Good Morning,

My 2002 54,000 mile WRX is now on its 3rd radiator. The 2nd one was fitted around 6 months ago and the 3rd last week. Subaru replaced the last one free of charge. The 1st and 2nd rads were found to be leaking from the aluminium and plastic join.
The new rad seems ok at the moment but I can't get rid of the water swishing noise that I can hear in the engine bay. I believe its water running through the heater matrix. I've tried 'burping' the engine but the noise keeps coming back.
Does anyone know how to get rid of this?

Also, how full does the filling tank have to be?
I've topped it right up and the expansion bottle the same but when checking the level in the tank has dropped but about a centimetre.
I check daily for any leaks and have found none.

Has anyone had a similar problem and sorted it out?

Better get back to work .

 

Are you saying that you repeatedly fill the metal header tank AND expansion tank to the top and both levels go down?
tying that in with bursting rads, I'd be looking at a head gasket failure.
When the previous rads were replaced, was any work done to prove/rule out head gasket issues?

 

I had same problem, not as many times as you !

I got a replacement rad. I should have got an upgraded rad because the standard ones tend to leak all the time, hope this helps.

 

The levels were only going down due to the leaks. (I hope)
The system was pressure tested on three occasions and was ok before rads let go. As Ian.b says I should have gone for a uprated rad, and i'm hearing that a few people have had their subaru rads going lately.

Anyway, whilst checking things this morning after another drive I heard what sound like air (either being sucked in or forced out of the cap of the metal header tank). So I bought a new cap and will check again tomorrow.

I'm also going to replace the front drop links next.
Can anyone recommend anything better than the standard replacements.

Thanks again

 

The metal header tank should be the point for top ups.
I've had a lot of problems recently put down to both of the caps being faulty.
The radiator cap could be heard to suck in air when cooling down, so this was stopping the water in the expansion tank from returning to system.
Once air has been sucked back into the system, it will work into the heater matrix and cause the gurgling.

Nick

 

This is a bit late but just telling you what was done. Someone else might find it handy.

It seems that I had an airlock in the coolant system that I could not get rid of.
So I had the system emptied under vaccum and then slowly re-filled.
No more water swishing noise.