Hi guys, I've got a 2005 impreza sti. Had car for 3 years and its been good as gold, not a single hiccup.

However, recently it has developed an odd overheating problem. It has the sti genome gauges (oil temp, pressure and water temp) on the dash board, and recently the water temp gauge has been showing 100'c and a red alarm light comes on when sat in traffic until the fans kick in, also the car feels less responsive as if there is an overheating problem. The strange thing is the temp gauge next to the speedo shows no abnormal temperature.

My instant thought was thermostat, so changed that today and the temps are fine when driving around, car feels fine. but when left to idle the temp creeps to 95'c then the fans kick in and cool everything down. Is this normal? Reason for concern is there is a red alarm light on the genome water temp gauge that lights up when it gets to 92'c, never had that light come on the whole time I've owner the car. The in dash temp gauge next to speedo still reads normal temps

Any suggestions?

Maybe a sensor issue on the genome gauge?
Should I be worried?
What temps should I be seeing when the car is sat in traffic?
What temps should the fans kick in at?

Any help appreciated!

Lewis

 

sounds normal to my blob sti does the same, id say its the warmer ambient temps outside

 

Thanks for the reassurance pal.

Anymore input from anyone?

 

Maybe your water temp sensor playing up, it can affect a few things.

 

Fan temp is 95.7 degree!

What your seeing now is normal. Previous temps off 100 is not so normal, max ive ever seen is 98.

Any funky rad caps running 1.3bar or anything?

 

Thinking outside the box dont mean to be rude have you checked your fluid levels?

 

Thanks for the positive replies guys. I think it's just because of the red alarm light on the genome gauge that's making me concerned as it's never done that before, perhaps it's just the sensor for the after market gauge that needs replacing.

Yes fluid levels are all good and rad caps are oe Subaru times.

 

Id suggest you get a proper temp measure. Either the gauge temp is wrong or the temp sensor for fan is reading wrong. If it didnt do it before then something has changed

 

Are the temp sensors a hard job to replace? May order some new sensors as they are probably the root of the inconsistent problem.