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1996 Subaru Legacy Outback overheating

41 messages,  Last post on Aug 30, 2010 at 10:04 AM

You are in the Subaru Legacy & Outback Forum.

What is this discussion about? Subaru Legacy, Subaru Outback, Sedan, Wagon

Messages Page 3 of 5

#19 of 41 Re: 1996 Subaru Legacy Outback Overheating PLease help!? [dan_koch] by xwesx

Mar 09, 2010 (10:23 am)

Replying to: dan_koch (Mar 08, 2010 8:35 pm)
It could be the water pump, but the intermittent nature of it makes me think you should perform a thorough inspection of the head gaskets (compression test, check for bubbles in the coolant, look for combustion gunk/oil sheen in coolant, check oil for signs of coolant, leak down test) as well. Head gasket problems often result in sporadic and unpredictable overheating. That said, I did have the water pump fail on my '96 Outback w/ 2.5L (it had about 177K on it at the time) and it warned me a couple of times before it quit altogether.

#20 of 41 re: 1996 Subaru Legacy Outback Overheating PLease help!? by dan_koch

Mar 09, 2010 (10:16 pm)

Lucky my step dad is a certified GM Mechanic so he had everything to test if i had a bad head gasket he said everything looked good to him from what he could tell, we got the motor torn down and the old water pump off and the new one on it was putting the timing belt back on when the clouds busted and rained us out and since i have no way to get it in a garage im stuck the the rain stops... but comparing the new and old water pump, the impeller is a different design, and the new one doesnt spin as freely as the old one. but it is still smooth and the old one you could hear the bearing rubbing in it but other than that it looked good, i kinda have my doubts about it being bad but i guess ill find out tomorrow when the rain stops lol

#21 of 41 re: 1996 Subaru Legacy Outback Overheating PLease help!? [dan_koch] by ateixeira

Mar 10, 2010 (9:24 am)

Replying to: dan_koch (Mar 09, 2010 10:16 pm)
Sorry, it was my fault. I washed my car.
 
100% chance of rain right after I do that, every time.

#22 of 41 1996 Subaru Legacy Outback Overheating PLease help!? by dan_koch

Mar 11, 2010 (10:05 pm)

lol its ok... now i dont have to wash mine lol got it back together everything is working good so far

#23 of 41 Re: 1996 Subaru Legacy Outback Overheating PLease help!? [dan_koch] by ateixeira

Mar 12, 2010 (7:41 am)

Replying to: dan_koch (Mar 11, 2010 10:05 pm)
Ha ha, I washed all 3 cars, now we have a full flood warning and two and a half days of rain in the forecast.

#24 of 41 1996 Subaru Legacy Outback Overheating PLease help!? by dan_koch

Mar 12, 2010 (4:22 pm)

yea thats how it goes around here too.. lol well it looks like my luck keeps getting worse the car ran good for a day and started the same stuff again.... the only thing left is a bad radiator which i dont think it is. or head gaskets are blown

#25 of 41 Re: 1996 Subaru Legacy Outback Overheating PLease help!? [dan_koch] by bigfrank3

Mar 13, 2010 (3:39 pm)

Replying to: dan_koch (Mar 12, 2010 4:22 pm)
If you are again getting no overheating signal on the gauge itself that is a sure sign of a big air pocket. Automotive temp sensors do not read air temp very well and are designed to be immersed in fluid. I have run into that a bunch of times.

#26 of 41 Re: 1996 Subaru Legacy Outback Overheating PLease help!? [bigfrank3] by dan_koch

Mar 13, 2010 (4:10 pm)

Replying to: bigfrank3 (Mar 13, 2010 3:39 pm)
yea im sure its not a air pocket i got all of the air out of the cars system it was doing good holding a good temp and when i drove less that one mile it was all the way up and shooting fluid out of the reservoir

#27 of 41 1996 Subaru Legacy Wagon by madrona1

Mar 28, 2010 (7:27 pm)

My 1996 Subaru Legacy Wagon (119000mi) overheated for the first time. I took it in and they said it needed a new water pump... They put one in, along with a new timing belt.
 
It ran fine for two days and this morning it didn't want to start the first time (not uncommon in cool weather), started the second time and then there was a loud pop and the car was running really rough and sounded awful.
 
Drove it to the garage that did the work (3 blocks) and when I turned it off and got out the car kept running. Looked like some white smoke coming out of the exhaust, never saw that before.
 
The car wouldn't turn off until they disconnected the negative battery terminal. They had installed the new battery for me 4 months ago, it had quite a bit of white powdery corrosion on the neg. terminal and I noticed that the front clamp that holds the battery was completely disconnected so the battery was moving around. They said they hadn't disconnected the battery for the timing belt/water pump procedure.
 
They say they think it's an unrelated electrical problem and will get back to me. Could this be related to the timing belt/water pump fix? I never had white smoke before that and didn't have oil in the coolant either (didn't look at that when I left it at the garage today).
 
Any advice is greatly appreciated!

#28 of 41 Re: 1996 Subaru Legacy Wagon [madrona1] by xwesx

Mar 29, 2010 (11:54 am)

Replying to: madrona1 (Mar 28, 2010 7:27 pm)
White smoke, loud pop, rough idle.... I'd say the car either blew a head gasket, threw a rod, or something similar. White smoke means there is significant coolant getting into the cylinder(s), so that is a real problem. I think I would label this one as a catastrophic failure.
 
It could be related to the fix, but it is really hard to say. More likely is that you had a head gasket issue (that caused the overheating) and it was misdiagnosed as the water pump. If so then that work essentially did nothing to address the root problem.

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