'03 Forester, 165K miles.
This morning I had a catastrophic failure of my radiator. I'm getting the radiator replaced and I want to know what else I should fix at the same time. I've had several symptoms pop up this past week and I can't sort out if it's related or not. In order of appearance:
Past week and a half
- Ignition making funny noise when starting.
Yesterday
- Wet spot on ground under radiator. (cooling system leaking obviously)
- AC was noticeably weak.
This Morning
- After 20-minute drive, tried to turn on engine and BARELY able to do so.
- 30 seconds after starting, notice temperature was high, steam billowing out under the hood and coolant was sprayed over much of the engine.
- Setting the heater to full blast did nothing but pump out cool/tepid air.
- I couldn't see if coolant was low or gone, but topped reservoir off with water as a stop-gap. Despite this, the engine temp still ran hot and heater air was still tepid. As I limped to the mechanic (< 1 mile away) the engine even shut off and I had to wait several minutes before I could drive again.
SO, are there other parts that are likely failed? Thermostat and water pump (replaced 5 yrs ago at 110K)? Heater core? Starter? (Batter and alternator recently replaced.)
This morning I had a catastrophic failure of my radiator. I'm getting the radiator replaced and I want to know what else I should fix at the same time. I've had several symptoms pop up this past week and I can't sort out if it's related or not. In order of appearance:
Past week and a half
- Ignition making funny noise when starting.
Yesterday
- Wet spot on ground under radiator. (cooling system leaking obviously)
- AC was noticeably weak.
This Morning
- After 20-minute drive, tried to turn on engine and BARELY able to do so.
- 30 seconds after starting, notice temperature was high, steam billowing out under the hood and coolant was sprayed over much of the engine.
- Setting the heater to full blast did nothing but pump out cool/tepid air.
- I couldn't see if coolant was low or gone, but topped reservoir off with water as a stop-gap. Despite this, the engine temp still ran hot and heater air was still tepid. As I limped to the mechanic (< 1 mile away) the engine even shut off and I had to wait several minutes before I could drive again.
SO, are there other parts that are likely failed? Thermostat and water pump (replaced 5 yrs ago at 110K)? Heater core? Starter? (Batter and alternator recently replaced.)