633Jeff Posted June 9, 2020 Share Posted June 9, 2020 So I was told I needed a new motor cause of a blown head gasket and issues to the internals. I decided to get a second opinion and it was just a clogged cat. It was cut open, cleaned out and everything was fine. Now if I drive on the highway for more then 30mins my car overheats, but only on the highway. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Also it’s an NA 2.5i Limited Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NVAKeith Posted June 9, 2020 Share Posted June 9, 2020 Has the coolant reservoir overflowed? When the car is cool, open the radiator cap and make sure it’s full of coolant. One symptom of a bad head gasket is combustion gasses displacing coolant in the radiator which causes the reservoir to overflow. However, a bad radiator cap can cause similar symptoms. A bad thermostat could also cause overheating... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
633Jeff Posted June 9, 2020 Author Share Posted June 9, 2020 Has the coolant reservoir overflowed? When the car is cool, open the radiator cap and make sure it’s full of coolant. One symptom of a bad head gasket is combustion gasses displacing coolant in the radiator which causes the reservoir to overflow. However, a bad radiator cap can cause similar symptoms. A bad thermostat could also cause overheating... The reservoir has overflowed, but there’s plenty of coolant. I was told maybe bad fans cause one keeps popping the cooling fuse, and I was also told maybe a bad ground wire. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NVAKeith Posted June 9, 2020 Share Posted June 9, 2020 Hmmm. Order of operations, get the fans working then determine if it still overheats. Maybe a bad bearing in a fan causing excessive current draw? Generally you wouldn’t think the fans are necessary at highway speeds when you said it’s getting hot, but will the fans will be needed when you get off the highway and lose the air movement with a hot engine. If the engine has been hot enough to overflow the bottle hopefully there isn’t collateral damage. Remember if a bad head gasket is pushing coolant out of the reservoir it means the engine is creating an air pocket in the radiator. The coolant overflow bottle can be full and there will still be an air pocket in the radiator that will cause overheating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
633Jeff Posted June 9, 2020 Author Share Posted June 9, 2020 Hmmm. Order of operations, get the fans working then determine if it still overheats. Maybe a bad bearing in a fan causing excessive current draw? Generally you wouldn’t think the fans are necessary at highway speeds when you said it’s getting hot, but will the fans will be needed when you get off the highway and lose the air movement with a hot engine. If the engine has been hot enough to overflow the bottle hopefully there isn’t collateral damage. Remember if a bad head gasket is pushing coolant out of the reservoir it means the engine is creating an air pocket in the radiator. The coolant overflow bottle can be full and there will still be an air pocket in the radiator that will cause overheating. Thank you Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyan Posted June 9, 2020 Share Posted June 9, 2020 fans don't blow at highway speed, if you're overheating while driving you're looking at a bigger problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgoodhue Posted June 10, 2020 Share Posted June 10, 2020 fans don't blow at highway speed, if you're overheating while driving you're looking at a bigger problem. Yes. I had a bad electric fan in another vehicle, I drove 2000 miles from MA to KY and back. It failed somewhere on the trip out. It didn't over heat on the way back driving all highway. The worst temperature seemed to be around 35-45mph. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moral hazard Posted June 10, 2020 Share Posted June 10, 2020 It's still likely that the original shop is correct, headgasket leak. However I don't see why you'd replace the engine, just have a shop pull that engine and get the heads machined properly. Change all gaskets while the engine is out. If you just get another motor, you cant be sure that it won't start leaking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creep_nu Posted June 10, 2020 Share Posted June 10, 2020 yeah my thought with replacing an engine would be to get the head gaskets and everything done anyways while you're already in there, and that that point you might as well do that to the original engine and save the $500-1k of a new block. if you spun a bearing or the block itself is warped or something like that, sure, but otherwise unnecessary. with OP stating there are "issues to the internals", i'd get more information from the shop and see exactly what they mean before just hucking a new engine in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexmed2002 Posted June 10, 2020 Share Posted June 10, 2020 How many miles does your car have? If it's below 100k miles, you should contact Subaru and file a complaint. We did that with my car since it was slowly leaking oil at around 80k. The Subaru dealership that I originally had my car checked out at tried to tell me I needed a $2800 repair to Re-Seal my whole engine but it backfired on them because we complained to the Subaru Headquarters, so we ended up getting the whole repair free... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
