Can someone tell me what water temp my standard 02 WRX bugeye should be running?
Fitted a PSI3 today and got a varity of temps while driving ranging from 92 - 97 but reached 100 degrees c at one point!

 

They are high(ish) driving temps. Is this normal driving or hooning constantly? Check your coolant level... If adamant you have no loss, then could be airlock; lazy/stuck thermostat; worn water pump; blocked rad... Or possibly HG failing!

I take it you don't have any problrm with on boost hooning?... See what temps get up to then and report back...

 

Thats normal not hard driving in a little traffic.
Havent had the car long. Bought from a private dealer with full subaru service history. It seemed to have a very small leak from the rhs of the rad at the expansion tank. I noticed this after a couple of days when I realised the fans seemed to always be running when I stopped the car.
So got a new rad, plastic expansion tank and rad cap to be safe. Everything looked fine - no more leaks and the temp guage always stays just below halfway but fans still run when I stopped.
So today I fitted the PSI3 and went out for a run. No hard usage. Temp on this was reading different ranges as we stopped off a couple of times but nothing that was worring me. Then on the way home it rose to 100 for a short while then eventually down to around 90. But again the dash never rose any more than normal. Heater air inside was nice and warm.
Water in the expansion bottle is always between the middle and full.

When you first start the car you can hear water circulating around the interior im assuming in the heater matrix/pipework.

My next stop is the thermostat as I am thinking (hoping) this may be sticking........im really hoping this is not a HG issue!!!!

 

between 70 to 100 the standard gauge dont move,on my psi3 on cruise i see 86-89 on boost it drops a little,in traffic i see 88-96 sure on newages the fans kick in at 96, could be air in the system

 

To check stat/pump/airlock start car from cold, get it up to temp. By time 90deg is reached the water should defo already be circulating through bottom hose. You should feel it running through and getting hot. If absolutely stone cold, then bound to be one of those 3 culprits.

If, however, you DO get water flow, then take car for a spin using lots of hard boost (keep a close eye on the temp gauge, though). When you get back, feel the bottom hose - is it now stone cold? If so, it would point to an airlock happening only in on-boost conditions, which pretty much would mean HG failing, I'm afraid...

maydew's right with the temp ranges/driving conditions you should be seeing. FTR, the std 0.9bar pressure cap will open at about 120+dec C, IIRC.

Regardless of the tests above, I'd fit cheapest stuff first obviously i.e. a new stat (fit a Zero Sports 71deg C opening one rather than OEM 78deg one - it will only help contain temps). Also, because the stat fits onto the pump I'd get a new pump too! - that way you'll rule out 3 things in one go: airlock/stat/pump!

The Zero Sports 'stat is available from Lateral Performance; I think £45 + VAT, IIRC.

Pump off Graham Goode Racing - remanufactured one at only £36.95 (Lateral also do a high performance pump, but I think it's expensive ...)

 

Thanks guys thats useful info.

I was out again today using it for work. Temps similar to yesterday. Funny enough gave it a little boost and the temp seemed to temp drop.

Deffo no leaks but a couple of things I noticed were the gushing sound of water in the interior when I start up, the temp on the PSI3 read 12 degrees when I urned it on(this evening after sitting all dat from 8am this morning) and when I got home I checked the plastic expansion bottle. There is a bubble coming out of the rubber tube into the water every so often. Is this normal? It was at around 95 degrees at this point cause the fan came on just after that and I looked at the PSI3 it was at 96. Rad filler cap is standard 0.9bar.

 

Occasional bubbles doesn't really diagnose HG failure really. If it bubbles away rapidly, then pretty certain it would be HG...

Good luck whatever.

 

Joz did the run it up to temp test over the last couple of days as well as a fair bit of driving and boosting.

Bottom hose defo not warming up so im thinking its gotta be stat airlock or pump. Gona do the stat saturday, then the pump if that dont cure it.

Driving on the boost seems to make the temp drop but not for long!

One other interesting thing I noticed was that the temp rises going up hills and then starts reducing going down hills - wtf is that all about???? Airlock?

 

Going uphill, the engine's under more load (fighting more against gravity, therefore working harder to maintain the same speed); that's why you'd expect temps to rise a bit.

Why not do pump and stat together, like I did?... The stat bolts to the front of the pump. Okay, so you don't have to take timing cover/belt off for stat only but, should you need the pump done later on anyway, you will have 'wasted' money on about hour's worth of labour!

 

Understand the load bit but im talking rapid changes both up and down by maybe 10 degrees either way in about a minute and im not booting it on during this. Combined with the water gushing around inside the car round the matrix is making me think more towards airlock.

I can do the stat myself easily enough. Dont really want to tackle a t/belt rather leave it in to a garage for that! Would hate to get it wrong.........then I really would be in the s**t!

 

Oh right! That's a bit different then! I reckon HG, sorry to say.

But, yeah, do stat first... see how you go. Then pump next... see how you go, etc....