61 replies to this topic

[bobbyjimmy]

Lance would be talking about this;
http://cgi.ebay.com/...sQ5fAccessories

[Evil_VZ-T]

That is exaclty them, great bit of gear

[B4TT]

Nice I shall keep that in mind, thanks.

[Steveee]

Yoo, I believe i just heard the waterfall , can you explain to me why its fine to top up 'Coolant' with water?

[Morgan]

I believe coolant is used because it boils at a higher temp and freezes at a lower temp. Water is ok for a top up but at your next service, just get them to flush out the system.

[Xon]

The coolant in your radiator is a mix of water and coolant anyway. The coolant raises the boiling point, and lowers the freezing point, of the water, while also preventing corrosion inside the cooling system.
While there's a preferred ratio of coolant to water, you could run your car on pure water and it'd still work fine.

[Alex]

Yoo, I believe i just heard the waterfall , can you explain to me why its fine to top up 'Coolant' with water?

Because its fine.

Adequate.

Acceptable.

Passable, reasonable,satisfactory, tolerable, fair, decent, quite good, pretty good, moderate, unexceptional, unremarkable, undistinguished, ordinary, average, not bad, all right.

[Alex]

And just to report in this thread, as it's appropriate.

I have a Lisle funnel on order, but I had to bleed my coolant system as I was getting teh waterfallz.

So I MacGyver'd a 1.25L coke bottle. With some electrical tape, I went around the mouth about 15 times, and made an interference fit into the header tank.

Cut the bottom off.

Filled the funnel 1/3 with coolant, and bled the cooling system like that.


It was hell ghetto. It worked to an extent. A little bit leaked out of the mouth of the bottle, as the fit wasn't perfect, and the bottle morphed from the heat.

I would give it a 6/10. Use a fresh bottle every time you do it, and you'll get by.

I'll see how my latest attempt went after she cools down.

[RX25SE]

......and it's OK.


Better to add water as, depending on what coolant is in the system and what is being added, a chemical reaction may occur that creates a residue that remains in the system.

If you add just plain old water it will be fine.


edit: do what Alex did with the Coke bottle.

[Steveee]

Interesting, thanks.

[bobbyjimmy]

I have a Lisle funnel on order

Mine showed up today from the good ole "we need your money" USA.
~$45AUD landed.

[Alex]

Mine showed up today from the good ole "we need your money" USA.
~$45AUD landed.

That's roughly how much I paid for mine.


How long did it take for yours to arrive?


I sure could use it right about now...

[Xon]

I use a hose and it seems to work just fine... Why do you guys feel the need for a fancy filling funnel?

[Alex]

I use a hose and it seems to work just fine... Why do you guys feel the need for a fancy filling funnel?

It has been reported by many in all Subaru fraternities that some cars are more troublesome than others when bleeding out air pockets. It's widely accepted that the Subaru cooling system is a quirky one, and that the header tank doesn't have enough height (and therefore pressure) to effectively bleed out air pockets. By adding a significant volume of fluid up and above the header tank (like the lisle does), it significantly increases your likelihood to get those stubborn air pockets out.

It's apparent not at the gauge (as my gauge sits rock solid in the middle), but more so when you have a scan tool plugged into the diagnostic port, and you watch the temps fluctuate. That, and I have a persistent waterfall noise behind my dash.

That, and this makes the whole bleeding procedure an absolute breeze.



On a side note, I'm starting to think that my heater core is ratshit.

[B4TT]

Alex : Your post sums it perfectly IMO...

I too thought that I had a shot heater core... I in anger took both heater hoses off and smashed water through it at full pelt, noticed that at first I got a slow pace coming back through the other side, then a few gurgles/bubbles and a bit of dirtier looking shit come through and she seemed to flow ok, reconnected the outlet hose and smashed as much water as I could into the heater core inlet and re-attached it as quickly as I could to try and stop too much air getting back in there... I then took the top radiator hose off and filled that up as much as I could including the radiator (using a coolant mixture) then bled it through with the funnel method and it seems to have worked, I have not have any waterfall noises since and I am again getting hot air from the heater, when there are big airlocks in the heatercore/partially blocked heatercore you will notice that you may get luke warm airflow once reaching operating temperatures while driving and then pretty much cold air when you are stopped at lights etc.

All in all Xon it really isn't about "feeling the need to use a fancy filling funnel" it is about using what works, simple.

[Xon]

Thanks for the explanation Alex, I've not really experienced that problem myself when just using the regular burping method but I guess as you said it would depend on the car...

[bobbyjimmy]

How long did it take for yours to arrive?

Nearly 2 weeks in the end - was just shipped via USPS, wasn't going to pay the extra for DHL/FedEx etc.

How long has yours been on order for?

[Alex]

Nearly 2 weeks in the end - was just shipped via USPS, wasn't going to pay the extra for DHL/FedEx etc.

How long has yours been on order for?

Ordered mine on Sunday evening. See what happens. I'll keep bleeding with the ghetto coke bottle.
In fact, I may even try using a castrol brake fluid bottle, apparently they fit OK.

[fatcat67]

Alex, might be worth disconnecting the heater core pipes and giving some water a blast through the core.
The more I think about it, I feel that may be the root of your issues.

[Alex]

Alex, might be worth disconnecting the heater core pipes and giving some water a blast through the core.
The more I think about it, I feel that may be the root of your issues.

I've done it twice already.

Heater core is whistle clean.

Gonna give it another flush tonight.