1 Lucky Texan

is coolant pushed out of the overflow when it overheats? is coolant pulled back in when the car cools?

carfreak - thanx for posting that!

???? weird I have no drips but, I could see that being such a low volume of fluid it may just 'coat' a surface thanx!

CAFE rules have made manufacturers do a lot of things they'd rather not. Warming up the cat conv is one of those things. you're lucky you don'y have air cut valves and a pump like on my WRX - they froze shut in the first 4 years of ownership. I had to use romraider and ecuflash to kill 14 codes to turn off the CEL.

I can't argue that someone may have created a specific improvement for a specific racing application, just that it isn't common for our daily drivers as far as I have read. I just scanned his article It's more like a personal anecdote than a 'tech document'. - I'm not convinced he understands that a rad cap can maintain over 15 additional psi (over 1 bar) on most of our cars. Also not sure he's using the term 'cavitation' appropriately. plus, in general, you don't want an engine run too cool as it reduces fuel efficiency. an oil cooler could be a better mod but, I dunno. Subaru engineers seem to know there is something odd about the cooling system though - compare an OEM t'stst to a 'typical' aftermarket one. The wax capsule is quite a bit larger - probably needs more hysteresis.

Some of you know I don't get much mileage on my cars, my 06 WRX has about 72K miles - 95% secondary roads so, lots of starts/stops. I have my original clutch, pretty sure the fluid has never been topped off (certainly not by me). So, I was wondering if the volume in the fluid tank getting close to LOW accurately reflects clutch material loss? Or, is is not 'synchronized' very well? Worth getting ahead of the curve or wait until a high gear starts slipping? Is there another way to inspect the clutch material?

on inclines, some vehicles can reverse up better than going forwards. You might experiment with that. plus, using 1st gear may force the 4EAT into more power distributed to the rear. (anyone confirm?)

yeah, never read of it across multiple forums/newsgroups for the last 15 years or so. Not saying it hasn't been done, but VERY uncommon I'd say. there is a water circuit involving the heater core that is important, dunno how that would work with T'stat relocation either.

if it wasn't doing it before it was parked, I'd suspect a frozen caliper, maybe a failing u-joint, possibly tires if they are getting old. (they are all 4 identical right?)

avoid typical parts store rebuilt alts - if yours is OEM, find a local rebuilder to go thru it - or get an OEM from a junkyard

move tires in pairs front to back and see if there's a change. (all tires must be identical; same brand/model/size and near each other in wear) there is definitely a LONG list of things that can cause vibration. In a 18 year old car, every bushing is suspect. u-joints can be frozen, inner tie rods bad, brake calipers frozen, struts blown.....

from what very little I know, subaru scott is on track with putting the unit in a box if possible. there are probably examples/instruction for doing these type of projects on-line. I wouldn't be surprised if some go back to the 70s, but modern materials should be even better. an internet buddy has s imilar device he made for warming a chicken coop/house. His is balanced on some kind of pivot and he uses a wax cylinder (used to vent greenhouses) to 'somewhat' track the sun. It resets the unit to point more easterly overnight to catch the sunrise.

I think it's possible a bad PCV valve can contribute to oil loss.

check the Heri hd units I guess; dunno how many models they offer but;

you might clear them and see if they come back. I've had weak batteries set spurious and unrelated codes. Also, P0442 could also be something as simple as loose gas cap or bad seal on gas cap I think.