jellyculligan

thank you heartless, for your heartful response. I of course don't want to kneejerk to the HG, but am wary based on my murphy's law experience. :-) so here is the latest, I am overheating more often now , normally when I filled with coolant it would last a half hour or more, but I believe the "hole" to be getting worse. when the needle reached the tip I looked again to oil backflowing to coolant, good news is that the reservoir stays relatively green (give or take plastic grime on container) (no backflow of oil). I can see a lot of steam coming from the lower left corner, and then when the steam subsides I can see another culprit which is a tiny stream of hot water coming out the mid to top left of the radiator. I want to do a 40.00 check on this first, but it seems that even if I did replace the thermostat, that the radiator would still be an issue. now I just need to figure out how to keep it cool enough to drive it over to a reliable somewhat close mechanic in the seattle area, why are all the good ones seeming to be out in the sticks! I'm sure there are others, just a matter of finding them. Here's to it being the radiator so I can stop waiting 10 bucks a pop on coolant to get me 5 miles! Thanks again for all your input, it rounds out my opinion on what is going on and correlates to my experience. sincerely, kelly

Thanks so much gang! happy trails to you

You guys are the greatest. I wish I would have received the notificaiton about not putting the alumaseal or stopper before doing so last night, but it is done. I can see the drip still on the left side, ran the car around for 45 minutes in the hot weather, fan works, still drips and sprays coolant. Temp stayed at healthy level, replaced coolant although will use soap and rocks as suggested. I didn't see any back flow of the BP oil spill in my coolant reservoir as I did initially but of course the radiator is full now of the 50/50 coolant so it would have to leak out fully to reproduce the over heat. I didn't know that the sealant would cause problems. I will test it out today to see if it's sealed, however I can't find the specific location of the leak yet, it looks obvious on the left bumper side dripping but i have to look closer because I cna't see where it's coming from. I'm assuming it's not a water pump issue, but don't know how to tell that, it seems the glaring problem is the obvious leak. How would i tell if it's a radiator tube versus the radiator itself? Where is the flush valve so I can empty it? Sorry I don't have a chiltons manual yet and can't seem to find one online for a 90 legacy L. Thanks for the tip on Radiator Barn, there is one for 130, which is 30 bucks less than shucks. Really appreciate all the advice and guidance folks. can't wait to take this thing out camping and surfing finally! sincerely, Kelly

Awesome! Not that i needed to be right, but i figured this might be the case. I hope he's not too disappointed. :-) Thanks guys, K

Thanks nipper, Could you elaborate a bit more on why you feel the head gasket is blown? And thanks for the advise on the fluids to use, very helpful. I don't see the milky substance in the oil, nor do I see anything dripping from the tailpipe. When I let the car run after it overheated last night for some time no tell tale indicators of this. Thanks again, Kelly

Hello there, Any one local to Seattle, WA, have any thoughts on the best most reasonable and honest subie mechanics? There are probably a million of them here since almost every other car I see here seems to be a soob or volvo. I have heard Superior Subaru in Burien from the Shucks guy, but wondering if anything closer that can look at it soon. Thanks! Sincerely, Kelly

Hey there, This sounds like a ridiculous question, but I can't get a straight answer on whether mine is an AWD or 2 WD. I believe it's 2WD, I don't see any AWD indicator on the car, dont' ahve the official manual. My sube nut colleague says it HAS to be AWD because subaru didn't make a non AWD after the 80's but I"m not sure, because I'm seeing otherwise on the net for this model. I look in the rear under the car and didn't see a differential per se (if thats the wrong term I apologize), how can I for sure tell. The gear shift has this button on the handle that for the life of me I can't tell what good it does, other then light up the lamp that says Manual, but that only seems to be to indicate I shift from 1-D, which I could do anyway. Also there is a Power light next to that Manual light on the dash. It seems like a straight forward question and I'm leaning towards 2WD but is there a sure fire way to tell? Thanks folks, Kelly

