WHAT WOULD CAUSE MY SUBARU TO CONSTANTLY APPEAR TO OVERHEAT, ACCORDING TO THE DASH GUAGE. WHEN THE HEATER IS ON, THE TEMPERATURE SEEMS TO LOWER A LITTLE. THE RADIATOR DOESN’T SEEM TOO HOT, YET THE TEMPERATURE GUAGE STATES THE CAR IS VERY HOT. THE RADIATOR FANS ARE WORKING GREAT AND THE RADIATOR IS FULL OF FLUID WITH NOT APPARENT LEAKS
Well you may want to tell us the model, year, mileage, etc…Otherwise you might as well just say “I have a car that overheats-what’s wrong?”
tHE SUBARU IS A 1994 WITH HIGH MILEAGE, PROBABLY 170,000. IT IS ONE OF THE OLD 4 CYL STAION WAGONS/
The most common cause of overheating is a stuck thermostat. The thermostat is the part that restricts the flow of coolant from the engine to the radiator when the engine is cold so it’ll warm up faster. If it’s stuck shut, the coolant in the engine will be overheating but the radiator won’t be too hot. There is also a slight chance that the temp gauge or temp gauge sender is faulty, but the thermostat is what you need to check first.
Get this checked out-- Subarus of this vintage are notorious for blowing head gaskets when they overheat!
Subarus of the mid to late 90’s were notorious for a head gasket failure that causes random overheating among other things. Given your mileage I’d say yours is on its way out. It happens to a lot of Subaru owners and if you research it on Google you’ll find many sites that speak about it.
tHANK ALL OF YOU. IS THERE, WE’LL CHECK THE THERMOSTAT AND HAVE THE RADIATER FLUSHED. IF THE HEAD GASKET HAS FAILED, WOULD THAT CAUSE A LEAK IN FLUID? I HAVE NO NOTICABLE LEAK.
The fact that the temp decreases with the heater on indicates a lack of heat transfer to the radiator or from the radiator. A stuck thermostat is likely. A bad radiator is also likely if the cooling system has been neglected or maybe even if it has not. Is the radiator free of debris on the outside?