I took my '04 Canadian-Spec STi on an extremely long trip last month, and I thought I'd report to the group my experiences. It was relatively uneventful (but exhilerating) for the most part, except for one major hitch which put a bit of a crimp in the vacation experience.
Before I left I went through a full 48K checkup: rad flush, etc.
Turns out I needed some new brakes, and some new rotors. The rotors were about 50% worn through before the "just throw them out" point Subaru recommends. I was thinking of moving into ceramics, but it turns out that you need brand-new rotors for those or else they'll squeal like a stuck pig: the compound doesn't mix well with the glaze the standard OEMs from Subaru leave behind. Oh well, I guess I'll have to live with all the extra brake dust for the time being. I can do that.
Rather than pick up new rotors and re-learn the stopping characteristics of a strange set of (much cheaper) pads, I had a dealership part-way up on my trip machine the existing rotors and replace the pads with OEM STi pads. Screw the expense. They took off a bit more than I'd have liked, but told me they'd be okay until the next pad change at least. Ka-ching.. $1900. Better than a massive $3000 for a full set of STi rotors, the machining, installation, etc, I guess.
Then, when I was out in the middle of goddamn *no*where, I stopped to take a picture of a black bear and got a very curious (but subsconsciously familiar, from back when my '02 WRX had that head gasket problem) sickly sweet smell up my nose. At first I thought the bear had some kind of disease, but after moving up the road a few hundred feet I got that familiar sinking feeling like I'd missed something really important. I stopped, and keeping one eye on the bear tooling around in the grass, popped the hood. HUGE smell. Lots of fried green mess splattered around in the engine compartment. Like someone with a horrible mucous problem used my engine to blow their nose.
Looking closer, (tough thing to do) the main, large diameter hose connected to the radiator had a rubber sleeve on it, and antifreeze was leaking apparently from inside that sleeve, dripping onto a nearby line, and then dripping down from there almost directly onto the electric radiator fan, which was essentially atomising it and spraying it over every internal component (just about) in the engine compartment every time it activated.
Luckily no warning lights had gone on, and the current temperature gauge was right around normal. I checked the overflow reservoir and saw it *right* down near the bottom. Ouch!! But not empty yet!
I let the engine idle for a bit, not under any load, and poured our little remaining drinking water into it. (Low mineral PPM.) Of course the first two motorcycles that happened by couldn't spare any of their own drinking water for me. Grr. All I needed was about 250 mL!!
I limped on to the next stop, taking it easy on the engine, nothing above
2000 RPM, eyes like a hawk on the temperature gauge, and rumours of the temp gauge being "just another idiot light" that stays put unless something horrible goes wrong flying around in my head. After all, it was staying put. Right where it was. No movement. At all. Up, or down.I bought a bunch of drinking water and filled up the overflow reservoir to the "full, hot" line while my wife ferociously read through the instruction manual about coolants and what to use and how to replace the coolant and so on.
I couldn't reach anything though, because as it turns out the socket wrench kit I brought with me for just such an occasion was imperial while the nuts for the intake vent right overtop of where the leak were metric; to top it off, the nearest imperial sized socket big enough to fit, was also just big enough to spin on the nuts! FUCK!
We limped on, and eventually I made it to a payphone (about 300KM.) I called my wife's dad, who's a great mechanic. He told me a few interesting things: told me water was okay, check to make sure there's nothing black in the overflow, don't mix red & green types if I do manage to find some real antifreeze, drive it easy for now, etc. Thanks, Dad #2!
I also found out that Subaru CARE doesn't give technical support. Doh. To be expected, I suppose.
So like clockwork, every 60 KM, I'm refilling the overflow with water and we're getting nauseated by the ripe smell of frying antifreeze on the hotter engine components. The temperature outside was about 25 C according to the outside temperature gauge, so to prevent the horrible smell entering the cabin we left everything (everything!) off and cracked the windows slightly.
As the evening grew colder and the temperature dipped to 10 C, the overflow no longer needed to be filled with any more water and it looked like the car was basically in thermal stasis. Unfortunately it was getting dark, and if I did get stuck, I would've been screwed hundreds of kilometers from anyone, and dangerously close to some really nasty wildlife. (Wolverines, bears, moose, etc.)
Eventually (about 700 KM later) I get to the next town on the map, and it had a Subaru dealership in it. Into a hotel we went. Let the gouging begin!! $150/night! I couldn't help but think of Joseph and Mary. Sure, we weren't giving birth to anyone special, but $150 friggin dollars for a tiny, cramped little room with no airflow? I was definitely feeling like some kind of unwilling martyr..
I checked on the Internet later and found the exact same room as ours was normally $110. "Sorry sir, that's an Internet-only deal." Dammit, Westmark! And there's an Internet terminal right over there in the lobby..!
The next morning I started the car up and tried to drive it to the dealership. About five minutes into it, there's the smell, there's a hissing noise, and I pulled over into a parking lot and popped the hood. Water was spraying everywhere from the hole, all over the place. Big leak. The overflow was emtpying steadily, so I shut off the car and reassured my good friend STi that I'd get the best care for him. It was heartbreaking. My wife had to console me..
Meanwhile, the antifreeze and water I'd put in the night before was sizzling and steam was billowing up in front of me. Argh! My buddy! Plus, for everyone who thinks the STi's engine temp gauge is "just another idiot light," it turns out you're wrong. It rose slowly and accurately, and came back down similarly when I shut the engine off. Subaru roadside care sent me a tow truck and off to the local dealership we trundled.
So what ended up being the problem? At first I thought that all those goddamned bugs that were clogging up my rad were the problem: the extra heat was putting new stresses on the radiator hoses and they popped on me. Then I came to my senses after their mechanic (who himself owned an STi--a huge confidence-builder) told me that the larger rubber hose was rubbing against the smaller, hotter metal one and that generated a hole. After all, the car's a badass rally champ. A few bugs in the rad? Gimme a break..
Anyway, he replaced it (after a lengthy week-long wait for the replacement hose to be flown in,) thoughtfully washed down the engine, and I drove off, a happy camper. (Literally.) It took about five or six carwashes with careful water-spraying later before the smell finally began to leave the vehicle.
I'm going to have a chat with my dealership about this; I'm now due for another servicing (thousands of KMs, I told you) and there's going to be words exchanged. I also have before and after photos.. god bless digital cameras, I say. ~70 photos prior, and another 70 after of the entire engine compartment--which is how I noticed that prior to the fix there was a sleeve on that hose, and subsequent to it there wasn't.
The mechanic who fixed the problem told me that in all the STis they'd sold (five or six) not a single one had had the problem mine did. Apparently those people were damn rough on their cars... Wayyyy rougher than I, by his descriptions. He was baffled. I'm baffled too.
Well, chalk it up to experience: bring a proper socket set next time; make sure there's lots of water to drink; check all the fluid levels I can; bring some heat-proof tape.. ah, but really: who can predict these kinds of problems?
I'm back in civilisation now.. but the bug's bit me. I drove thousands of kilometers, and now this city I live in feels tiny and cramped. I didn't go far enough.. Not Far Enough! If I don't need jerry cans to make it to the next station that can give me 91 octane and some booster, I'm not far enough!
lol
Best trip I've ever taken, even with the rad hose hiccough. The car was a dream come true. Next time I'm using my summers though! Screw those mushy all-season Pirellis..