Hi guys. I have just bought my car from Japan and I have noticed that there is rust in most second hand 2003 foresters where the coolant cap is. There seems to be a catchment tray around it which has the rust. Is there a way to stop this and to get rid of the rust that is there already? Please see the picture. It is located on the bottom left hand corner of the air intake from the hood scoop.

You mean the power steering oil reservoir?

That's the cooling system pressure tank on the turbos. The coolant coming from the turbo is too hot to run straight into the radiator, it would degrade the plastic end tank on the radiator. So they run it to a separate tank to mix with other coolant first.

 

Two ways to fix that.

1. Replace it.

2. Remove and disassemble the tank. Use a wire brush on a bench grinder to clean off all of the rust. Prep it with etching primer, and paint with high temp engine paint.

Okay thanks for that. Its not rusting inside the tank its rusting on the outside. In the picture it looks like a brown colour. Not 100% sure if its the coolant cap or steering oil cap. Seems that the cap maybe is leaking but is there a reason for that?

They newer ones (06+ I believe) are made from some sort of plastic because of the issue with them rusting. I replaced the rusted metal one on my 04 Forester XT with a plastic one and it worked great.

 

And it is for coolant. It's called the coolant expansion tank.

Edited April 6, 201411 yr by bratman18

Thanks allot.

Hi guys. Is there anything I should watch out for or keep an eye on with my 2003 forester xt 2.0. Or any advice that you think I should do with it? One other thing, the spark plugs of this vehicle are they special plugs or are there a certain type I should get?