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ACK! What the heck is that sloshing noise?!?

I have an '02 WRX Wagon, 26000 miles. (I'm in Canada, so I say it has

42000 km).

Anyhoo.

I'm heading in for servicing this weekend because I'm a little concerned about oil consumption. I also want to have a rattling noise taken care of - something under the right side of the dash rattles when the car is at really low rpms - idling below 1000, or occasionally as the motor lugs a bit as I pull out into first. This noise doesn't happen _all_ the time, but I'd say 80% of the time. I'm sure it's nothing serious; it's just annoying.

I drove into work this morning, and after I killed the motor I thought I'd fire it up again and check for the noise. I started the motor, turned off the stereo and fan, and let the motor idle. I heard the rattle, as expected. But then I revved up to 2000, and heard this bizarre sloshing sound! Sounded like it was about a foot or so behind the center of the dash. Could that have just been fluids thrashing around as the motor revved up? After a couple of revs it stopped. I have heard that kind of sound before, but not quite that loud.

Anyone know what that's likely to be? I have read posts that sloshing noises could mean a blown head gasket. Spooky.

Thanks for any comments!

Cheers,

Doug W.

Reply to
BD
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Sounds like coolant circulating through the heater core, which is right at the location you indicated. Probably nothing to worry about as long as it didn't persist. There could be some air in the cooling system, has it been serviced recently? Trapped air is a known issue with the early WRX's. The rattle could be a loose heat shield.

Reply to
mulder

No, I'm due for my next service now, and am going in on Saturday.

The heat shield idea sounds familiar. This is something that was happening last year - they sorted it out, but apparently not all that well. Too bad I'm not much of a DIY car owner, or I'd be in there sorting it out myself. ;)

Reply to
BD

Maybe that's for the better. I was swapping the rear anti sway bar for

20mm one from WRX sedan the other day just to discover that I have to cut the 12mm sway bar bushings to fit the new swaybar. Well, I ordered the new bushings to fit the new bar better just to find out that the parts guy ordered the 16mm bushings for the wagon instead of the 19mm ones for the sedan. Duh. Well, anyhow, I modified those and as I was replacing the 12mm ones I noticed that I'm missing the bolt that connects the sway bar to the endlinks!!! Apparently I either should've blue loctited the nut or applied more torque when I was installing the new swaybar. So no matter how a simple a job looks like there is always an opportunity to screwup. Better leave that to a professional mechanic. Oh, sorry, automotive technician :-)
Reply to
Body Roll

Yeah - I tend to be a 'bodger' - so in my case I'd likely be in there looking for places I can jam some epoxy or expanding foam in between the heat shield and whatever it's rattling against to shut it up. Probably not prudent.

Reply to
BD

No, not prudent given that the heat shield is part of the exhaust and reaches a temperature of many hundreds of degrees. Not a place to use foam or other flammable materials.

Reply to
mulder

Maybe there are some heat resistant varieties of Be-quiet/Dynamat that are available to the general public? But, obviously, you need to find the root cause first.

Reply to
Body Roll

And since this has been fixed once already, I'll ask for a clear explanation so that if it's required again, I'll know off the top of my head what's wrong.

Reply to
BD

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