meier motor sports Posted September 1, 2007 Share Posted September 1, 2007 my guess is if you bought it used with 60k km (whatever that relates to into miles) then the place you bought it from performed a service on it. my first guess was a 60k (in miles). because at 30/60/90k etc the recommendation is to change the coolant. so maybe it just had the coolant changed and some was on the engine some where and it burned off when you drove the car and the system may have burped some air out of the system. but this is all just a guess. i would say keep an eye on it. if you continue to smell coolant after say after your next oil change then be worried. also continue to check the coolant level and see if it fluctuates. and understand that hot will be high in the resivour and cold will be low. i assume you know that but i don't know that you know that so i'm telling you that. got it? good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meier motor sports Posted September 1, 2007 Share Posted September 1, 2007 Did you by chance check your floormats up front to see if they were damp? I had a very slow leak in my heater core which dripped coolant onto the drivers side floor on my previous car. Took me a while to figure that out since the rubber mats hid the moist carpeting underneath. good pointer. a heater core leak would be found inside the car. but probably not the case on an 05. also you would smell coolant while driving and the windows would get hazey like there is fog on them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meier motor sports Posted September 1, 2007 Share Posted September 1, 2007 There are many of those spring type constant tension clamps on the cooling system. They tend to let coolant seep out while the car is warming up, then will seal when it gets hot. Look at every hose where a clamp is, if you see a mound of greenish stuff around the hose, you found your problem. Good luck...oh, and please don't add stop leak!!!! i ahd a car once that did that very thing. driver claimed there was a puddel on the driveway and steam would come out from under hte hood after a few miles of driving. i had it in the shop running all day no leak. next moring i pulled it inside (after sitting out all night) and what do you know it started steeming and i saw the upper radiator hose leaking. actualy ended up being a bad hose. replaced the hose and clamp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meier motor sports Posted September 1, 2007 Share Posted September 1, 2007 Bump from a year ago. So the problem never did go away. The other day, when I was driving on the highway, I noticed my temp needle climbing up, so I pulled over. The overflow was bone dry and the rad was lookin low too. I pulled into a nearby gas station and filled it back up. When I brought it to the dealership, they couldn't find a leak even with the pressure checker and UV dye. So here I am, stuck with slow coolant loss, the smell of coolant, and no one that has any clue where it's going. BGH maybe? PS. It's good to see the douche above me is now banned. its possible. might be a very small head gasket leak. might only leak when cold. http://www.arrowheadradiator.com/head_gasket_or_combustion_leak_test.htm see if they have something like this. very cool tool also see if they can pressure test it hot and cold. have them keep it over night witha pressure tester on it when hot any small leak my evaporta away before forming a puddle any where most pressure testors you pump by hand. some can be pluged into shop air to hold the pressure overnight this might be a good idea to see if they have something like that. i cant find a suitable link to show you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VTGT Posted October 6, 2007 Share Posted October 6, 2007 God damn it. I just had my oil change and this ass clown added coolant because he thought it looked low. Obviously it looked low because the engine was hot and most of the coolant was in the engine. Now With the engine cold my coolant level is way above the Full Mark on the resvoir bottle What should I do? Try and get some of the coolant out. Or just leave it as is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meier motor sports Posted October 6, 2007 Share Posted October 6, 2007 im all for crying about it! lol when hot the level will go up. when cold the level will go down. worse case senerio, at some point some might dribble onto the ground if it gets real hot. i would not worry about it at all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eastmentCTD600 Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 I have on '07 LGT auto, same coolant smell after driving. Symptoms: * Coolant smell when exiting the vehicle * Strong coolant smell with hood open 1. Removed the lower cover and performed a thorough inspection on the underside of the motor, nothing appeared out of order. 2. Inspected upper and lower end of the radiator looking for deposits from hairline crack (evidence of leak), none found. 3. Noted coolant smell is most strong at top front of radiator, near the foam insert. Car was purchased from a dealer at 18k mi, but I know for a fact that smell was not there when I purchased it, I spent lots of time under the hood before writing the check. Has anyone had a cooling system failure following this initial symptom? I don't believe I have a problem with the heater core, no smell inside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Sinister Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 3. Noted coolant smell is most strong at top front of radiator, near the foam insert. Car was purchased from a dealer at 18k mi, but I know for a fact that smell was not there when I purchased it, I spent lots of time under the hood before writing the check. Check the radiator cap. If that's not it, just get the system pressurized to find the leak. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opie Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 http://www.thel7.com/TSB/09-45-06.pdf http://www.thel7.com/TSB/09-52-08.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GTS Jeff Posted April 13, 2009 Author Share Posted April 13, 2009 Well, it happened again. Was driving along the highway, when I noticed the temp needle creeping up. The entire driver's side of the car was covered in green. I limped to the closest gas station and noticed a huge vacuum had built up in the cooling system (both hoses crushed.) So with that in mind, I popped the rad cap without worry and refilled quite a bit. I figured the rad cap must be boned, so I went and bought a new rad cap, flushed the system thoroughly, cleaned out the reservoir, and put in the new cap. A couple chunks came out with the flush, so I'm hoping that was it. I just read the new TSB, so I'll probably go cut my overflow tube later on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unico Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 Just came across this thought is was worth sharing. http://users.sisna.com/ignatius/subaru/headgasket.html (my problem is the hg. I'm thrilled...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDN 2.5i Posted November 2, 2011 Share Posted November 2, 2011 I'm now experiencing similar - whiffs of coolant after driving. Noticed reservoir was empty, however rad full, so added enough back to reservoir to bring the level back up. Really didn't take much so haven't lost much at all. Couldn't really see any signs of a leak, just the smell. My concern is that it's potentially an external head gasket leak. I did not add the 'subaru coolant conditioner' (rebranded Holt's rad weld) the last time I flushed my cooling system as I thought it was the root cause of my heater core getting plugged up... Perhaps I should be stopping by the dealer to add it back to the system? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericem Posted November 2, 2011 Share Posted November 2, 2011 you can fill the overflow past full and it wont overflow its a much bigger bottle than it needs to be. I would suspect upper and lower coolant hoses, water pump heater core lines, thermostat etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDN 2.5i Posted November 2, 2011 Share Posted November 2, 2011 you can fill the overflow past full and it wont overflow its a much bigger bottle than it needs to be. I would suspect upper and lower coolant hoses, water pump heater core lines, thermostat etc. I checked all the hoses, upper/lower plus heater lines. Thermostat housing was fine. No visible leaks... I'm thinking it's just weeping out somewhere as an external head gasket leak and plan to just buy another bottle of the Holt's and see if that cures it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maclif Posted November 3, 2011 Share Posted November 3, 2011 I had that and recently smoked out the problem. There is a coolant hose that connects to the throttle body. The clamp on the main hose that goes into the throttle body from the intercooler had rubbed a hole in the coolant hose. Swapped out that coolant hose, and the problem went away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDN 2.5i Posted November 3, 2011 Share Posted November 3, 2011 I've got a 2.5i so no intercooler... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericem Posted November 3, 2011 Share Posted November 3, 2011 its dumb that we need to add the conditioner but i still hear about n /a 05+ needing headgaskets. Id suspect a small leak and eventually you will find it. To bad your not closer! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maclif Posted November 3, 2011 Share Posted November 3, 2011 I've got a 2.5i so no intercooler... No problem. I suspect you still have a hose going between your throttle body and your air cleaner. Under that hose is a heater line hose that may be leaking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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