spuds

Subaru had bad gasket issues and had a sealer available from the dealers..now they recommend 'conditioner' but IMO worthless opinion sealers are a bad idea because they can really clog things up.Blue Devil has a 50/50 review,some it worked,some clogged engines.

Here is what Scotty Kilmer advises

spuds

If you fail smog send in the registration and fees anyhow.That gives you time to fix problem and not incur additional penalty fee's.Wont get your sticker but will avoid fines.

Also keep the insurance up to date,if you dont and it cancels you will need to pay for insurance recertification.Then they will put some cryptic number like 32 on the registration but wont tell you what it is.Its that fee,its like 20 bucks or so.So when you get your next paperwork from them add about 30 dollars over what they ask for to cover that fee if you let your insurance lapse.

I had 10 weeks of hell trying to register my non op car because of that fee and their inability to explain what was needed from me.

You may need to go to DMV to get a temporary day use permit to take it to smog testing,any driving without sticker slams you with penalties here in Ca.And they will KNOW you drove without sticker because you took it to smog.

Oh,and when you go for smog get your cats screaming hot first.And changing plugs wouldnt hurt either.

TrapMaster

You mentioned the temperature gauge doesn't work. Does the car smell as though it is running hot? You could have a small leak somewhere that could be allowing steam to escape if the car is running to hot. You'd be surprised how much coolant you can lose that way in a short period of time. I had the problem I'm describing on another vehicle, it didn't noticeably leak until it got too hot and began releasing steam through a small crack in a heater hose. Either way you should definitely either fix your temperature gauge or buy an aftermarket one so you can monitor your engine temperature properly, it will likely help you hone in on this problem too as you can see when exactly the temperature is fluctuating most (if at all).

You may also want to check your thermostat and make sure its functioning properly. You can test it by throwing it in a pot of water and bringing it up to temperature to see if it opens as its supposed to. As for coolant loss through the headgasket: Is the car smoking on startup or while driving? Particularly pale or white smoke as that is usually a sign of burning coolant. Does your oil look milky? This is also usually a symptom of a HG failure. You can also do a compression check and look for uneven pressure across cylinders, its fairly easy and you can rent the tool from most auto parts stores for free. If you can change a spark plug you can do a compression check.

Lastly for now, as dicer alluded to, check your transmission fluid. If it looks like a strawberry milkshake you've probably had a failure in the radiator where coolant is mixing in with transmission fluid that is being cooled by the radiator as well. I have seen this on a Toyota Tacoma from the mid 90's before and even though its probably unlikely you might as well check before parting out your car.

myf16

The transmission fluid looks and smells fine. The oil looks fine but now it smells a little burned, which it never did before. The intake plenum seemed hotter to the touch than normal yesterday, but after a 20-minute drive this morning it felt normal. Maybe I'll buy an infrared thermometer (also useful for checking tires) to check the temperature.

One other new weird symptom: smoky wisps coming from the center vent. I only saw that once, for a few seconds. I believe I had just pressed the defog button by accident, so I may have opened a closed section around the evaporator that contained refrigerant (A/C was leaking slowly before the compressor died).

I'm leaning toward attempting a leak sealer, but the hose from the bottom of the coolant overflow tank is so small that I doubt the leak sealer will flow through it without forming a clog. I need to figure out another way to add the sealer.

In the meantime I will remove the thermostat, since that's one of the first steps for leak sealing and since I don't really need it in California.

I'll change the oil too, since that's overdue.

RA40

iTrader: (6)

I wouldn't recommend a thermostat delete. This still regulates coolant temperature that is important for the coolant temp sensor to adjust air fuel trims.

dicer

With no thermostat it will either over heat or over cool and what determines which one is the ambient temperature.

myf16

Thanks for the thermostat advice.

The infrared thermometer showed 145F on the plenum and cylinder head covers a few minutes after shutdown, then about 125F after restart idling. That seems normal.

I'm going to check the heater core by turning off the fan and setting recirc mode to stop air flow. Then after a few minutes of driving I will turn the fan on low and see if humid air or wisps of condensation emerge from the vent.

myf16

I bought a bottle of Bars Leaks HG-1. I pre-diluted about 2/3 of the bottle with a gallon of distilled water. I tried pouring it into the reservoir but that didn't work well. So I disconnected the upper radiator hose at the thermostat, lifted the hose, and poured the water into the radiator from there. I followed the directions: start cold and run it with heater on max until the thermostat opens.The leak was sealed immediately. No fluid level decrease in the last month.

I still have an occasional error code 25 and excess CO and HC in the exhaust. I will check the O2 sensor resistance, but I wonder if the water leak damaged one of my spark plugs.

Htony

Did a dye test? Maybe manifold gasket problem. Any white smoke at tail pipe? Any drops coming out of tail pipe, if so taste it to see if it is coolant.