Overheating Turbo 2000

[rossw46]

Hi All.

My Impreza Turbo 2000 overheats within 10 mins of the engine running, so what is going on ??

I suspect the head gasket because :-

It's loosing coolant, there is quite alot of vapour coming out of the exhaust, the heater doesn't get warm anymore, and I see some steam and bubbling in the overflow tank when the engine is warm.

I'm confused though, because I bought a sniffer tester online, that you put into the header tank hole and it detects CO2 gas in the cooling system, but I couldn't get the colour of the liquid to change from blue.

Also, before I start the car, there is no coolant in the header tank, but within say 2 minutes, the coolant rises up the header tank fairly rapidly, and will overflow if the engine is left running. This makes using the sniffer impossible aswell. I did try the sniffer on the overflow tank, but again the colour of the liquid didn't change ?

The car is a V reg, standard, with 120 000 miles, just had a full service and new radiator, and I've just put in a brand new thermostat too.

Could the temperature sensor be faulty ? It sits as low as it can go for about 5 + minutes, then moves up to nominal in around 30 seconds, then after a further 2 or 3 minutes at 2000 rpm it rises up and keeps going until the engine is stopped ?

If anyone has any words of wisdom I'd appreciate it. In a sad way I'd be grateful even just to know it definately was the head gasket, that way I could at least crack on while I'm off and start getting the engine out.

What's my next move ? This is doing my head in, I feel withdrawal symptoms kicking in now that I can't get out for a good hoon !

Thanks,

Ross

[ohtari]

Edit: didn't read it properly.

Is the water pump working as it should?

Edited by ohtari on Tuesday 30th December 16:37

[rossw46]

ohtari said:

Edit: didn't read it properly.

Is the water pump working as it should?

Edited by ohtari on Tuesday 30th December 16:37

How do I check that ohtari ?

[ohtari]

With difficulty I'm afraid, the timing belt needs to come off to get a look at it.

Do you have a record of when it was changed? It should have been done at the same time as the belt, but these things happen.

[rossw46]

I drained the cooling system toaday and re-filled in a more sympathetic mannner.

Started the car up, and within a couple of minutes I could feel decent heat coming out of the vents, happy days !

I drove the car for 18 miles, and no hint of overheating, and the heaters stayed hot.

I hope this is problem solved, but I'll give it a few days to confirm.