Subahamas Posted October 4, 2019 Share Posted October 4, 2019 Can I get a brief list of symptoms for a bad thermostat please? My mechanic is no help at all. I dumped a lot of money in my subie and he hasn't been on the road since Christmas 2018. Please help. The car runs, overheats and then stalls. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moral hazard Posted October 4, 2019 Share Posted October 4, 2019 (edited) A lot of people wish it was a bad thermostat or radiator cap or some quick easy fix. That's a good way to waste time and throw parts at the issue but not fix anything. Take it somewhere that can do a leak down test and also test for hydrocarbons in the coolant. These cars blow headgaskets. This is coming from someone who has owned 4 Subaru's and blown headgaskets in each of them (including a 2008 non turbo model). Edited October 4, 2019 by moral hazard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subahamas Posted October 4, 2019 Author Share Posted October 4, 2019 Okay, I will have to do that then, because a mechanic I dealt with since getting the entire car resprayed removed all of my catalytic converters, swapped the fuel pump and the problem still persists. Now he's telling me I need fuel injectors to diagnose the misfire. I was thinking it may have been a thermostat because the day I got it from the Body Shop, the temperature gauge went up after the car was sitting for a few months in the shop. That was one thing I remembered clearly. Thanks again though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moral hazard Posted October 4, 2019 Share Posted October 4, 2019 (edited) He might not be wrong about the injectors causing a misfire. Best way to test that without spending a lot of money is to read the misfire error code and take note which cylinder is misfiring. P0301 = cylinder 1 P0302 = cylinder 2 P0303 = cylinder 3 P0304 = cylinder 4 Then you can swap one injector from a known good cylinder and see if the misfire moves to that cylinder. ObdII fault code readers are cheap and you can pair that with the Torque app on Android to read your misfire codes. Personally I'd start with testing for blown headgaskets before moving onto fixing the misfire. Edited October 4, 2019 by moral hazard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NORULZleggy Posted October 4, 2019 Share Posted October 4, 2019 Wait wait wait , I come from an 08 legacy 2.5i, that I knew was going to have a head gaskets replaced. It was just when. How many miles do you have. Mine started having problems at like 135k. I drove it for a year liked that with no problems cause it was not to bad. I would have replaced the T-stat with OEM only, at the same time do the coolant flush, and burp the system for about 10 mins. Put the car on jack stands and look all under it. if you have a miss fire change the plugs, and wires, even the part the wires hook to (cant think of name). these are all things that can be done for the low on your own. last it might be the head gasket for sure. you might have to get it to a dealer to let you know the real problem. or a real subie shop. just don't throw money at it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WahooNo2 Posted October 4, 2019 Share Posted October 4, 2019 Over the summer my water pump was leaking from the weep hole on my Legacy GT *the waterpump was not an oem but one i had replaced when i did my timing belt with a gates kit* and then one day my car started to overheat. I had a new thermostat from the newer kit i had gotten so i bit the bullet and replaced it. When i pulled the old one out it was completely stuck closed and seized. if you want to check and see and don't want to waste money on new coolant you could refill with water to verify that it is that... just don't leave it like that because winter and just water will mean a new engine block. Oh and buy either an OEM thermostat or some sort of japan made one eg Aisin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NORULZleggy Posted October 4, 2019 Share Posted October 4, 2019 Over the summer my water pump was leaking from the weep hole on my Legacy GT *the waterpump was not an oem but one i had replaced when i did my timing belt with a gates kit* and then one day my car started to overheat. I had a new thermostat from the newer kit i had gotten so i bit the bullet and replaced it. When i pulled the old one out it was completely stuck closed and seized. if you want to check and see and don't want to waste money on new coolant you could refill with water to verify that it is that... just don't leave it like that because winter and just water will mean a new engine block. Oh and buy either an OEM thermostat or some sort of japan made one eg Aisin. ONLY GET OEM SUBARU PLEASE. its like 18 bucks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subahamas Posted October 6, 2019 Author Share Posted October 6, 2019 I still haven't found anybody that is trustworthy to deal with the car, any other suggestions? I will let whoever I find to deal with the car know all the stuff you all suggested. Thanks a million. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nonamedude Posted October 6, 2019 Share Posted October 6, 2019 Well to answer your original question, thermostats are pretty basic. If yours is bad it'll either fail closed or leak. If it fails closed, it will cause your car to overheat but it's not the quickest thing ever. If it's over heating extremely quickly, it could very well be a blown headgasket. Test for hydrocarbons as suggested. It's a cheap and easy to do test kit and you can do it on your own. And I agree, don't go chasing a misfire if you can't prevent the car from overheating. Injectors are expensive and sometimes they do go bad but my injectors have 153k on them and I just flow tested them and they were basically perfect. If you end up needing head gaskets, the whole thing will have to get disassembled and you can futz with injectors then but depending on mileage and condition, well those aren't cheap repairs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subahamas Posted October 6, 2019 Author Share Posted October 6, 2019 A buddy of mine took a look at the car and he immediately noticed that my coolant was full and super green. Which points to a bad water pump or t-stat, but I will still get that head gasket checked thoroughly just to be safe, even after I fix the overheating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nonamedude Posted October 6, 2019 Share Posted October 6, 2019 When I drained my coolant it was all very green. I didn't have the long life coolant in there and the older stuff is green. Don't think I've ever heard of color used to determine any of that stuff. Actually it was as green as the stuff in my civic which I know has a blown head gasket. Replacing a water pump is pretty involved. The reason people are saying to check the head gaskets is because it can force combustion gasses into the cooling system causing air pockets and over heating. The pressure can make it so your coolant backs up into your overflow res and the air pockets get weird and can prevent the thermostat from opening correctly. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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