I have a MY95 impreza wagon wrx. No mods, 52000 miles.

On way home from work today, driving along with the flow of traffic, not driving fast at all, when I put my foot down my scoob was only boosting to 6-7 psi. Car seems to drive fine up untill that point where it wont go any further and only gradually pics up speed. Got home thinking perhaps boost pipe leaking or turbo dying till I notice I seemed to have lost some water as anti freeze was over the bottom of the engine, drive shaft etc, not 5hit loads but enough to know somethings not right. I also noticed upon opening the bonnet it sounded like it'd over heated, wasn't steaming but could hear bubbling.

Sorry for the pants description. Could someone please raise some suggestions as to what it may be.

Many thanks

Chris.

Head gasket - possibly combustion chamber to cooling system?
Try a compression test.

Colin.

I was hoping it's not the gasket, going to do a compression test tomorrow which doesn't look easy and a pressure test on the cooling system to see where the water is coming from.

Any more suggestions would be much appreciated.

Does your car still have the probem when it cools down,
mine had the same prob,turned out to be the ECU.

Can you see any fluid leaking from the top of the engine..???

Check the coolant header tank to the left of the engine as you look at it next to the air filter box...

Check the hose from the turbo to the header tank also the hose under the header tank which comes from the engine...

Have a look at the radiator cap and see if its working ok and not damaged because if its damaged then it will enable the coolant to overflow into the overflow tank infront of the battery this inturn can overflow and could cover the bottom of the engine...!

Dan:D

This could be worth a look :)

Thanks for you comments guys.

I did a pressure test on the water system yesterday and have found out that the rad has a hole in it.

When I filled the water up and drove for a shot while all my power came back. Could all this be because there some sort of seperate temp/ water level switch that is mapped to the ecu and when it gets too hot or the water is too low it puts the car in a "safe mode" ???

Cheers
Chris.