Isabelle

Hi, Thanks for your answers. I couldn't really do what you asked me about the radiator as I don't know where the caps are. However I finally brought the car to my regular mechanic whom I trust very much. He did all the test and confirmed the head gasket issue. I found a place to have it replaced for a reasonable price. I guess I should just not have trusted the person who sold me the car saying everything was ok... Thanks to you all for your advices anyway

Hello, I bought last week a Subaru Forester 2.5XS 2003 with 168K miles. The car and the engine looked clean and nice. The timing belt was changed at 140K so pretty recently. The car belonged to a compagny for most of its mileage and I though it was a good sign as they might take good care of their cars. The woman who sold it to me had it for just a few weeks and said she'd just bought it but it was to small for her family and decided to buy a bigger one. Anyway, the first time I drove the car the engine temperature gauge when sky high even if it was -5 F outside and I'd just drove a few miles. Since then, I only drove it a few miles at a time. Sometimes it's ok but most of the time as soon as I drive more at than 2500 rpm - like a hill - the temperature increase really fast. On the way down (the hill) it would decrease as well as if I turn on the heating. But when I open the hood it doesn't look that hot either. The coolant is not boiling, the engine is not smoking. It's not smelling hot or anything. I am actually not sure the engine is hot but i can't put my hand on it to check, can I ? I already had the thermostat changed. At that time the mechanic changed 2 hoses that he told me had gotten too hot at some point. For the HG, I can only say that except when I start the car, there is no white smoke going out of the exhaust. A friend told me that the exhaust doesn't smell like anti-freeze. I took it as a good sign. I checked the coolant and there is that orange stuff in it that my mechanic called a sealer. The coolant has already been changed twice (in 2 days) but that stuff's still in there. Could it clog the radiator and be the problem ? My mechanic tell me his bet is that the water pump is not working or it's the head gasket. Anyway both are expensive and I have no way of being sure that one or the other will fix the problem. I already spent 800 dollars in that car in a week (other small but expensive stuff needed repair - like the engine for the windows). The mechanic told me that with that mileage i should just trade it or get rid of it. I read a lot of post here and from what I got it's not always THE HEAD GASKET as mechanics seem to say. There might be more simple and cheapest things to look at first. Any advice would be most welcome.