Das

Istevens & Nipper, Tomorrow evening, I'll cardboard below when I get home and see what I see... thanks for the tip.

Nipper, So, I have owned the car (second owner) for over nine years... last year was the first major work that had to be done... oil leaking into spark plugs. A known issue that a long time subi mechanic knew how to fix permanently (and promised another 100k, currently only 180k on it). Looking through that work to give you the details as to what other work was done I found out that the mechanic (last year) did replace the thermostate (OE)!!!! Crap! In addition to the thermostat, also machined the heads, replaced the cylinder head gaskets, 2 idler pulleys, timing belt, spark plugs, and spark plug wires, and knock sensor. About a week before that (and not knowing the sinister truth at time), replaced ac high pressure line, and replaced ac reciever drier... yeah, last year was about 2500USD in work. What is the chance of the thermostat OE failing in a year?... Radiator/fins look good and in tact

Thank you everyone! Addressing a few things... the timing belt is about 14 months old. We are dealing with an ej24. The point about getting the cap off while "red lining" and not seeming overly hot, does give concern about air/lack of pressure... the rad cap has never been replaced, but I also do not have any visable leaking along coolant flow path... you guys have been great! I love this car and intend to keep it for quite some time to come so I will start with thermostat (OEM, of course), if that does not work I will report back but likely move to ECT sensor next, if temp. is tracking the way Fairtax mentioned. this part scares me, as I could be doing some damage unknown during troubleshooting. I'll report back

Fairtax, Thanks for the ideas! So the coolant is not low, and I would assume if the thermostat was sticking I would not have such a smooth increase/decrease response in the temp gage? With those ruled out I went ahead and tried the fan check (big thanks), but alas... although the fans were not quite in sync with eachother (no reason they should be, that I know of) they both cycled beautiful from low to high to off. If I can ask, why so certain on thermostat with verified fan operation? water pump impeller sounds intriguing, however the car is not actually overheating... even if left running so that the temp gage rises to the red for a while.... seems like impeller would be an overheating culpurit. If this fourm would allow the MB's I could have posted a video demonstrating the smooth temp gage pointing at an overheat in non motion situations, however not the true case...

Hello All, I have an issue with a 2001 Subaru Outback that I have never come across before. In the middle of moving from Albuquerque to Hawaii my Outbacks air conditioning dyed at the californai state boarder in route to Los Angeles (about 100 deg. at time). For ~ 2 months prior to this trip the check engine light would come on, but would turn off usually after I removed the gas cap then put gas cap back on... figure old cap not keeping pressure. Okay, fast forward from california boarder to three weeks later after picking up outback it now has check engine light on continuously. Week after that (~ 300 miles on car since air conditioning went out), I noticed when car was stopped at a stop light or in a parking lot still running, the temperature gage would begin to rise toward the red zone (over heating)... when I could drive the temp gage heads back toward the normal temp operating range... At this point you might be thinking, relay?, fan?, plugged radiator?, makes sense. The car is NOT over heating, infact the mechanic actually took the radiator cap off while the cars temp gage was "red lining", and of course we could hear/see that the fan is kicking on. Now stuck in traffic, you can put the car in neutral and rev the engine to "kick on" the coolant pump, and the temp gage would come back down to normal temp range, you can open the vents, crank up the hot air (do not have working ac at this time) and buy some time before the temp gage crawls up to red line.... My problem here is... what on the planet can cause a car to read like it's overheating without it overheating? Yet, causes the air conditioner to stop working, since the check engine light (read cooling problem) was cleared the car has continued to repeat the above issue without triggering the check engine light... With the age and milage I would just let this go as a unique quirck, however Hawaii is hot, I have a 2.5 year old, and AC would be nice, but why spend money on recharging etc... if this problem might just kill it again? The mechanic thinks it's electrical, but does not do electrical. Other than the temp gage reading like a perfect fan/relay/plugged poblem and the AC dying nothing else is wrong with this car. This is a tough one, any ideas my fellow subinites might have will be greatly appreciated.... Thank you!