Just my luck though was drivin home last night and could smell a burning smell as if water was leaking. After a few hours of investigating and taking to a friend of a friend who deals with Scooby's it turns out the bottom of my radiator has corroded and there is a small crack leaking a bit water. Car is off the road now until a new radiator gets fitted on Friday.

Going to get the timing belt done at the same time for peace of mind. Gonna cost me around £250 all in to get both done, does that sound about right?

Just glad I spotted it now when the crack is only small and only lost a little water!

 

Had same issue m8, new radiator will sort this out...

 

Just so i'm not being thick where is the best place to top the radiator up? Am I right in thinking that if I top up the expansion tank the water will filter through to the radiator?

 

Not a bad price for that.

 

If you are putting a new radiator on, back fill it, take the pipe off of the header tank (the one on the back right) shove a funnel in it and fill it up that way. Obviously if you have a cap on the top of the Rad take it off first to help prevent air locks.

£225 is an ok price, mine cost about that just for the belt change LOL

 

I'm not doing the radiator myself I'm just thinking about for when I drive it to this lads garage for him to fit, I want to top the water up before I leave just to be safe (I don't have any Subaru Coolant).

Yesterday I just topped the expansion tank up with a little bit water, am I better filling the actual coolant tank?

 

To avoid any confusion:

HEADER TANK (fills up system+radiator): The tank on top of the engine to the left of the alternator

Expansion tank (overflow tank to catch overspill from the header tank): the tiny tank next to the battery.


Always fill up, bleed and check levels via the header tank tank (the one on top of the engine).

 

Ok cheers. I was putting water into the expansion tank as this level seemed to be dropping. I'll fill the Header Tank up when I get in tonight, although I did check this yesterday and it looked pretty full.

TBH I don't think I have lost much water at all, I just want to be on the safe side.

 

So before I leave for the garage should I just top the Header tank up to the neck and leave it?

I'm a little confused as to why the level in the expansion tank has dropped, could it be possible that the radiator isn't cracked and it's some kind of hose from the expansion tank?

 

Yes top it up to the neck, make sure it doesn't drop back down (system fills very slowly, so give it at least a minute to make sure its not dropping), before putting the cap back on. The expansion tank should be somewhere between the max and min lines (its ok for it to be below max with a cold engine).

The expansion tank level moves up and down because its directly connected to the little hose at the neck of the filler cap on the header tank.

What happens is when the header tank on top of the engine has too much pressure: it vents into the expansion tank by the battery. When it cools back down, a vacuum is created in the header tank, this syphons coolant back out of the expansion tank, keeping the header tank full.

However if the expansion tank has too much coolant in when cold, or if there is a faulty cap on the header tank, blown head gasket or engine overheating, this can cause too much coolant to go into the expansion tank, causing it to overflow leaving a puddle of coolant under the car.

Without physically finding the source of where the coolant came from, its anyone's guess.

 

Ok cheers for all the info mate it's appreciated. The guy seemed pretty certain that it was the radiator and he seems to know what he's doing so i'll not question him, as really I know quite little.

I don't think its a head gasket or anything like that. The engine temperature is bang in the middle, the heaters works and there's no gunk on oil filler or dipstick etc...

Like I say I don't think I have lost much water at all because there wasn't that much steam and not a great deal of water in engine bay.

I did check the Header tank at some stage yesterday to and that seemed pretty full. I'm just going to have to wait until Friday and not worry myself about it!!

 

if your are changing the timing belt, I would also possibly change the waterpump. Its a bit more expense but im thinking if you have had coolant issues its just piece of mind, when I got mine it was about £30 from graham goode (just peace of mind if anything)

 

Also if you're changing the timing belt it may be worth checking the oil pump as i recently had mine done (93wrx) and some of the bolts on the back were lose and needed tightening.