Setright

Yep, the front rad is for the air-con. That's why the engine temp will tend to rise: All the heat taken from the sun-drenched cabin is being deposited right in front of the radiator that's supposed to cool the engine. Did your temp gauge indicate overheating, or just a slight increase? I've never had any stopleak or similar in my cooling system. It's a 2.0 liter and there have been no HG issues. I flush my radiator and cooling system with pure water only, and refill with Shell premix 50/50. Always before schedule. In between flush/refills I empty, clean and refresh the overflow tank, since that's where a lot of "snot" tends to get deposited by the cooling system. So, I seriously doubt my rad is blocked....but your experience could indicate that I may be wrong. As far as I can see, there's nothing blocking inbetween my radiators, but perhaps I need to look more closely. Oh yeah, my 90k mile old thermstat was coated in white too. Please report back on your findings

The engine needs to be lifted up a few inches to allow the oil pan to come off. IF, indeed that's what's leaking.

Do you mean that car-width black plastic shroud? I drive without it that on for trackdays and very hot summer days. It keeps your engine room clean and your aerodynamic drag co-effecient down, but the engine room temp rises.

bump

Well, a good oil might be able to reduce the noise a little bit, but new bearings are the only proper cure. I've been there, done that. Drain the oil, if it's full of metal shavings, you'll need to start considering a rebuild. Main shaft bearings were a weak point on the 1990 models. If you wanna try the oil thing, I would suggest either a thick mineral oil, like a straight 90W, OR a strong film synthetic like Valvoline Synpower. Perhaps the price will help you decided which to try first

In Kilometers: Standard copper core plugs are listed in the handbook as lasting 25,000km. I was doing 45~50,000km a year. Platinum would've been fine, but NGK seem to have gone off the idea in Europe and Iridium was the only choice for stretching the plug service interval to 100,000km.

Well, I fitted the NGK Iridium plugs in my engine, but the main objective was to avoid replacing the standard spec splugs all the time. I was running into changing them twice a year to do mileage. Since gaining access involves removing the air intake on one side, and the battery/sprinkler tank on the other, I was getting fed up. The Iridium plugs haven't given me any discernable advantages - you'd need a dyno run before and after to measure the minimal gains. Fancy multide electrode stuff is often rejected by Subaru engines, so that's not worth any extra money.

Well done, that's pretty good going timewise. What I want to know now is: Did it work??? My car started running a little hotter than normal at ~80mph and 3500rpm constant highway with the A/C on in similar temperatures to those you describe. Not overheating, the needle just moves up to halfway along the scale, instead of being just below the mid point as I have been used to. All in all, about a needles width higher. Still in the normal range. Was your temp needle moving up and up or did it just find a new level like mine does?

Thanks Cookie :-) I think searching for "coolant replacement" should bring it up.

That front beam might be possible to pull out, and the car could come up straight if it's done right in a jig. I would chose to cut it off and seam weld on a new beam. That's the best way to ensure that a subsequent crash (God forbid!) would again leave people inside the car unharmed. Pulling out the old one will increase the risk of it just breaking and not absorbing any energy from the impact.

"It is not always true that you get what you pay for, but unless you pay for it, you certainly do not get it." The eloquent Leonard Setright in CAR Magazine, April 1990 (I stole his name for my tag/alias)

Very glad to hear nobody was hurt. The car has a strong frame and that's obviously a big factor, but my lord! If you had ended up in the river On LosDios comment, I would tend to agree. However, men and women cause accidents and "near misses" for different reasons, but probably in the same amount. Over-confidence - on the part of us males - is just as dangerous as the panic associated with a lot of women drivers.

Top off to the FULL mark.

Get under the cowling and clean off the old (stiffening) grease. Lube up with fresh grease. I'll bet that'll make a big improvement

Sorry, I'm a bit late to the party. I would say the chance of the rad cap being the cause is 90%. My Impreza did exactly the same thing. New cap, and it was back to normal. Good on you for noticing, I reckon this is how a critical overheat scenario starts...slowly the coolant leaves the system and suddenly there's an HG warping overheat.

The risk is pretty small with a normally aspirated engine. A turbo engine should never be subject to less than the handbook requirement.

True we can all make mistakes and overlook stuff, but that is outrageous! I'm glad your belt didn't jump an kill your engine.

Get some small plastic bags and rubber bands to seal: Brake fluid reservoir, alternator, dipsticks, ABS pump <-expensive part to bust, power steering fluid reservoir. Disconnect the negative battery terminal. Rinse engine, spray with diluted engine degrease, leave for ten minutes, agitate with a small (1 inch) paint brush, rinse off. Let dry, remove bags, hook up battery. Presto!

Have a look for lose/leaking hoses and such around the brake booster.

No, it's not worth getting someone else to do it! There's a drain plug and you fill via the dipstick, easy peasy. Wrap the exhaust pipe in silver foil before draining, that way your car won't reek of cat urine if you spill trans oil on the exhaust! For filling, get a foot length of hose that'll slip snugly into the dip stick hole and attach a funnel on the other end at user friendly height. Fill three quarts and let it sit level overnight before topping up. It won't take the full capacity listed in the manual since some of the old oil will not drain out. Flush is not needed. (And I strongly recommend Valvoline Synpower 75W-90)

Nothing to lose sleep over! I don't bother trying to warm it up, but I do flush a bit of new oil through before screwing in the lower plug. Of course I am a man for details - and sometimes I wonder if it makes a difference You're way ahead of all the people out there who drive until things break down, rear diff oil is often overlooked.

Fuel filter could be the culprit. Sometimes the oil leaves the valve lash adjusters when left standing, they take a few cranks to fill up. Until they are, the valves don't open.

Nice one Nipper, you covered everything (We only differ in the details)

BMW 850 is the first car I heard of that does that. How old are they? Almost twenty?

I believe the reason for Nitrogen in airplane tyres is minimize fire risks in case of a blowout. Magnesium rims on planes. Dangerous combo if you lose the tyre and strike sparks on the runway, the nitrogen quells the tendency of the Mg to burn.