, it looks brown. Have any of you guys seen this before? Or have any idea what happened? Im an idiot, its a 2000 Outback. So 2.5. The oil is clean though, so I don't know about the head gaskets. The only place coolant came out was the over flow.
Rust/sediment. Coolant should be changed every 30-50k EVEN WITH EXTENDED LIFE COOLANT. Remember, its actually only HALF COOLANT, the rest is supposed to be distilled water. If you use just plain tap water in your 50/50 mix, you're probably better off with old coolant. Hard water deposits are horrible. Anyway, check your entire cooling system. Check for rust, and clean/fix anything that is rusted/corroded.
does the coolent have black chunks? does it overheat when on the freeway? does it have 90 to 120K miles? h/gs are so common on that motor its un-real, in fact probably every one will blow headgaskets at least once
I heard that the 2000+ engines were much less prone to blow the gasket. I don't know about overheating on the freeway because I haven't driven it on the freeway yet. There is NO coolant in the overflow and doesn't seem to be any in the engine, since the heater blew ice cold when it was turned all the way to hot. Does that imply that there is no coolant transferring the heat to the heater core? The car could barely make it 3 blocks without the needle on the thermomoter pegging. The car has 64k miles.
I see plenty of 2.5 SOHC engines that have head gaskets go. If there isn't coolant in the engine, STOP RUNNING IT! If the heater is blowing cold and the temp needle is spiking that is a very bad thing indeed. Get the car towed to a shop, you'll be doing head gaskets. Hopefully you didn't damage anything by running with no coolant.
We did stop running it immediately, as soon as I noticed something was wrong. The plan is to get it towed to a shop.
wel they are much less prone to internal failure, however they are 10x more prone to external leaks, coolant on the drivers side, oil on the passenger, but lets start off small, swap out t-stats, it could be stuck.
Well, it was coolant on the drivers side, that is for sure. EDIT: The good news is that my outback has the 8yrs/80k miles head gasket warranty since it WAS brought in to get the coolant additive when the service bulletin came out. Any recommendations on where to take it? Someplace close to the intersection of Snelling and Como would be best because its near there.
It is the headgasket, but there is no external coolant leak so it isnt covered by Subaru. And its 1300 to fix. This is just awesome. Is a headgasket at all doable DIY?
you can do teh headgasket yourself bu tyou will need to pull the motor, and most likey replace the timing belt while your at it.
Thats the typical going rate. But honestly, the fact that you had to ask if it was possible to DIY then means that it may be best left to a professional. It is a huge undertaking for the regular backyarder. Ring around a few places and see what you can get.
if its through subaru i doubt they will cover it if you do it yourself, take it to the dealer, also, on the SOHC 2.2 or 2.5 you dont hafta take the motor out, in fact its easier to leave it in.
Yeah, I think the plan is to let the dealer do it and replace the water pump and timing belt while they are in there. All that coupled with the ignition components that I replaced should take care of maintenance for a while I hope.
