Hi All,
My beloved WRX ended up being towed home this morning.
Call me paranoid but i check water (coolant) and oil every time before i start her as i do a lot of miles each day with work.
When i was about 2kms from home i noticed the temp gage had risen to half way. It usually sits well below that and hasnt ever gone that high since i bought her.
Anyway, had to stop at a set of lights and when i moved off it started to go higher. I shut motor off but with thermo fan running as could smell the coolant.
Opened bonnet and coolant all over front of motor. Serious!
My question is, with it having gone that high (3/4) for about a minute, what are the chances of serious damage, and with having to shut her down like that?
She be on tow truck to my fav subaru mechanic on Tuesday even though he doesnt know it yet and i hope he has time for her.
Your thoughts and opinions appreciated.

Im taking a punt and saying you got ontop of it before any cooking of engine internals.

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www.racewars.com.au

Fingers crossed plus everything else!
Once i got her home a mechanic came out to have a look but couldnt diagnose where leak coming from and told me coz they such a high performance engine it had to be a gonna.
See what mechanic says Tuesday.
She gets another motor if theirs any doubt at all.
Thank you for your reply.

one of my tanks on the side of my radiator was cracked n slowly leaked till it got really hot n blew the rest out. The temp gauge was almost to the red before i seen in then pulled over n shut the engine of n popped the bonnet n let cool down. Did no damage wat so ever but i reckon it wouldn have taken much more. If you shut yours off well before red you will be fine mate wouldn have done any damage

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[ANARKEE]..................................................S-VALLEY REPRESENT..................WAYNES WORLD PARTY TIME EXCELLENT!!!!!!

You've both given me hope. Thank you.
I spoz cos im female mechanics like giving fatal result assessments.
Its not the cars fault either. When i had her serviced 9 wks ago they let an imbicile do the work on her. Been finding bits and pieces that havnt been tightened properly. Very not happy and wont be going back there.

if he couldn find the leak for ya dont beleive when he says ya motor is shot. But def take it to ya prefered mechanic to get it checked but it should be all good. Prob just a split hose

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[ANARKEE]..................................................S-VALLEY REPRESENT..................WAYNES WORLD PARTY TIME EXCELLENT!!!!!!

I really appreciate your taking time to reply.
Hopefully be something simple but i'm not holding my breath with my luck.
I couldnt see any loose hoses.
Maybe water pump or something with radiator maybe. Initially thought neck of radiator cracked. See what happens once its been checked properly.
I'm wkn night shift and have been stewing over it. Feel bit more positive now thank you both.

Sounds similar to what i had...

Picked it up from a service, drove round to a friends place, then home. On the way home noticed the temp gauge climbing higher than normal. Once i took a closer look the top radiator hose had a nice big split in it.

I assume what happened was the hose wasn't put completely all the way on, so it was getting clipped by one of the fan belts. After a bit of driving it wore through the hose and that was that.

I should say to the workshops credit, they had a replacement hose and guy to fit it out to me at home by 9:30 on Monday morning (picked the car up Friday arvo) + discounts on the next service etc. Some people get upset about these things, but realistically accidents do happen, there wasn't any hard done really asides from not being able to drive my car for a couple of days...

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Osama Bin Hooning
Senior Terrorist Operative
Perth-Wrx

All it will require is filling it up with water and wacking a pressure tester on it to see if there is a leak. If its over the front of the engine it will either be the top hose or a radiator tank.

I highly doubt you have damaged the internals getting it to 3/4 on the guage. Ive had cars get way hotter than that and live on for years.

Also you are checking it to often in my opinion Maybe look at once a week or when you get fuel.. You will find any issues in that time.

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I used to tune cars with screwdrivers.
Clutch, Brake, Accelerate.

Thanks heaps for the advice.
Its a few weeks since service but can give an extended list of clamps etc that have been loose since service. Nothing would surprise me now. The service manager has been great but he cant stand over his workers every minute.
The car is averaging 1500 to 2000 kms a fortnight depending where i am sent for work. As i said, am tad paranoid about this car. Love it to bits even if it is 'just' a machine.
Heres hoping for a good outcome.