![]() ![]() I mean absoutely zero pressure, the top hose was slack. I sqeezed the top hose and found no pressure. I put the new cap on at the dealer, drove home, opened the hood and noticed the expansion bottle right on the verge of frothing over with boiling coolant. Regarding the "no pressure" thing, here's what happened: Still, I suppose I could've been wrong (shudder!) Probably, a little latent heat(in a head near an exhaust valve matbe?) after shutting the engine off causes a 'geyser-like effect' and after the 'phase change' removes heat from that location all goes back to normal again. The less well/strongly they seal, the more towards 'normal' boiling point the coolant's vapor pressure moves. This was 2 weeks ago so your very detailed post led me to conclude (accurately we hope) that you have a bad rad cap. So i just stopped by and spent $8 on a rad cap from Autozone and 'Voila!' no more gurgling! 'mousse' on the oil cap/dipstick no bubbles in the radiator itself. No oily reside nor driveability problems no sweet smelling exhaust no white exhaust vapot no choc. I thought - "Geez I do NOT want to fix headgaskets and then sell this thing in a few months" - but after really thinking about the problem I realized I had no other sysmptoms that should be assoc. Always just 2-3 seconds of gurgling after stopping. No temp gauge abnormalities, no major coolant loss. All the talk of headgasket problems here and on other forums sorta had that issue in the forefront of my conciousness when the Dodge Avenger that is my daily driver (hopefully to be replaced early next year by probably an OBS) started 'gurgling' after any lengthy trip. The thermostat was changed about five months ago to cooler zerosports unit (it's 13F cooler than stock). The rad-cap is original, so I'll pitch in a new one Monday and see what happens. So out of curiosity, I opened up the overflow yesterday and saw bubbles. Subsequently, any spirited blast would produce the gurgle and then the squeeze-air. Squeezing the top hose, I was able to force trapped air out of the overflow hose. The coolant level isn't dropping any.īackground on the problem: About a year ago as I was parking the vehicle after a spirited blast up the road, I heard a gurgling sound, like the water pump cavitating on air in the cooling system. I had the plugs out last month to have a look-see and saw no "washing" on any plug. Likewise I find no evidence of coolant or moisture in the oil. Nope, no oil residue in the overflow tank or any exhaust smell for that matter. When do you get bubbles? is there an oil residue near the top of the tank? any more info? Rad caps and thermostats are usually changed as a pair, but I have found that Subaru thermostats tend to last a very long time, much longer than the rad cap. The local dealer in Boulder Colorado wanted to pull the engine and change the head gaskets, but I insisted on a thermostat and rad cap only and I had no further problems once this was done. I had a total failure of my rad cap on my 93 Legacy, and as a result the engine burped out almost half of its coolant through the overflow. If this pressure is not maintained, the boiling point of the coolant drops and you can get overheating, boil over, bubbles, and loss of coolant. I would have guessed 4 to 1, but Canadian winters are much harder on engines than German winters which may equalize the ratio a bit.įYI: The radiator cap pressurizes the cooling system to between 12 and 15 PSI (usually 13 PSI on a Subaru). ![]() According to the German magazine Autobild the Phase I has an 8 to 1 ratio for head gasket problems verses the Phase II. ![]() Phase II's do blow head gaskets, but a lot less frequently than Phase I's. The yellow particles have not returned (yet). I recently tested the coolant for hydrocarbons and the test was negative. I was due for the first coolant change at 48,000km, so I changed the coolant and cleaned the radiator cap, and thus far after 12,000 km the coolant level has not changed. The seal on the radiator cap and the radiator fill was contaminated with yellow particles. I was really worried about the head gasket, but no hydrocarbon or pressure test could find anything wrong with the head gaskets. I had the bubble problem too and I also lost about 1 litre of coolant over the period of a month or so in my 2001 Outback. ![]()
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