This is something about car design I’ve always wondered about. Alarms will ring like crazy if you open the door with the key in the ignition, or with the headlights on, or you drive away and one of the seat belts is unfastened. bzzz …rrrrring … bzzzz … rrrrring… , you know how annoying all that is. But all the racket does serve a purpose once in a while. You’re less likely to forget to turn the headlights off upon exiting the car, or accidentally lock the door w/the key in the ignition.
So my question I’ve wondered about is: why don’t the car designers design-in a similar alarm to go off when an coolant overheating condition happens? Like the OP says, if you are driving up a steep narrow mountain road and battling semi-trucks at the same time, you have to 100% focus on the driving situation, not be peering down at the gauges every few minutes. Not sure the configuration of the OP’s Subie, but w/my Corolla there’s a dash coolant temp gauge, but no audio alarm, not even a dashboard warning light for an overheating condition. The only way to determine if the engine overheats is either to see it on the gauge, or watch steam pouring from the engine compartment.
Folks here have said prior that some of their cars have an audio alarm to alert the driver to overheating; but how common is this? Aren’t there still a lot of car designs where an overheating condition has to be determined by the driver monitoring the dash temp gauge all the time?
Edit: I’ll add that in the OP’s case, b/c of the head gasket job done just prior, the shop has a point. It would have been a good common sense idea to monitor the coolant temp for the first outing, until it was certain it was steady, at the right temperature, and working correctly.
My guys never do an “as is” sale. They are diligent about getting the cars they sell in top condition. We don’t make a big deal about paperwork…I have been a loyal customer for about 20 years. I had no issue on the trip to Aspen with temp gauge, so I guess I did not expect to have it coming back. Yes, they do have a point that I was not quick enough in dealing with the problem, but there were no big alarms going off and I was concentrating more on driving conditions than temp gauge…then I started losing power, then I got the dreaded check engine, got it off to the shoulder all within about a minute or 2 tops as the car was slowing down to a stop, then BAM!! Looking back, I wonder if they would have advised me to “monitor the coolant temp for the first outing” as George suggests. Or if they would have just said if its been ok the last couple of months it should be fine. Thanks again for all your input. I appreciate it.
Severe overheating will cause a loss of power. Once that happens damage has been done to some extent and anything after that falls into the catastrophic category.
Some cars do have audible alarms. My Lincolns, past and present, has a message center on the center dash that will not only provide a visual warning about overheating but will also repeatedly beep a warning.
I always monitor the temp gauge and never allow the car to get to the point where it’s showing or beeping a warning for overheating or anything else. The only one that gets past me is the Low Washer Fluid warning and that’s due to the washer bottle being buried clean out of sight.
Some shops or remanufactured engine suppliers (I understand this is just a resealed engine) require a 30 day inspection to eliminate the risk of failure due to minor leaks. An inspection may have been useful in this case. How were the coolant and oil levels before the trip?
Maybe get a WRX .because less affected by altitude and run the coolant at the max concentration (to increase the boiling point-water solution would boil quicker at high altitude)
If the shop guarantees the car then overheat you should have pulled over sooner(if noticed) however they own the problem since they sold you a problem car.
A new car warranty would replace/repair the engine no questions asked(defective). Its not a new car here but still they screwed up somewhere and have insurance(price of car) built in.
If they sold it as-is your problem.
No idea why the buzzer or Check engline light flashing not connected to high coolant error. The car computer was very well aware of this temp!
I wouldn’t push the fact that the owners son is learning the business. He may have done his first head gasket job at 12 like me, and be now has done dozens, and is a top notch mechanic.
He may have done the work, but dad may have been there… over his shoulder guiding him in every step.
Learning the business may just be the paperwork, estimates, parts ordering, etc. etc…
Besides if trained under the fathers guidance…the father may take this as an insult, and he may give you little consideration on the guarantee.
My grandson age 10 this month wants to start working on cars with me this summer. Granted he’ll start with oil changes, and very simple repairs, but depending on how much time he wants to devote…he too may be doing head gaskets by 12 or 13…with my guidance.
I do have a receipt and of course the title. I didn’t mean to imply the transaction was so casual. As for the son doing the work, I suppose I should not be so harsh. It is his dad’s business after all. When I dropped the car off yesterday, T (owner, mechanic) and K (“master” mechanic) seemed very concerned, but not at all willing to take responsibility for anything yet. They will have to do a more thorough examination of course to figure out WHY this all happened, and I trust that they will be straight with me. I also believe that the whole thing may not be completely sorted out as to what caused what and how it all snowballed to such a major catastrophe. But I think T & K will do what needs to be done to a. Figure it out, and b. Fix the car, and c. Come to a fair bottom line. I do not expect anything for free. I know this is a complicated situation.
Car isn’t worth much with dead motor. Either you sell it for peanuts with dead motor or someone will pay to replace motor. Not much you can do if motor was driven in overheated condition. That is not shops fault. You say coolant level is ok? But murky? Why would motor overheat with adequate coolant level?
A friend of mine has an '05 turbo Outback and has had some bad engine trouble due to the turbo and the engine. At first the turbo was changed out and then the engine needed to be changed out. Many thousands were spent to get it running good again. There seems to be some issues with that model year, which was a change from previous years I believe. I have heard from other '05 owners with tales of woe.
From what you said about the problem hopefully just replacing the head gaskets again will get the engine going. I would be real concerned about the heads and you may need to replace them or at least have them resurfaced. It would be nice to know what caused the big steam issue. It sounds like a water hose may have blew out. CCR is in Commerce City, CO and gives 3 year warranties with their engines. They are expensive but you get what you pay for. You might want to at least talk to them about your issues. Hopefully the folks you are working with will work something out with you without much fuss, but these kind of issues can get ugly at times.
Just because the coolant level is fine, doesn’t necessarily mean everything is okay
If you’ve got a busted head gasket, busted intake gaskets, cracked head, warped head, cracked block, warped block, busted transmission cooler, etc., you could very quickly have big problems
