Radiator/AC turns off temporarily

[Scrub]

Originally Posted by Ultramaroon

fans?

Hi both fans were running oddly enough. Thanks for following up though!

And thanks everyone for your comments. I ended up bringing the car to my dealership today. For anyone interested, they are saying that there was an internal gasket leak and will replace a bunch of components including bleeding and replacing the coolant. Does this sound right? Everything is covered under warranty (as it should be).

They expect to work on the car for about a week. In the meantime I'm driving an outback that they've given me as a loaner.

[Scrub]

Originally Posted by extrashaky

This is a good point. That dead spot is at least 40° F wide. If it's moving above the middle detent position, the coolant temp has to be getting well above 220° F.

OP, if the aux fan is coming on, you should hear it. It sounds like a train in the distance.

Heat soak when coming to a stop after a highway run... I'm not that familiar with how boxer engines manifest symptoms, but in other vehicles I've had, that sounds an awful lot like early signs of a head gasket problem.

Stupid question: Have you checked your coolant level?

Oops didn't see this until after my last comment. Coolant was fine, but you were right about the head gasket. Thanks!

Any ideas on how to prevent this kind of thing from happening again?

[extrashaky]

Originally Posted by Scrub

Oops didn't see this until after my last comment. Coolant was fine, but you were right about the head gasket. Thanks!

Wow. I'm surprised I was right. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

Originally Posted by Scrub

Any ideas on how to prevent this kind of thing from happening again?

The only thing you can really do to prevent head issues is to keep the cooling system in good condition to avoid overheating. Unless you overheated it badly at some point, this just sounds like you were unlucky enough to have an engine with a flaw. It happens. It doesn't sound like it went long enough to cause major damage, so they'll likely be able to fix it and send you on your way.

There are two sets of symptoms that happen when you have a head issue. If it's a combustion leak, hot exhaust gases will spew into the coolant and boil it at that location. You get weird temperature fluctuations and gases trapped in the coolant system. Green coolant will precipitate out this horrible red mud when it boils, and that shit will eat water pumps. I'm not sure how the blue coolant handles boiling. I don't want to find out.

You can confirm you have this type of leak with a combustion leak tester you can get from Amazon for $50. You stick a thing on the radiator filler, and it turns a different color if you have exhaust gas in your cooling system. You can also do a compression test or a leak down test, but that would probably be a lot of fun in this car with the spark plugs on the bottom.

The other result of a head issue is a leak of coolant into the oil. This is the more insidious problem because you don't always know it's happening until you've already done engine damage. Coolant in the oil will eat bearings, usually starting with cam bearings. If you ever notice your oil level rising between oil changes, that's an indication you have coolant leaking into the oil.

Once upon a time you could detect coolant in your oil by looking at it and seeing a milky appearance, but the detergent packages have gotten so good that you can have a lot of coolant in your oil without seeing any visual difference. The best way to detect smaller leaks is to get into the habit of sending off an oil sample for analysis at a lab at every oil change. I use Blackstone, but there are others. It costs $28, and they send you an oil sample kit for free if you fill out a form on their website. I consider it cheap insurance. Plus it tells you a lot more about how your engine is wearing than just the water content.

Personally, if this were my car, I would send off an oil sample at your next oil change no matter what to make sure the service department got everything sealed back up properly. An oil analysis can also help detect if there was any bearing damage from coolant entering the oil.

In your case it was probably just a combustion leak, and it sounds like you caught it before it turned into major drama. I would just check the oil to be sure.

[Scrub]

Originally Posted by extrashaky

Wow. I'm surprised I was right. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.



The only thing you can really do to prevent head issues is to keep the cooling system in good condition to avoid overheating. Unless you overheated it badly at some point, this just sounds like you were unlucky enough to have an engine with a flaw. It happens. It doesn't sound like it went long enough to cause major damage, so they'll likely be able to fix it and send you on your way.

There are two sets of symptoms that happen when you have a head issue. If it's a combustion leak, hot exhaust gases will spew into the coolant and boil it at that location. You get weird temperature fluctuations and gases trapped in the coolant system. Green coolant will precipitate out this horrible red mud when it boils, and that shit will eat water pumps. I'm not sure how the blue coolant handles boiling. I don't want to find out.

You can confirm you have this type of leak with a combustion leak tester you can get from Amazon for $50. You stick a thing on the radiator filler, and it turns a different color if you have exhaust gas in your cooling system. You can also do a compression test or a leak down test, but that would probably be a lot of fun in this car with the spark plugs on the bottom.

The other result of a head issue is a leak of coolant into the oil. This is the more insidious problem because you don't always know it's happening until you've already done engine damage. Coolant in the oil will eat bearings, usually starting with cam bearings. If you ever notice your oil level rising between oil changes, that's an indication you have coolant leaking into the oil.

Once upon a time you could detect coolant in your oil by looking at it and seeing a milky appearance, but the detergent packages have gotten so good that you can have a lot of coolant in your oil without seeing any visual difference. The best way to detect smaller leaks is to get into the habit of sending off an oil sample for analysis at a lab at every oil change. I use Blackstone, but there are others. It costs $28, and they send you an oil sample kit for free if you fill out a form on their website. I consider it cheap insurance. Plus it tells you a lot more about how your engine is wearing than just the water content.

Personally, if this were my car, I would send off an oil sample at your next oil change no matter what to make sure the service department got everything sealed back up properly. An oil analysis can also help detect if there was any bearing damage from coolant entering the oil.

In your case it was probably just a combustion leak, and it sounds like you caught it before it turned into major drama. I would just check the oil to be sure.

Hi, thanks for all of your help so far!


I got a call from my dealership today and apparently there is a leak in the short block as well - manufacturer defect. They are going to replace that entire section of the engine with no cost to me but they may need to hold it for another week.


Do you have any advice or comments on this? I am frankly getting tired of driving this outback loaner and I feel like I can press to lemon the car since in MA (I believe) cars can be lemoned if in the shop for over 14 days (or something close to this anyways). I am really concerned that this is just the beginning, and the car will continue to have manufacturer defects which just haven't popped up yet.


I am just so frustrated since this is basically the first car I purchased out of school and now I am having to deal with all of this for the first time. Throughout school I drove a 2000$ integra which looked like junk but never failed me...


Sorry for the vent, and thanks again for all of your help (and everyone else's).


Anyone else, feel free to chime in.

[extrashaky]

Originally Posted by Scrub

Do you have any advice or comments on this? I am frankly getting tired of driving this outback loaner and I feel like I can press to lemon the car since in MA (I believe) cars can be lemoned if in the shop for over 14 days (or something close to this anyways). I am really concerned that this is just the beginning, and the car will continue to have manufacturer defects which just haven't popped up yet.

They should be able to return the car to factory condition or pretty close. However, I can understand that you may have difficulty having confidence in it after this. So it's really your choice whether to return it under the lemon law or give the repairs a chance. How much do you like the car otherwise? Will you be happy with something else? Do you have to lemon-law it now, or can you wait and do it if you do have additional problems later on?

Although a few head issues have popped up on the board, this is not a common problem. So please don't write off the entire model because yours was defective. Manufacturing is never perfect, and most car models have some go terribly wrong for the unlucky among the owners. There have been some people who lemon-lawed their cars only to trade them for the same model, while others are so soured on the experience that they opt for something else.

Good luck.