2002 Subaru Forester (overheated engine)

[RoddQLD]

A workmate of mine has a 2002 Subaru Forester. He complained to me, one day, that he could smell coolant. The following week I was told that the engine overheated and now needs to be replaced, and was quoted well over $10,000 for a new replacement engine. He has decided to replace it with a used engine and will sell the vehicle because he feels that he would never be able to rely on it.

Q. Does anyone know if this is a common problem, and if so, then is there a known fix for the cause of this?

My mate says that this has happened to others (although, I can't find any mention of it via 'google'), and is a cooling system design fault (thermostat related?) recognised by Subaru and other cars have been repaired (engines rebuilt/replaced) that were still covered under warranty.

Any info would be great.
Regards
Rodd

[TonyW]

Hi
i have to ask the question here why when your mate smelt coolant
he didnt pull the vehicle off the road and check it, was it a hose damaged or loose or had the radiator been holed, had he blown a head gasket?

In my dealings with Subarus i have never heard of this problem ever and i run a website dedicated to offroading and touring them (2,500 members). I have an MY04 Forester thats done some real hard yards and in my opinion the cars are fairly bullet proof.

$10k for a new motor "phew" sounds over the top to me and on the other hand as far as i know Subaru dont have new motors for sale as they dont make surplus, their motors if damaged are repaired or rebuilt and the only one i know of that crapped itself a 2002 MY03 was hydraulic lock due to water ingestion
:drink:

Lack of maintenance will see any car suffer the consequences of break downs not saying your mate doesnt maintain it, but subee motors are renowned for longevity with some members on my forum reaching and surpassing the magic 500,000k with only regular servicing and maintenance

hope this helps
cheers
Tony

[RoddQLD]

Thanks Tony. Yeah, I thought that it was all strange seeing that I couldn't find any info about 'overheating' over the net.
He said to me the other week that he could smell coolant, but couldn't see any leaks and the coolant level didn't appear to drop. He has owned the car since new and hasn't had a problem in the past.

I'll ask him for more info on what the known cause of the engine failure.

[TonyW]

Rodd you can get a bit of stink coming from the plastic oem
lets call it splash guard under the motor which has some sound deadening
on it, even on a rainy day or after a bit of a water crossing.I have a 6mm plate under there so i dont cop that smell. Has he done any fording of waterways maybe sucked a bit of moisture in through the snorkus which feeds from directly behind the drivers headlight, i know the one that locked up had actually driven for awhile after a crossing so it may not have been immediate the lock up unlike a high compression diesel which would go bang pretty much straight away. Having said that i have been way up over the bonnet with no problems, but its not recommended practice
cheers
Tony

[Big Boots]

The others he may be refering to are o/s models. I remember the USA ones were doing head gaskets, or something like that. If your really keen to find out google USMB (ultimate subaru message board).

10g is crap. If he is in maryborough, like you, tell him to go speak to 6 star motors. You could also try other subaru specialists in qld like scorpion subaru at capalaba or boxer service (ex subaru shop) at brendale.

[pmturnbull]

time for a 2nd hand wrx motor. lol

[TonyW]

time for a 2nd hand wrx motor. lol

then you would have to replace the whole drivetrain :(
but i know of it having been done :D

[RoddQLD]

I don't think that he has taken it anywhere that it would get dirty. LOL.
I'm hoping to change that in the near future, and arrange a trip to Landcruiser Mtn.

Big Boots: there was a business near here called SubaXtreme (or something like that), but I believe that it has closed, but I will pass on your information.

Thanks all, for your input. Back to work tomorrow, so I'll talk to him about it then.

Regards
Rodd

[TonyW]

Rodd
SubaX made bash plates and very good front and rear bars also lift kits
they are now owned by some guys in Gosford N.S.W
all the Scorpion stuff including Lift Kits was SubaXtreme
and their Lo Range gearing now comes from some engineering firm here in Vic who only deal with Scorpion

cheers
Tony

[RoddQLD]

Ok, saw him today and he is back on the road. He has had a 2nd hand engine put in which he says feels more powerful than the original. The mechanic gave him a bag of powder which he said came from the overheated engine and radiator. This stuff was dug out of the engine/radiator and crushed down into a powder by the mechanic. This powder is like fine sand and is a milky brown colour.

This reminds me of when the Ford EA Falcons came out, and they had an overheating problem. They found that Ford had trouble removing all the moulding sand from the alloy heads during manufacture. This sand later accumulated in the radiator causing the engines to overheat.

We are also wondering if this could be the result of using different brands of coolant.

Anyway, my workmate is as happy as Larry to be back on the road again.
Thanks again for your responses!

Regards
Rodd

[TonyW]

This reminds me of when the Ford EA Falcons came out, and they had an overheating problem. They found that Ford had trouble removing all the moulding sand from the alloy heads during manufacture. This sand later accumulated in the radiator causing the engines to overheat.

We are also wondering if this could be the result of using different brands of coolant.



Mazda Bravos had trouble with their cooling system because of the casting sand left over in the radiators a common solve was replacing with a twin core radiator.

The coolant i would have at a guess as the problem but i havent seen that sort of reaction from mixing coolants but if some real crap has been running in there whos knowes.I have never in a late model forester or an early one for that matter seen or heard of this problem :confused:

cheers
Tony

[Marc 1]

Nope, not widespread, I've not heard of the overheating being a known problem either. Given the work I've had my poor old Subaru doing (towing big loads over big hills in high summer (low range low speed stuff) I should be th first to know about it.

G'day Tony, must slip in at Offroad to see whats happening there...