my dad's 01 legacy outback is leaking anti-freeze from somewhere...

 

i took a quick look under the hood... checked (very quickly) the radiator, hoses, and heater hoses... i couldn't see any dripping or steaming...(this was right after driving it...)

 

but the thing has got quite the stink to it... you can smell the sweet nastyness of anti-freeze everytime you stop or just let it sit while running...

 

he is taking it into the shop tomorrow... but i kinda wanna know what this might be...

 

it smells bad (like bad bad) in the passenger compartment... and outside... so i'm thinking the heater core... just because the smell gets in there so fast...

 

but could it be HG? that'd suck... my dad is quickly loosing faith in subaru... it being his first one, (he bought it new) and it has had a bunch of other problems...

Could be the Radiator cap. Don't laugh, it happened to me. After I replaced the thermostat, I took a look at it and the thing had a groove in the rubber part that mates up to the top of the radiator. this caused a bad seal, and leakage. My symptoms were exactly like yours. If you had a bad heater core, you would get steam when defrosting, and the smell inside the cabin would be constant.

MY01 2.5 can get the external heagasket leakage. Make sure the dealer installed the antifreeze additive so the warranty is extended to 100k.

 

Make sure the dealer checks those heads!

so what was the outcome, have you fixed it? i have the same prob w/ my 02. just put a new radiator cap on it and had the system flushed by a non dealer mechanic. still wafts stink.

 

 

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=381189#

 

 

 

my dad's 01 legacy outback is leaking anti-freeze from somewhere...

 

i took a quick look under the hood... checked (very quickly) the radiator, hoses, and heater hoses... i couldn't see any dripping or steaming...(this was right after driving it...)

 

but the thing has got quite the stink to it... you can smell the sweet nastyness of anti-freeze everytime you stop or just let it sit while running...

 

he is taking it into the shop tomorrow... but i kinda wanna know what this might be...

 

it smells bad (like bad bad) in the passenger compartment... and outside... so i'm thinking the heater core... just because the smell gets in there so fast...

 

but could it be HG? that'd suck... my dad is quickly loosing faith in subaru... it being his first one, (he bought it new) and it has had a bunch of other problems...