donthaveascoobie

On my way to work this morning, the 'engine' warning light came on.. The one that looks like a yellow outline of an engine.

I hadn't noticed anything unusual and was driving fairly gently as i was on autopilot at 5:30am this morning!

I pulled over and the car sat on tickover without a problem. I then switched the car off and, after a few seconds, there was what sounded like air or water moving somewhere that made a sort of creaking noise, similar to when the car is hot and things go 'ping ting ping' but more of a groaning noise. This only lasted for a few seconds and the car fired up and drove as normal for the remaining mile or two. We have a Mini Cooper S too and that makes a similar noise when switched on from cold. I've heard that is something to do with the cooling system/heater priming itself and pumping water around. Almost sounds like it's Moo'ing in mini!

I've been out to the car since and all the levels are fine. I got the car up to temperature and turned it off and got no weird noises this time..

The only thing i was doing differently this morning was driving with the heater in the '25' position, without the fan as it was a bit nippy. The heater has hardly been used since getting the car in Feb... Just a coincidence?

Anyway, I'm stuck in work until 6pm and was thinking of calling out my recovery company to check things over and make sure it's not going to go bang but wondered if anyone had any ideas what it might be or if anyone can recommend a Subaru specialist or garage to take the car to??? We have Car Planet in Warrington but just thought i'd check on here before taking it in...

L.J.F

iTrader: (31)

Dont worry too much about the water in the heater system making a weird noise as most scoobs get it, but you need to find out what has caused the CEL to come up! When you switched the car off and then restarted it was the light still on? If it has stayed on then when you get a chance fire it up and switch it off 3-4 times and it should switch the CEL off, that way if it comes straight back on then you know it has a more immediate problem such as a failing sensor etc...
You will need to get it booked into a Subaru specialist to get the code read.

donthaveascoobie

thank you for your reply... The weird noise wasn't what i though it was, but more of that in a minute doh!

I got my recovery company to come and have a look at the car before i left work and it turned out to be a Lambda sensor fault. This has been reset by the recovery bloke and hasn't come back on since. At least i know it's not suddenly going to go bang anyway! He said to see how it goes and to replace the sensor if the fault comes back or beforehand if it starts supping more fuel than normal.

The weird noise was actually the brakes! it made exactly the same noise when i was creeping forward in traffic earlier.. When i stopped this morning, i was on a slight hill and didn't put the handbrake on.. The noise was just the car creeping with the brakes not quite on! It sounded like a mooooooo noise which made me thing it was something similar to the mini! At least it was nothing major