Zosojojo Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 Hello Subaru brethren. I have a major problem that needs attention. One week ago I tried to change the clutch. After finding that the clutch set was the wrong size, I cleaned of the old set with brake cleaner and put it back together. I lost a clutch fork clip so I rigged utility wire around the bearing to keep it together. When I started it up, It gets to the point on the temp gauge where the fans should kick on. It waits awhile staying the same temperature, but when the fans come on the temp gauge skyrockets almost to red. While driving the temp gauge gets all the way to red. I have replaced the water pump, thermostat (and gasket), radiator (and cap), engine temp sending unit, rad temp sending unit, and rad hoses. I have taken the thermostat out, put the housing back on and blown threw the hose to see if the engine pathway is blocked (it is not). The oil looks fine, the trans fluid looks fine, and the coolant is burped and topped off. No leakage of any kind. When the temp gauge is in the red, there is no extra heat or steam to be found, no smoke. The only thing left in my mind is a cluster issue or a grounding issue. If anyone has two cents to throw in I would greatly appreciate it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turbosubarubrat Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 When the engine is up to temp, is the coolant bubbling with the radiator cap off? If it is it has a blown head gasket. To make sure it's not a clog drain all the coolant and flush the system with a garden hose for awhile. Fill up with water until you find out what the problem is. Have you tried burping on a incline so the radiator is higher up? Could have a air bubble blocking off flow. Was the temp sensor replaced before or after the issue? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5LOYALE Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 Sounds like a bad gauge or coolant temp sensor that is having an intermittent failure as long as ur sure the head gasket is good!! But u will only know if it's bad or not unless u TEST it. The big kicker in your case is that it jumps as the fans come on making me think a bad ground but ya never know. There are several ways to test a head gasket but I find the blue fluid test for combustion gas in the rad is the easiest and quickest way for the HG. Those gauges are hooked to a coolant temp sensor that is the signal wire for the gauge which is a variable resistor and as the coolant temp rises in the engine resistance in the sensor goes down and give you your reading on your dash gauge. U can do an ohms test on the coolant temp sensor it's self with a basic multimeter. U can also test the gauge by ground it out and see if it's does a full sweep of the gauge scale.. Hope this helps.. E. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zosojojo Posted July 23, 2015 Author Share Posted July 23, 2015 Thank you for your quick replies. This problem started the moment I put it back together after the clutch job. I should have mentioned this previously, 256000+ miles. After the failed clutch job, I put in a new temp sending unit on the engine and the radiator(and all the previously mentioned work) . When I installed the new rad I had it jacked up in the front, and ran it with out the rad cap. There where bubbles in the fluid when the engine was up to running temp. The oil looks like oil and not a oil/anitfreeze mix but I'm not sure if that's a sign on these engines. When I got the thing I was looking for the timing belt haha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zosojojo Posted July 23, 2015 Author Share Posted July 23, 2015 the problem was exactly the same before and after all work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zosojojo Posted July 23, 2015 Author Share Posted July 23, 2015 I am going to do a head gasket test, but the thing drives the same way it did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turbosubarubrat Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 Sounds like a blown head gasket to me. Especially if there is a constant stream of bubbles with the engine running. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zosojojo Posted July 23, 2015 Author Share Posted July 23, 2015 Thank you turbosubarubrat and 2.5loyale. I am now going to drink and grieve..... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ihscout54 Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 Zosojojo, did not really confirm the presence of any head gasket symptoms. He mentioned bubbles after warmup but he also has done quite a bit of cooling system work. As 2.5LOYALE said you have testing to do. Do the fans cycle or just stay on constantly? The first thing you need to do is verify that its actually overheating. Youll need access to a infrared temp gun, or a mechanical temp gauge. You really cannot put alot of faith in stock gauges. If you do end up having to do a head gasket, then you can redo your clutch job. Its only time, oh and money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdweninger Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 sounds like you may have hooked up your temp gauge to your radiator thermo switch. Like, when the fan kicks on (due to completing the ground thru thermoswitch at 190), then your guage is then grounded as well .... leading to full red on guage. I would ask an auto shop to get a temp reading with their infrared ... or maybe borrow one from a parts store. