matthewn

iTrader: (1)

changed coolant and my heaters blows warmish air, got no leaks,have i got a air lock? how do i get rid? pump bottom hose when idling with header cap off with heating on full blast and full speed ? temp fine and no hg failure tested all that, and i back fed via tub hose!and checked thermostat. anyone?

Dan wrx

iTrader: (2)

Did you burp the system by squeezing the top rad hose with the header cap of? Keep doing it till there's no more bubbles at all and the fan kicks in mate

matthewn

iTrader: (1)

will try this in morning,i take it do it whilst runnig etc with heater on etc.cheers

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

What part of "THERE IS NO KNOWN WAY TO BLEED THE COOLING SYSTEM ON AN IMPREZA", do people not understand?

The ONLY way to get rid is to drain it, then refill, AFTER doing a search on here for how to fill without airlocking.

Trust me.

Dan wrx

iTrader: (2)

Ok trust alcazar but this is how I done mine last week, my Audi s4 last year and the year before last, I start of by draining the system fully with header caps of, fill up through header cap till it's full to the brim, start the car keep burping and topping up as required with heater on and when system is full with no more air bubbles then wait for fan to kick in to make sure the thermostat is working properly. I've never had a problem at all with any of my cars doing it this way,but hey what would I know I'm a newbie

matthewn

iTrader: (1)

did back fill as giude on here said but forgot to squeeze pipes so will try that as its all fine apart from not as warm as should be.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

But that's not what you said Dan.

Your method, although not ideal** will fill it without an airlock, with a bit of luck.

What it WON'T do is to get RID of an airlock once you have one.

** Ideal method is to remove the rearmost pipe from the header tank, stuff a funnel down it and fill through that, VERY S L O W L Y.

Heaters to hot while doing it. This effectively fills from the bottom up, so no chance of an airlock so long as you take your time and don't let the liquid in the funnel "gulp".

HTH

Dan wrx

iTrader: (2)

Yeah sorry my bad, I miss read the first post and thought he had drained the coolant again for some reason, I've never had a problem at all doing it the way I do it though. I do it twice a year with every car I've had, once at the beginning of summer and once at the beginning of winter.

daveyj

iTrader: (1)

Heaters to hot? Surely that's just a electric motorised flap over the heater matrix. Won't have any bearing on air pockets. Technically you shouldn't have to switch heaters to hot on modern systems as they are sealed unlike Minis of old where there used to be penny valves in the systems to divert warm water for cab heating.

If the header/expansion tank is the highest point in the system it should eventually self-bleed, just needs to be left idling for a while with the cap off.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

LOL, another newby with the answer.

Would that it works...it doesn't.

daveyj

iTrader: (1)

Newbie to this site yes, to cars and internet forums no. How does the Subaru divert hot and cold air? Does it differ to any other closed system with a heater matrix? Just trying to understand how switching to Hot setting makes any difference to air locks as in every other car I've dealt with from the mid 80s onwards the heater matrix gets hot regardless of whether direction is hot or cold on the dials. The whole switching fans to full on hot setting died out with B series engine'd Minis.

reedy107

You go girl

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Fair enough...except that "cars and internet forums" have little bearing on "Subarus and Subaru forums.
If I had £1 for every newby who has come on here and sworn us blind that we should do XYZ, because, "It worked on my RS Turbo...", I would be quite well off

Forget the diverter valve, or otherwise, my "beef" with your post was that you said:

And 99% of the time, it simply won't work.

reedy107

Hang the **** on. Whats wrong with workin on rs turbos. Lol

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Nothing mate..except the RS Turbo engine is NOTHING like a Scoob engine.

What you CAN do on one, could be disastrous for the other.

Scoobs, especially DO NOT appreciate tuning unless done properly.

reedy107

Thats why ive joined this site . I know alot about building rs turbos as they have been proven but scooby engines are a different league. If u cant beat them , join them. Lol

I personnaly want to learn everything about this engine. Makes life easier if and when something goes wrong. Dont wanna pay some grease monkey to do a job knowing that i can do it myself.

daveyj

iTrader: (1)

That's cool. All I've asked for is a reason why? It's good knowledge for myself? Switching fans to hot on a Subaru, how does it help?

Also, why doesn't the system self-bleed? Is there a higher point in the system than the expansion tank?

Don Clark

It certainly did.

Lost count of the times I've tried to correct this misconception on various subaru sites

Never had any problems filling via the header tank, although "burping" the lower rad hose helps to clear any air that may have become trapped around the thermostat (lowest part of system).

daveyj

iTrader: (1)

Glad I'm not alone. The only time I've had genuine drama was with a bleed sequence on a DTurbo Pug 306 because the expansion tank was in rad under the slam panel and you had a series of squiffy valves running around the engine bay up and around the bulkhead. Was an utter ballache of a job. On anything else it's either self-bled or required a quick squeeze of the heater matrix inlet/outlet pipes as it's generally the lower point of the system, all done with the expansion cap off. Seems the WRX may prove a challenge

Arkynsei

Take from this what you will.

I had coolant leaking from my header tank. Sniffer test/what have you came back negative, all clear.

Suspecting an air lock. I took the cap off the rad, turned the car on (from stone cold) and put the heaters on full (on hot, no idea if it matters). I then let the bubbles rise and mopped up anything that spilled over. Got quite a few big bubbles and then it settled down. Took about 15 minutes. Put the cap back on and it has not leaked over once since. I'm not saying do this, I'm not saying I bled it successfully. I'm just telling you what happened.

Don't want nobody telling me I'm wrong or w/e. I don't claim to know about this stuff. I'm just telling you what happened. Got it off another forum.

Maybe it'll help though.

hodgy0_2

Minis had A series, never B series

You may be thinking of the often overrated Morris Marina

exevo3

i bought a filler cap drilled top out fitted clear pipe with a funnel so i could raise level higher than engine...easy to bleed then.

another 1 of my make a tool for the job thingys...

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

I don't really know the answers to either question.
The fans-t0-hot was what I was told ages ago on this site, and the airlock thing is that there are crossover pipes etc which can run upwards, AFAIK.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Scoob filler caps are already higher than the engine.

I don't doubt that many people on here have got decent results filling from the header tank.

However, the method I use, which was given by an expert on here, is foolproof

stu turbo 98

iTrader: (6)

The reason you run the blowers on hot is so you can tell if you have still got air in the system,when the blowers are at their hottest with the rad/header tank cap off the jobs done,if its just warm or cold it means theres not enough water in the system and this could be down to trapped air in the system displacing the water making the water level look right.
I don't know if this is due to the engine layout or what but whenever I filled my cooling sytem without running hot blowers there was always air left in the system and the blowers would run cold to warm at best and when checked the water had been pushed out of the tube by the battery by the air left in the system.
Patients and running the blowers hot is the key to getting the air out of the system imo.

scoobyJim2

You run heaters to get water round the heater matrix,otherwise you're only filling the engine with water and not round the whole system

reedy107

Correct me if im wrong

But


Im pretty sure thats the water pumps job isnt it

daveyj

iTrader: (1)

That would be mine too as is thermostat once coolant is up to temp. The fans just blow whatever air the flaps are diverted to around the cabin. Hit comes directly of the heater matrix which gets hot regardless.

Using them as an indicator is common sense, just couldn't see how they affect air locks that's all.

daveyj

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, either. Pre-historic stuff

scoobyJim2

Water pump does pump water around you're right but if your talking about changing/refilling coolant system then you have to turn heaters to fully on and this gets the water around the heater matrix, which is closed untill you turn on heaters,as its the heated water that allows heaters to come out warm (engine & heaters use same water)