Hi, I'm new here but I've been lurking these forums for a couple of weeks. I recently purchased a used '98 Subaru Forester L (150k miles) from a non-Subaru dealer earlier this month. I don't believe it's under a warranty as my bill of sales from the (non-Subaru) dealer says it was sold AS IS.
The car is beautiful and I love it to death, but I suspect that I've fallen victim to the notorious HG failure that I've come to understand that Subarus are infamous for. Tomorrow I am gonna bring it in for a test to confirm or deny a HG failure, but I figured maybe I would run this by you guys first so you can give me some ideas what may be wrong with it. I've had it for about a month and I definitely don't beat the crap out of it. I drive it to work and around town.
1. Upon starting the car up after the engine has cooled completely, the exhaust lets out a lot of white smoke. Once the engine heats up the exhaust smoke kind of ceases but continues if I stop at a red light and accelerate beyond forty five-ish miles an hour.
2. The engine has an obnoxious knocking noise when you first start up the car after it has been allowed to cool completely (over night, over the course of a work shift). Once it heats up the knocking becomes much quieter.
3. The car overheats...constantly. I don't go anywhere without a bottle of coolant on me anymore. However, it has not been allowed to fully go beyond the red line. Everytime I see the temp level rise even a little bit I slow down and pull over and shut the car off. It's really embarassing to have to throw on your hazards and pull over to put in some coolant. This seems to happen every twenty or so miles.
4. On the subject of coolant, the little tank reservoir which has the LOW and FULL lines on it is not only full, but almost overfilling. I don't see any leaks on the ground though so I suspect that it's being burned off in the exhaust (number one on this list). I replaced the radiator cap just as a quick fix to see if that was the problem...still over heats. For some reason the coolant in the reservoir is not being sent back into the radiator. (FYI: I have no clue about cars and I don't even know if that's what its supposed to do!)
I did change the oil recently, but it did not resemble a milkshake one bit, nor was it bubbly. I replaced the oil filter and drained the oil...it was coffee black.
I have my own theories on what's wrong with it (HG failure or something along those lines) but I just wanted to run this by some other people with more experience with Subarus than me. Like I said, tomorrow it will be going in for a test to confirm or deny the HG failure.
Sorry for the long length, I just wanna get to the bottom of this.
The car is beautiful and I love it to death, but I suspect that I've fallen victim to the notorious HG failure that I've come to understand that Subarus are infamous for. Tomorrow I am gonna bring it in for a test to confirm or deny a HG failure, but I figured maybe I would run this by you guys first so you can give me some ideas what may be wrong with it. I've had it for about a month and I definitely don't beat the crap out of it. I drive it to work and around town.
1. Upon starting the car up after the engine has cooled completely, the exhaust lets out a lot of white smoke. Once the engine heats up the exhaust smoke kind of ceases but continues if I stop at a red light and accelerate beyond forty five-ish miles an hour.
2. The engine has an obnoxious knocking noise when you first start up the car after it has been allowed to cool completely (over night, over the course of a work shift). Once it heats up the knocking becomes much quieter.
3. The car overheats...constantly. I don't go anywhere without a bottle of coolant on me anymore. However, it has not been allowed to fully go beyond the red line. Everytime I see the temp level rise even a little bit I slow down and pull over and shut the car off. It's really embarassing to have to throw on your hazards and pull over to put in some coolant. This seems to happen every twenty or so miles.
4. On the subject of coolant, the little tank reservoir which has the LOW and FULL lines on it is not only full, but almost overfilling. I don't see any leaks on the ground though so I suspect that it's being burned off in the exhaust (number one on this list). I replaced the radiator cap just as a quick fix to see if that was the problem...still over heats. For some reason the coolant in the reservoir is not being sent back into the radiator. (FYI: I have no clue about cars and I don't even know if that's what its supposed to do!)
I did change the oil recently, but it did not resemble a milkshake one bit, nor was it bubbly. I replaced the oil filter and drained the oil...it was coffee black.
I have my own theories on what's wrong with it (HG failure or something along those lines) but I just wanted to run this by some other people with more experience with Subarus than me. Like I said, tomorrow it will be going in for a test to confirm or deny the HG failure.
Sorry for the long length, I just wanna get to the bottom of this.
