The Sizzla

I thought the 4EAT on my 156k 04 Forester X just had a sticky seal or something, but something seems to be up with a sensor or the TCU. I've been able to reset away bad shifting behavior three times now - it starts re-learning it after a few tanks of gas.But, once it's learned the flares it does, it stays at that level and doesn't get worse. What I get is the 1-2 2-3 upshift flare when it's cold for the first few changes through those gears, and then when I'm on the highway I'll get the 4-3 shift delay/bang-if-you-don't-lift. It doesn't act up around town after it's warmed up some but the highway bang-a-rang is consistent and irrelevant to temperature or time running. It has no codes whatsoever - the only off thing it does after having the battery off for a few minutes is it will half-catch and die the first time I crank it. The second time I crank it it does the usual rug-gug-gug-brrmm. Not sure if this is normal for a first start after resetting the computers? I've changed the fluid twice with Valvoline's supposedly Subaru-okay "Import Synthetic" ATF (about 12 quarts through it altogether at this point, I think) but otherwise I haven't done anything to the car but replace the alternator. The first change was a bit dark but not burnt, and again, the transmission only progresses to this slightly-annoying flarey state and never further. Could something like a slightly off TPS be causing this? Is it an 04 TCU program problem? The closest sufferers I can find are people with 00's H6 Outbacks, but nothing I've found on them has gone beyond just pulling the cable once it annoys you enough.

I somehow neglected to mention that my car will eventually overheat once enough coolant has been displaced. If yours does not, the leak has simply not gotten bad enough (or you are catching it before it overheats - I could drive mine around the neighborhood and top up the radiator from the overflow and it'd be fine). I understand why the shop would turn you away for these symptoms; bubbles do happen naturally as part of the standard system, the difference is when the bubbles are from exhaust gas and not normal venting from high internal temperatures. Normal venting will also not cause a froth or a foam on top of the coolant. If you put a lot of money into the repair, drive the car around nearby the shop until it's starting to brim the tank, then find a place where you can drive it relatively hard in a few short bursts. At that point it should really be doing a bubble-churn in the tank and be pretty undeniable. Your video shows what my car did while I was testing it at full temp but before it would actually overheat. I could not get it to overheat in the driveway alone. These internal leaks require a lot more exhaust pressure and heat output to show themselves. As the leak "opens," you will get more of a froth in that foam and your upper radiator hose will go from firm to floppy as the system loses pressure. The fact that it does not go down again (though I would tug the top black tube that goes from the side of the radiator cap into your overflow bottle just a little to make sure it's not stuck against the bottom) is because this is not gas forming from heat within the coolant, it is gas that was not previously present in your cooling system. This prevents the pressure differential that allows your bottle to get sucked back down again later from happening. tl; dr this should be something the shop fixes. You just have a very very very minor leak and the given symptoms from your video would look the same to a tech as someone who overfilled their overflow on a normally-operating car.

I just painstakingly confirmed the same in my 91 Legacy. It has a very minor HG leak - exhaust into coolant only. Which means no goop on the oil cap, nothing out the tailpipe. It will scoot around for about 10-15 miles from dead cold until the engine becomes hot enough to start venting into the coolant. How do I know it's not an air bubble? I got ALL of the air out. Massaged the heater lines, ran it with the driver's wheel up on a ramp and vented the cap 2-3 times at temp, let it sit overnight, drove it, burped it again, refilled, let it sit AGAIN, burped and refilled AGAIN - then drove drove drove, ran great, then finally filled up the overflow to the brim again with a nice half-inch head of foam. The car was well cared for before me, so the only telltale was this great volume of gas that I know I vented fully from the system before my last drive. There was a very faint welling of oil when running (teeny pinhead-size drops would appear from below in the filler neck sometimes when running) but that's it. When it's below max operating temp you'd never have a clue. Probably never would've shown up if I only ever took it to the store and back in a day. I have an Ej22 so I can get away with Fel-Pros and a cleanup. Considering how minor my (and your) leak is, it's doubtful that your heads are warped - the leak is opening up only when the engine is warmed through completely AND when it has to deal with the top end of a heat cycle. You've caught it early, yay! I spent a solid week researching and testing since it was so hard to tell if it was just an airlock - I had just changed my thermostat before this happened. Since it doesn't sound like you've cracked your system open at all since this problem started, assume HGs.

I pulled the old thermostat - it had 4 big (1/4in?) holes drilled around the perimeter in addition to the smaller manufacturer bleed hole. I tested it on the stove and it's OE temp - it starts to crack open at 170 and is fully open around 185, but by the time it cracks open it's already flowing a lot of water with the extra holes. It also looks like the radiator cap is original - it has a yellow sticker with Japanese and English instructions and is flaking gray stuff off into the neck. Trying out a new cap and stat after a vigorous driveway bleed cycle tomorrow, hopefully this was just a dopey repair and not to mask something :X edit: world's smallest HG leak revealed! hee...

I'm confident it's just a bad thermostat. I haven't pulled the housing yet (waiting on an OEM t-stat/gasket kit to arrive, stealership won't pricematch) but if I block off the middle third of the radiator it holds temp in the middle even if I do stuff like go uphill in 2nd while dragging the brakes. The fans trip on just fine. I really enjoy working on this thing compared to my wife's 04 Forester - everything is even more "right there."

I picked up a pretty nice (not cosmetically) 91 Legacy L wagon on the cheap. It runs well but the thermostat is stuck open but it also blinks a code 21 for the coolant temp sensor. I know for sure the the thermostat is bad – it stays on cold forever if you just up and drive the car, but it will come up to temp if you stop and let it idle for awhile. I'm not sure what to make of the coolant sensor code because I thought it was supposed to run the fans all the time if it threw a fault code. Is the OBDI computer smart enough to throw a code if it takes too long to warm up, or is there a tolerance level between when it initially throws a code and when it goes into failsafe mode with the fans? I'm going to replace the sensor just for age's sake if nothing else, but I don't know if I'll be chasing some weird electrical problem afterward if it's supposed to be in failsafe mode when the light's on.