Greetings subie brothers and sisters. I just bought this Subaru 90 black legacy wagon, love it,and hate it, only because I want to finally take this thing on a surfing trip but am beset by 20 year old car issues.. although it's new to me. I just replaced the alternator and battery, but 2 days ago I was in Seattle driving about 4 miles when I smelled something, noticed smoke on the hood, and noticed my thermostat was peaking almost to red. Never has done that in the 2 months I've had it. Before I left the house, I observed there was a little wet spot in the left corner of the bumper, on the road. I hadn't noticed that before, but I left without thinking too much about it. I pulled over right away and saw steam coming out the hood, opened it and the reservoir was completely bone dry. Also, i noticed the oil dip stick had almost nothing on it, but I replaced the oil about a month ago and put 5 quarts in. I'm assuming it was because it was running hot as it was over heating. I then was robbed by the local shell station as I had to buy coolant and 2 7 dollar bottles of crappy oil to get back home. As I drove home, it over heated in about 2 minutes, I parked again, noticed the reservoir wasn't empty completely, but half way so. My friend who helped pick me up saw that there was fluid on the left side of the grill and a stream of coolant on the grill and dripping out on the ground. an evaporated stream of fluid was also there. I finally got it home. The next day, I opened the cap, filled the radiator itself with cold water, which was almost bone dry. My assumption is that its been drying up for a while before i bought it and finally ran out or started leaking all of a sudden. I hadn't noticed the leak before though or any puddles but it could have. So i filed up the radiator. The concerning thing at the time too was, in the reservoir the "green" fluid was murky, dark. Indicating oil was in it. At any rate, I empted the reservoir refilled with fresh coolant. Started the engine, let it run for at least 10 or 15 minutes, it stayed cool, and didn't get higher then about a quarter mark which I was used to seeing it at. However, there is definitely a drip of antifluid coming out the left hand side of the radiator , left corner bumper. The left fan came on as well, the compressor clicked too but only when switching from heat to defrost. At any rate, after letting it run a couple times for 10 to 15 minutes, it never over heated but thats not with driving. So there is a leak, when parked, and it's slow and doesn't over heat right away now that the radiator is full. I don't see any milky residue in the oil indicating a HG issue, although there was oil in the reservoir initially, but then on the second sit test at home, the refill never was tainted, stayed green but that was just parked and idling for 10 to 15 minutes. Questions: 1) I'm hoping this is likely a radiator leak only, would you recommend putting some sealant and if so what kind? 2) I've heard a compression and fluid check should be done to see if there is a HG issue, can I tell by driving it around and trying to duplicate the overheat but not letting it get too hot? 3) Any reason the left fan (if looking head on to the front of the car ) doesn't turn on but the right one does? 4) Any other tests you would recommend before bringing it in to the shop? 5) Any other reason oil would get into the reservoir and can I try to recreate this by letting the car run for X time? (no water in the oil) I've triangulated via research on this forum, that it's either a head gasket (please no), radiator, hoses, thermostat, water pump. Since it's leaking from the radiator corner though I'm assuming radiator. Thanks for any help you can provide, Sincerely, Kelly "I just want my Subaru to run dammit" Dugan

you guys rock. I have good news to report, the score man: 1, machine: 0. or maye I should give the machine a half point because I cut myself on the plastic shards of the sealing panels). I looked again more closely, I actually had to take off the headliner, because, unless there are two locations (to clarify I did have the allen wrench, was just looking for the crank hole), this one was in the mid section of the car, about a foot or 2 behind the center light panel. So not sure how I could have gotten to it with out taking it off as it is covered by the headliner. however, maybe there is another wrench plug somehwere? I don't see why that would be the case, but subarus seem to have a lot of extra practical easter egg goodies. the only downfall is a cracked a couple things on the lining, but I guess thats' the price I pay for tearing apart an old headliner. and now my left front overhead light wont' work (the right one wouldn't either, but I screwed it in tight the wiring finally took hold it get it juice). no luck on the left one though. oh well. I would like to get that moon roof working and thanks for the suggestion on the contacts, I'm assuming you mean the white plstic box with wires that feed into it, and it plugs into the module? at any rate, at this stage i'm just glad it isn't raining in there. my main concern is alleviated and I want to thank everyone for the guidance, and zach, the coolest subaru dork at shucks auto supply who has given me gold nuggets of insider information on repair resources, tips etc. subies rule and now time to wipe the blood and grease off my hands cheers, kelly

thank you very much john and 2.5, appreciate the replies. I have spent the last couple hours taking out the headliner, and looking for the fabled allen wrench hole to manually close, but for the life of me I'm not seeing it. I l'll look again. can't seem to find any schematics online that would show where it is, iI see some wiring a panel that houses the sunroof, some motor like elements in the back. the clicking I hear though seems to come from closer to the dome light, not in the back where the motor appears to be. anywhoo, I will bring compressed air too, it's interesting because it worked to open and close a little yesterday when it was sunny, and stopped working when it was the same dryness, but I know these electrical things can be quirky. now i have my whole headliner torn out with no progress to show for it but perhaps I need a little more patience. any ideas of where this allen wrench hole might be on a 90 legacy? Thanks for the tips guys, Cheers, Kelly

Howdy folks, I just bought an old Subaru Legacy wagon, 1990. I love this car. Of course it has some warts, but man even if I were rich I would just keep on replacing the engine on this thing and fix it up. At any rate, one of the unfortunate warts I discovered yesterday, was that my sunroof/moonroof, will not close now. It wasn't working at all when i bought it, so I never tried to open it until yesterday, one of the first sunny days in seattle, it decided to work! Needless to say I was excited, I then thought about the fact it may not close, so I clicked close, and it retracted again so I thought we were all good and my sunroof was resurrected from the dead. my joy was hasty, because an hour later after parking I went back out and now when I click Close or Open I just hear a clicking sound, and of course it rained last night and likely will for the next few days (oh the joys of sopping seattle). I need to get this closed and not try opening it again until I have it looked at, but is there something I can do myself with tools to close this? I would really like to avoid going ghetto and putting plastic on top until I can get it fixed. Thanks for any help you can provide, Sincerely, Kelly "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my Head" Dugan