2002 Forester cooling system woes

Hopefully, it's just your radiator. The worse situation would be a head gasket leak, because that's much more expensive to fix. I had this situation on my 2000 OBW early on, and it got fixed under warranty thankfully. It was a head gasket leak. I would see the temperature surge for a few seconds, and then it would settle down to normal again, and then surge again. Caught it early and got it fixed.

Yousuf Khan

Cixcos wrote:

Bubbles in the reservoir tank COULD mean something like a stuck thermostat/bad radiator cap.

I think you should try to some more analysis. The 'external leak' most folks mention means you likely would see hot coolant dripping under the car somwwhere.

We have a '99 with 120K, and an '02 with close to 160K, and not a whisker of engine woes. The notorious head gasket failures are, I think, mostly in the DOHC 2.5l engines. I don't know if any of these made it into the first gen Forrys. Anyone? What I have seen, tho, are leaks at the radiator cap, thermostat housing, various hoses, and once in awhile (but never on one of ours) a weepy sort of external leak at the head gasket. These will consume coolant slowly, and it's entirely possible that, unless you regularly monitor the coolant level, you may simply have run low over time. I'd top it off, (and do so with the nose up so any trapped air can work it's way out), and watch it for awhile before worrying about it too much. Unless it is going into the combustion chamber, you can add a cup or two of coolant now and then for a long time with out issues. If it _is_ going into the combustion chamber (head gasket failure; you'll see white exhaust smoke, and it will smell sweet), or it is leaking more than a once-in-awhile top-off, alas, _then_ start to worry about a fix.

ByeBye! S.

Steve Jernigan KG0MB Laboratory Manager Microelectronics Research University of Colorado (719) 262-3101

Check the radiator and the water pump for leaks. If the HG was blown, you'd see steam from the tailpipe, unless it's a really, really small leak.

On my '89 GL Coupe, I had a small leak from the HG on the driver's side. I used Bar's Head GAsket Repair:

I mixed it and filled the cooling system according to instructions, and that was ~2 years ago and still no leak. I had a couple small leaks and it worked well.

However, on my Legacy wagon, the leak was on the exhast side, so the exhaust keeps pushing the stuff out and it can't fill the leak... :(

Oh, and I also made a small 'bypass hose" and bypassed the heater core. Since this car is for winter only the last thing I wanted was a plugged heater core!

When you're done, you have to flushthe colling system again. And again. And again. And again. I think replacing the head gaskets would have been FASTER!

A don't panic, start with basics. The overheat is just loss of fluid. Look under the car for leaks. 90% of head gasket leaks are from the drivers side, and they are not limited to the twin cam engine. A decent leak will show on the crossmember of the eng, as also said, look at the radiator for leaks. If it is a small leak and you can't afford repairs at this time, many just learn to watch the antifreeze level. The repair will be your decision. The trick is getting the air out of the system. fill the radiator up, start it and see if the level drops. top it off and put the cap on. over fill the reservoir. let the engine run till it gets warm. set the car heat on vent and full hot. feel the air until you get nice hot temp from the vents, watching the temperature. if it starts to over heat, shut the car off, turn on the a/c and key on and let the fans run until the car cools, open rad and top off and do this again. you want hot air from the dash and the eng fans turning on automatically. Be sure you are not running the car in one of the two defrost modes as the fans will cycle with the a/c. You may need to hold the engine rpm at 2000-3000 rpm to get the engine hot enough to cycle the cooling fans. Once you see a stable vent temp, engine temp and the fans have cycled, turn the engine off, key on with the a/c on again. when the engine is cooled, you should loose the overfill in the reservoir into the rad. test drive