2001 Subaru Forester Engine Cooling System

kanemechanic

The engine is losing coolant and no external leaks are evident? The following maintenance tasks were performed:
1. Replaced Radiator cap
2. Replaced Thermostat
3. Replaced Engine coolant Temp (ECT) sensor
4. Performed compression check; all cylinders within limits
5. Flushed coolant system, fresh antifreeze added
6. No sounds or leakage from water-pump

ateixeira

I hate to say it, but it could be a leaky head gasket. Coolant leaks in to the combustion chamber and burns away slowly.

striker180

there is a few ways to go about this....one, check and see if you have white smoke coming out of the tail pipe at any point and rev the motor to see if it does it under load...

you can pressure test the system and see if there is in water leaking externally and also look to see if its leaking out the exhaust pipe and listen in the pipe to listen for air....

you can get a chemical tester that sits on the radiator and if there is any exhaust fumes getting into the coolant then the fluid will turn from blue to yellow and that doesn't lie and is the best way to check for bad head gasket.....snap sells em for 60 bucks i believe.

some check first is to see if there is water in your oil or perhaps looks like there is more in there than should be in there, also look for any oil in your coolant.....if everything checks out there then you can just be losing it into your exhaust.....let me know how it goes and we'll go from there.

also check your passenger floor board for mositure

maczs007

You have a head gasket leak! Same thing happened to my 2001 Forester at 172,000 miles. I put in a bottle of K-Seal ($8) and it hasn't leaked since and now I have 197,000 miles! Check out the reviews on Amazon, most everyone raves about it. Saved me $1200!

nimbusjara

I just had my car diagnosed with head gasket leak and they said it will be 1900!!!! I wanted to get more information on K-Seal. Where you can put that in and how that works...
maczs007, thank you for the post!
I could not find the way to pay for this repair!!!

maczs007

I drained my cooling system, put in new coolant, distilled water and the bottle of K-seal. That's it! I checked the coolant level the next few weeks and it never changed. Let us know how it worked for you.