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zosojojo Posted July 24, 2015 Author Share Posted July 24, 2015 Thank you my brethren for all the replies, I sincerely appreciate your opinions. The attention has been amazing! Drove it to work today, it did similar things except this time it didn't go to the red while driving. The gauge was still higher than what I'm used to. After work I returned to the forums. I then walked to Napa and bought a blue fluid test (part #: 700-1006) and an infrared thermometer. I drained the radiator slightly so no coolant contacted the tool. I made sure the fit was snug on the radiator. When the engine reached running temp there was no change in color of the fluid. This was frustrating and relieving at the same time. Then I used the ray gun to look at the temp of various parts of the engine and exhaust while running. At idle no parts of the engine exceeded 200F, in fact most parts varied between 160F- 180F. The fluid in the radiator was around 105F. One thing that did make me wonder was that the passenger side exhaust (the one with the pre-heater hose) was around 300F while the driver side was about 400F. I let it run for about 15 minutes. The fans would come on then shut off, then come on and so on. All the while I was attempting the blue fluid test and ray gun test. The gauge in the cluster still indicated that I was running above average temp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ihscout54 Posted July 24, 2015 Share Posted July 24, 2015 You have discovered one disadvantage of having such a powerful tool at your disposal. Uncovering an oddity, like the mismatched exhaust temps, is not surprising. Since your sitting at idle i wouldnt worry too much about it. Could simply be a difference in where the laser was hitting the pipe. Perhaps its just because the pipe is a little longer on the driver side with an additional bend (especially with the cheapy aftermarket cats). Maybe its a vac leak or valve adjustment issue. More testing would be required. Back to your temp gauge reading issue, you need to drive the car and fully warm it up. The fans kick on at 205ish degrees radiator temp, and off at like 195 or so. Since they are cycling, especially at idle, ide say your not overheating and coolant is flowing. You mentioned 105 degrees, where was that? Does it seem that the other gauges read high? Was your battery weak after you installed everything? I have found that any time there is big load on the alternetor my temp and fuel gauges read a little higher. Not overheating but noticeable. So a weak battery and dual fans kicking on is enough to upset that reading, its gotten better because the battery has been slowly charging by your tinkering. Just a theory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5LOYALE Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 Thank you for your quick replies. This problem started the moment I put it back together after the clutch job. I should have mentioned this previously, 256000+ miles. After the failed clutch job, I put in a new temp sending unit on the engine and the radiator(and all the previously mentioned work) . When I installed the new rad I had it jacked up in the front, and ran it with out the rad cap. There where bubbles in the fluid when the engine was up to running temp. The oil looks like oil and not a oil/anitfreeze mix but I'm not sure if that's a sign on these engines. When I got the thing I was looking for the timing belt haha. The temp sending units u installed May have something to do with ur temps reading weird possibly a mix match on years or variation in resistance. Did the gauge work normally before you changed the temp units? On the blue fluid test did u suck air into the chamber with the blue fluid? If u don't make it bubble with combustion gasses from the rad it will never change color...just curious..that is if there is gas in the rad.. With not having a oil coolant mix or overheating I doubt your head gasket is bad... just my 2 cents Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zosojojo Posted July 30, 2015 Author Share Posted July 30, 2015 Hello all! The issue must be wiring/ cluster related. I took the thing on a 20+mile drive. The temp gauge is around normal when nothing is on. When I turned on the heater core, blower motor, wipers, and head lights the temp gauge shot up to red. When I turned all of them off the temp gauge returned to normal. Thank you (everyone) for all of your help. I guess the next thing to do is take the neg. cable off the battery while it is running and see what happens... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zosojojo Posted January 21, 2016 Author Share Posted January 21, 2016 It was a grounding wire. The wire that connects the tranny to the unibody was broken. After attaching the wire to the tranny the gauge worked properly. Thank you for your time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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