while driving to cincinnati the turbo wagon ran great , 70mph , temp gauge in the middle , after 100 mile trip we stopped , i popped the hood to check a coolant leak ,which was a loose radiator clamp , i noticed the over flow tank full of coolant , no bubbles , oil good, ? 2nd question , also while driving there was a strange noise from the rear end , sounded like a flat tire at first , so we stopped ,i checked everything , no flat tire , cruise was set , pretty big hills to climb, , it is a 88 turbo a/t full time 4wd wagon , 123,000mi , rear diff fluid serviced , tranny fluid changed, good tires,after we started the car ran fine ,no noise , thanks, could i have had to much coolant in the over flow tank ?

... could i have had to much coolant in the over flow tank ?

If you did it wouldn't effect anything. Any "excess" coolant in the expansion tank would just overflow until things reached a balance.

also a new radiator + tranny cooler was added , but i remember checking everything before the trip ,and the coolant was ok in the over flow tank, after the turbo wagon sat for several hours the coolant level went down several inches ,

It'll do that. You said you had a leak, which you fixed by tightening the hose clamp. Cooling system wasn't fully pressurized due to the leak. After cooling down, a vacuum was created in the system and drew in coolant from the overflow tank, just as it's supposed to do.

 

As for the noise from the rear of Wagon..... Could be anything from brakes, wheel bearing, axle joint, diff gears, driveshaft u-joint, exhaust system touching somewhere. This have a carrier bearing on the driveshaft? Ifso, another possibility. Hard to say while I'm sitting here, and car is there.

ok, yes the rear end noise could be alot of things , but after pulling over and stopping ,the car is ok now , i am thinking the tranny could have been between gears climbing the steep hills , but my wife remembers smelling something like rubber burning

Two things come to mind with coupling the noise from rear of car with the smell of burning rubber.

 

1st would be the exhaust pipe touching the rear tire. That would make a strange noise inside of the car, and could cause a burning rubber smell. Had that happen to me years ago on an old Chevy I had.

 

Pull the tire off, and look for shinny spot on exhaust pipe. That would be your only clue as whether or not it was rubbing. Amount of weight in the car would also have a bearing on whether it would rub now or not.

 

2nd would be the carrier bearing on the rear driveshaft. If the bearing siezed, it would spin in the rubber isolator, causing both noise/vibration and burning rubber smell.

 

Just ramdom thoughts there.....

exhaust is ok, all new, so it could be carrier bearing then , guess we will find out when we leave to go back home

how hard is it to replace the carrier bearing in the drive shaft ? or just different drive shaft ? if it is going out what might happen if it is not replaced ?

Just because exhaust is "new" don't mean it is ran right, and not rubbing somewhere.

 

Carrier bearing is replacable. Not sure exactlly how it is/can be done on a Subaru driveshaft, just know the domestic types that use one. With those, you can get: the whole bearing assembly, just the bearing, just the rubber mount, just the metal frame-work; depending on what is needed.

ok, thanks