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Old 11-03-2003, 10:52 PM   #1
azncandyman
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Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Fullerton CA, USA
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1998
Pear Black

Unhappy HELP!! my car is overheating!!!

First of I just wana thank everyone for reading my post. I drive a 1998 2.5RS with 130,000 miles (yes I drive a lot)
Engine mods: Air intake. Everything else under the hood is stock. I got the timing belt and water pump changed about 1 1/2 year ago.

Heres whats going on with my car. About 2 months ago a radiator hose broke sprun a leak and after I got that replaced and refilled the radiator fluid everything was ok for about 1 month. Then my car started overheating randomly and my check engine light came on.

I took it to my parents mechanic to get it fixed he said "oh the heat senser is malfunctioning and he turned off the check engine light with his mini car code interputer(forgot what it was called). He changed my transmition fluids and said you might need to replace the heat senser later.

Ok I figured the overheating problem was just errors in sensor but that doesnt explain when my car over heats my radiator fluids are gushing out the reserve tank. Heres what I can tell is going on...

When my car overheats the car air heater option works sometimes and sometimes it doesnt work. When it works I turned it on full blast and it solves the overheating problem for that time. But at times I would blaste the heater on full and it would be cold air coming out and my engine is overheating like crazy......I m guessing its a clog in the radiator system? I hope I didnt blow a gasket or something.... Please help me out and tell me what you experts think about why my car is overheating. Thank you all very much!!
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Old 11-03-2003, 11:04 PM   #2
Mulder
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'98 DOHC? Sorry, but most likely head gasket, this is unfortunately very common.
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Old 11-03-2003, 11:10 PM   #3
azncandyman
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yes.....98 DHOC.. oh yah! ...blown headgasket..... how much do you think thats gona be? and what would cause such a thing? water in the engine? reving too high? engine age?

Or mabe its somethig else.... what else could it be?

Last edited by azncandyman; 11-04-2003 at 12:31 AM.
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Old 11-04-2003, 01:55 AM   #4
White 2.5rs
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Hydra+HMist+PPG+35R=DEATH

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it happens in the 98's, their engine head gaskets were garbage and the mating surfaces i heard were trash

u do it urself, youre lookin at about 50 bucks and a headache, having someone else do it, 1000-1300

makes you sick to your stomach doesnt it ...

ive heard of plenty of the headgaskets blowing at around 80k miles just from wear and tear
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Old 11-04-2003, 03:20 AM   #5
azncandyman
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Old 11-04-2003, 12:07 PM   #6
hossak8
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98 2.5RS, 130,000 miles. One of my exhaust valves burned causing overheating due to the flame path exiting the cylinder and flowing into the exhaust port. The port was overheating and the coolant journal that services that port was boiling the coolant, hence overpressuring the system and blowing the coolant out of the overflow. The head gaskets on mine were fine. It was cheaper for me to replace the engine, than replace the heads. The engine ran fine for 3,000 miles, except for the overheating, but finally stopped running on #3 altogether. According to my mechanic this situation is showing up fairly often in the '98 2.5's. The head gasket problem has been around for a long time. Amazing there hasn't been a recall for these problems; oh........Subaru.........right.
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Old 11-04-2003, 12:51 PM   #7
White 2.5rs
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Hydra+HMist+PPG+35R=DEATH

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cylinder #3 seems to be having quite a few problems
cough lean cough
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Old 11-04-2003, 01:12 PM   #8
azncandyman
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wow that sucks.. I hope I dont have to get a new engine..... I m a poor college student.

Well I think it is a blown head gasket....and hope is nothing more.... I did some research online and my car had this water gushing sound when I drove it..a symptom of a blown headgasket.
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Old 11-04-2003, 01:56 PM   #9
linsavy
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You are lucky to get 130k miles before it blew. The only way to stall it off is to keep the coolant system in A1 condition.
One guy had some luck by bringing in the long thread from the legacy forum that documents about 40 or so failures. He then struck a deal with Subaru to get the parts free and split the labour 50/50 at warrantee rates.
The more you drive it around after your initial problem, the more likely for head will warp, then you need a new block.

This really should be a TSB and free fix if Subaru had some pride. Toyota has a similar problem with the 3VZE in the 4runner. I got mine fixed for free at 150k km as the second owner of a 6 year old truck.

The 1999+ 2.5l engine blow headgaskets frequently too, but not as often as the DOHCs. This is why Subaru's reliability scores are plummeting and moving into VW territory. The horrors.

I read of a guy the other day that blew the HG. Put in a salvage engine and that blew 10k miles later. Fun, fun, fun.
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Old 11-04-2003, 08:51 PM   #10
azncandyman
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WOW thats pretty damn intresting....if my cars problems continue I ll be PMing you to get some details about what you did. Thanks for the info. But for NOW my car is ok.

I was on the way to school and the engine started to over heat really bad. I stoped to cool if off and took it to my mechanic.

He said it was the thermostat that was cloged up or dirty. I asked him if it was the headgasket that was blown he said nope.

Cost me 45 bucks and I got my car back and its running good......so far
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Old 11-04-2003, 11:34 PM   #11
2pt5RS
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also check the thermostat, and the rad cap...my car was overheating big time, and it was one of those both times....hope that helps!!

Matt
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Old 11-05-2003, 01:48 AM   #12
azncandyman
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thanks Matt =)
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Old 11-05-2003, 10:57 AM   #13
outback_97
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Some more HG info / links here:

http://users.sisna.com/ignatius/subaru/headgasket.html

This might be useful to Phase 1 2.5 owners.

Steve
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