It all started when her timing belt snapped and took a decent chunk of the engine with it. She spent a month at the shop with a man whom I thought knew Outbacks well. Her head gaskets were replaced, all hoses and clamps were replaced, as well as many other parts. She carted me around for a while longer after that, but then she started to overheat on the highway. My dad (who has been employed for 30+ years as a mechanic) took her off my hands for the last two months and replaced everything again, as the first guy apparently did a bad job at some stuff. I got her back and she was fine for a while and then the issue began again. I love my car and quite frankly can't afford to replace it. My dad is at his wit's end with this issue.

 

When it overheats it's after about 10-20 minutes on the highway. City driving does not seem to be an issue (though it may be that I don't drive for very long periods of time in the city). The coolant reservoir appears to be very full when it's overheating like that and there's smoke and/or steam (I never had to learn about cars since my dad and brother and boyfriends always took care of this stuff so I'm not as knowledgeable as I should be. Forgive me if I type something that sounds ridiculous). When I blast the heat it helps. When it's overheating on the highway and I get back into the city (at slower speeds) it cools down a bit (though still runs high) with the heat blasting.

 

So much has been replaced in the engine in the last couple years including and most recently, the thermostat, head gaskets, water pump and hoses.

 

Help! Before this car tears our family apart.

This sounds like a real hassle to figure out. That said.

 The first and easiest thing to try is to completely remove the thermostat, and run the vehicle without any thermostat, and see if that helps,

 because occasionally a cheap thermostat can stick, causing trouble even if it is new. Also, I advise you to make sure to top off the radiator and overflow tank to their proper levels.

 I recommend performing a cooling system pressure test, and a cooling system leak test. These will give an indication if the new head gaskets are holding well, and or if there are other

 problems that will cause these tests to fail.

 These will require the special tools to do so. You may have a leak on the new head gaskets, or you may have a hairline crack in a cylinder head,

  or less likely, the engine block itself. Also, who knows, maybe your radiator needs flushing or the dust removed from its fins to allow more airflow through them.

  You can also pull a spark plug or two, or even all of them, and look at the color of the insulator on them for the proper color, which will let you know if you have a fuel mixture

  issue/problem. After all of that, Coors, Becks, or what have you, or a Root Beer to cool off with.

These cars have a tendency to plug up radiators with older age. I usually use an infared thermometer to check for cold spots. If it's original, might not be a bad idea to replace it.

 

Also, aftermarket thermostats can cause issues as well. Get a new one from the dealer.

 

Good luck!

Moving to the new gen forum.

Check for bubbles in the coolant resiviour, a sure sighn of an internal head gasket leak. Probably not the case, but its a good place to start.

 

When the headgaskets were done did they use OEM parts from the dealer, if not that could be the source of the issue.

 

These also use Subaru coolant conditioner IIRC, they also can be a pain to bleed out. There is a bleeder screw that needs to be pulled out while filling, or the upper radiator hose pulled off and fill the block before filling the radiator.

 

Could be an old clogged radiator, couldn't hurt to change if its original.

 

Aftermarket thermostat could be an issue as well. Only use OEM, or Napa sells Tama brand that works well, there is a big differance between the cheap ones the parts store gives you and the proper thermostat.

Main difference is the OEM thermostat is twice the size of the aftermarket ones and can't be installed backwards.

Edited January 14, 201610 yr by mikaleda

Just reread your post, from the sounds of your symptoms your most likely culprit is a bad radiator.

 

Anything else and it would just go to redline with little to no warning.

Bad radiator???.............if so, you can buy one for cheap at one of the on line parts stores. Cost less then $100. EZ to in stall.