Setright

There is air in my coolant. Well, some sort of gas 'cause in the morning there is the sound of a babbling brook inside the cabin. Presumably from the heater matrix. NOW, I would of course suggest HG's to anyone who asked me on this. However, the car is four years old and has only 45k miles on it. And NO, it's not an EJ25, it's the EJ201 as mentioned in my signature. I opened the rad cap one morning to try to catch the air "red handed" and idle it out of the system, but there was coolant to the brim of the radiator. Midday today, on a medium warm engine, I opened it again, and there was the tiniest drop - probably just not finished sucking from the overflow. Idled it for a few minutes 'til it hit the brim again. Just got home and thought I'd look at things before switching off. Popped the hood and a look in the overflow tank revealed a slow stream of bubbles. (My old Legacy used to do this for AGES after a coolant change...) Engine still running, squeezing the upper radiator hose, it does feel softer than I recall from my Legacy, but I can't be sure that the pressure is too low. Yes, I will get the dealer to give a new cap - only bought the car three months ago - but I just needed to share this with everyone. It seems others are experiencing the same things at the moment - very odd.

Stop whining! Gas is more than 6 dollars a gallon over here :-(

I haven't done it myself. The bolt needs to be in one specific place, it's not tighten for more or less camber. You would be hard pressed to hit the right adjustment when installing new struts. You might be able to do it when you're re-installing the old ones, but forget it with brand new struts, you can't be sure that they need the same amount of correction as the old ones, so reference points will be useless. Replace the rears soon, and get it all aligned with a machine.

I concur, but offer this: In the year 1996 2WD was dropped, but I expect the AWD only models are all tagged 1997.

My Legacy had a "closed" chip, ie. round and no lines, in the lower passenger side, and it didn't grow in 62k miles of driving. So, you can be lucky. The car had it when I bought it, and it was too old to fix. The middle of the sandwhich will turn white if you inject glue after it's been open for a while. Proper fix involves a total vacuum on the area, drilling a tiny hole through the crack, and injecting the glue at the base, so it fills bottom to top. No cavities that way ;-)

Well, I do love to sound arrogant, so here we go: "Gunk"? What gunk? I left that stuff behind when I switched to Mobil 1 !

How much smoke? When the diode bridge in the alternator goes, there will be the distinct smell of burned electronics, and a small amount of smoke. Not thick, not belching, just like an idle cigarette. There is likely to be an audible whine when the diodes go, because the AC current isn't being rectified. Should be easy to hear through the speakers with the radio on. It could also be a seizing water pump bearing, which will cause the cambelt to drag on the water pump drive wheel, and eventually smoke - burning rubber smell.

For sure don't drive it anywhere until you know what's up.

Hmm, I believe my 6k intervals for oil and filter are working well. 8k would be the absolute maximum. Having read the study: Consider that VW/Audi leaves oil changes up to 30k miles! WITHOUT filter changes along the way.

Yep, latex gloves are my cure against oily hands for a week after an oil change. Also, torque the oil pan bolt to the recommend 40Nm (30lb/ft), that way it will come off easily. Same with the filter, hand tight only, don't force it. It's much easier to control the oil spillage when you're not fighting to undo stuff.

Yeah, what they said.

Ermm, Frag, surely those options should read: Normal, "Fry-Your-Catalyst", and economy :-)

Well, if you trust everyone who drives the car to keep a very watchful eye on the temp gauge - every two seconds or so - then you can leave it a bit, while you save up the money. If you can't be sure that it won't be allowed to really overheat and warp the heads and seize the psitons...change the HG's now. Oil seals, cambelt and so on would be good to include....

Absolutely! It makes a world of difference. I never assemble anything without filling a section of the threads with copper grease.

The sort of HG leak most Sube engines develop is the sign of a high-quality gasket, and head-to-block design. I know it sounds stupid. The leak is TINY, and it's compression/exhuast gas moving from the cumbustion chamber into the coolant passage. This will slowly force coolant backwards out of the system, via the overflow tank. Under some circumstances, where the engine is worked hard and then suddenly allowed to relax (coming off a highway) the engine will overheat abruptly due to vapour lock in the water pump. All the tiny bubbles of compression/exhaust gas that have seeped into the coolant, collect in the water pump, and due to the pressure drop across it, expand and leave the impeller running in a big gas bubble. Hydrocarbons should really be present in the coolant, but if only exhaust is making across the leak, there will be CO and CO2.

Drill them, usually releases enough of the tension in the thread to allow you to pull/rotate them out. Otherwise, drill them and turn them out with a bolt extractor thingy, a screw with a reverse thread on it.

Hmm, maybe I should start exporting Mobil 1....I run 5W-50. Not too thin, so vapour loss is not a problem. Why on earth don't they sell this visco in the states??

Switch to synth at any mileage. Worn seals will leak. Not the oil's fault. Don't believe all the myths!

Yes, your engine is port-injected. No, I can't tell you which vacuum line to use - but others here can! I use Redex to clean up my engine, and this is the only product I have tried that actually makes a noticeable difference. Never tried seafoam, though,

Aye! The Bi-turbo V6 is also sharpish in the speed stakes...326 horsepower ;-) Although, the Maser won't really cut it in the reliability part of the GT equation.

LOL! Tiny, good comment. However, there are some, like the Ferrari 456 that I mentioned. And Subyluvr reminded you of :-) The Maser isn't new by the way, in the late eighties there was a quattroporte that had the misfortune of looking similar to the Hyundai Stellar !

In the book "Catch 22", a fighter pilot tries to escape from being assigned to a dangerous mission - certain death - by pretending to be insane. A court finds that any attempt to avoid the mission is proof of the man's sanity. Not sure that is parallel to the CEL thing :-) "Catch 22" is more complex than a simple contradiction.

Tell me about! My front plate obscures most of the radiator opening in the bumper on my Impreza. We'll never lose them in Denmark, to many speed photo-traps that take pictures from the front.

Oil level in boxer engines is mysterious thing. Ask people who drive VW bugs and buses, and some of the older Alfa Romeo's too. Porsche 911 doesn't count, because it's dry sumped and you check the level with the engine running - accurate every time!

Most likely the open filter is causing you to floor the throttle more often ;-) Try babying it for a while, I am sure you mileage will improve.