'99 Subaru Legacy GLS 2.5L

 

Hello, recently on my trip home from Christmas vacation my car started acting up. I stopped and could smell a funny smell, after looking around for a few minutes I noticed that anti-freeze was dripping onto my exhaust and vaporizing. I was able to drive my car another 30 miles and no problems. Stopped to check the anti-freeze and it was fine, then when I got back into the car and took off it started to over heat. So I stopped and looked the engine over more and still the anti-freeze was dripping. I got back in and took off it started to over heat again until I reached about 40 MPH and the car leveled off. It drove fine up the pass, but then when I had to slow down going down the pass it started to overheat. Pulled off to the side, opened the radiator and was alittle low so I filled it up with some water. Took off again and the temperature started to rise, until I reached the bottom of the pass and it leveled off again. It drove fine the next 30 miles til I got home. At home I crawled under the car and noticed that the anit-freeze was leaking between the water pump and engine block, so I replaced the water pump and gasket, the leak is gone. Now when I put the anti-freeze back into the car and try and work the air bubbles out for 30 min. the top radiator hose gets hot, but the lower hose stays cool. The car's temperature still rises when it's given gas, but when alowed to idle it cools back down to operating temperature. Any Ideas???

 

Thanks, Bobby

 

You have an air bubble in the cooling system. You need to get the air out, hopefully you installed a new thermostat while you had the water pump out. Lets just hope you didn't nuke your head gaskets too. Good luck.

Yeah, your thermostat might be stuck shut.

 

Search the forum for "Coolant replacement", I have done a comprehensive write-up on how to fill these flat-fours.