Hi, new to Subaru as of a few months ago (2011 Outback 2.5i Limited). Over the past couple of weeks I've been trying to get the air out of the cooling system that I can hear in the dash/heater core when it's cold. Another symptom is that at first once warmed up the air is HOT, even when set to the low 60's on the temp setting, but then after 15-30 minutes of driving down the highway the air gradually cools down until you have to set it on the higher end to feel a lot of heat. All of these changes in heater core temp are going on while the engine coolant temp is a steady 93 C going down the highway.
I bought the EPAuto spill proof funnel system, and have bled it seemingly thoroughly 4 times now. I just did it once more, and really laid into with the revs up to 4k to push anything through. I reved it like this dozens and dozens of times. And I'm now convinced running it is just pushing air into the system. Every time I rev it a pretty huge amount of air bubbles up through the radiator. Then when idling it's a slow smallish burp every minute or two. I kept going and going but it just doesn't seem to change, so there's no "going until bubbles stop coming up".
I have the front of the car up on ramps every time I've done it. I did the coolant combustion gas check with the blue liquid, and it didn't change color, suggesting it's no combustion gas in there (though I don't fully trust that little thing, it's kind of a lame setup that's hard to capture bubbles with, and very easy to suck coolant into, which means you have to start over. So take it with a grain of salt). Though, I have never once had to top off the coolant over several thousand miles of driving with this issue (hearing water in the dash). And I can't come up with an explanation as to how combustion gas could get into the cooling system without also pulling coolant into the combustion chamber, resulting in loss of coolant.
The car started to get hot one time in heavy traffic, and I pulled over and let it cool down. Other than that no overheating.
I really hope I don't have to do the head gasket. The PO did it about 40k miles back. Not a project I need on my list at the moment. This one has me stumped.
Thanks!
I bought the EPAuto spill proof funnel system, and have bled it seemingly thoroughly 4 times now. I just did it once more, and really laid into with the revs up to 4k to push anything through. I reved it like this dozens and dozens of times. And I'm now convinced running it is just pushing air into the system. Every time I rev it a pretty huge amount of air bubbles up through the radiator. Then when idling it's a slow smallish burp every minute or two. I kept going and going but it just doesn't seem to change, so there's no "going until bubbles stop coming up".
I have the front of the car up on ramps every time I've done it. I did the coolant combustion gas check with the blue liquid, and it didn't change color, suggesting it's no combustion gas in there (though I don't fully trust that little thing, it's kind of a lame setup that's hard to capture bubbles with, and very easy to suck coolant into, which means you have to start over. So take it with a grain of salt). Though, I have never once had to top off the coolant over several thousand miles of driving with this issue (hearing water in the dash). And I can't come up with an explanation as to how combustion gas could get into the cooling system without also pulling coolant into the combustion chamber, resulting in loss of coolant.
The car started to get hot one time in heavy traffic, and I pulled over and let it cool down. Other than that no overheating.
I really hope I don't have to do the head gasket. The PO did it about 40k miles back. Not a project I need on my list at the moment. This one has me stumped.
Thanks!