633Jeff Posted June 10, 2020 Author Share Posted June 10, 2020 It's still likely that the original shop is correct, headgasket leak. However I don't see why you'd replace the engine, just have a shop pull that engine and get the heads machined properly. Change all gaskets while the engine is out. If you just get another motor, you cant be sure that it won't start leaking. They said with pulling the motor, machining, and replacing the gasket would cost more then just replacing the motor. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
633Jeff Posted June 10, 2020 Author Share Posted June 10, 2020 How many miles does your car have? If it's below 100k miles, you should contact Subaru and file a complaint. We did that with my car since it was slowly leaking oil at around 80k. The Subaru dealership that I originally had my car checked out at tried to tell me I needed a $2800 repair to Re-Seal my whole engine but it backfired on them because we complained to the Subaru Headquarters, so we ended up getting the whole repair free... It has 150,000 and that re-sealing the engine must be something they all say cause I fell for it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexmed2002 Posted June 11, 2020 Share Posted June 11, 2020 It has 150,000 and that re-sealing the engine must be something they all say cause I fell for it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk What do you mean by "Fell For It"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
633Jeff Posted June 11, 2020 Author Share Posted June 11, 2020 What do you mean by "Fell For It"? I was having an oil leak and they said I needed to do the same thing and I ended up paying for it. Later down the road with another subaru I own they tried to get me to do another crazy repair and I got suspicious. Told them I couldn’t, took it somewhere else and it was nothing like they were saying. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexmed2002 Posted June 11, 2020 Share Posted June 11, 2020 I was having an oil leak and they said I needed to do the same thing and I ended up paying for it. Later down the road with another subaru I own they tried to get me to do another crazy repair and I got suspicious. Told them I couldn’t, took it somewhere else and it was nothing like they were saying. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Did your car have under 100k miles when you had that repair done? I thought my situation was a one hit wonder... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgoodhue Posted June 12, 2020 Share Posted June 12, 2020 Did your car have under 100k miles when you had that repair done? I thought my situation was a one hit wonder... He has a different engine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexmed2002 Posted June 12, 2020 Share Posted June 12, 2020 He has a different engine. Yet we both had the oil leaking issue with our engines, AND Subaru tried to pull a BS game on both of us. Sadly he got caught in the trap, while I battled Subaru into fixing my car free of charge (my car had the issue at around 80k miles)... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moral hazard Posted June 12, 2020 Share Posted June 12, 2020 (edited) The trouble with overheating is, even if the cause is something cheap and simple, the repair can become expensive. That happens if you keep driving when you know the car is overheating, potentially causing heads to become warped and gaskets to leak. And then you have to ask yourself, if the overheating was caused by a blocked cat initially, what caused a cat to become blocked. Did an injector fail open for example That kind of diag takes time, so if you're not the one doing the work then it ends up costing. Edited June 12, 2020 by moral hazard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
633Jeff Posted June 14, 2020 Author Share Posted June 14, 2020 The trouble with overheating is, even if the cause is something cheap and simple, the repair can become expensive. That happens if you keep driving when you know the car is overheating, potentially causing heads to become warped and gaskets to leak. And then you have to ask yourself, if the overheating was caused by a blocked cat initially, what caused a cat to become blocked. Did an injector fail open for example That kind of diag takes time, so if you're not the one doing the work then it ends up costing. I did find out that the cat was blocked because the material inside broke down but that’s since been fixed and it’s still overheating. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
633Jeff Posted June 14, 2020 Author Share Posted June 14, 2020 Yet we both had the oil leaking issue with our engines, AND Subaru tried to pull a BS game on both of us. Sadly he got caught in the trap, while I battled Subaru into fixing my car free of charge (my car had the issue at around 80k miles)... I’m pretty sure mine was under 80k also. I know it happened right after my warranty ended (so convenient) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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