My SVX is DYING!!!!!!!!!!
 

Two weeks ago the upper radiator hose burst, so I took it in. The car's needed other work, so I figured, what the heck, it's in the shop anyway, may as well go all out. Had the upper & lower hoses replaced, converted the A/C, and had the timing belt / water pump / crank & cam seals replaced.

I picked the car up after one week with a POS rental and $900, and within an hour it overheated. I called my mechanic, and he left me use his Legacy wagon (TURBO!!!!! woohoo!!!!) till he could figure out what was wrong.

Yesterday I pick the SVX up again. He told me the radiator cap was bad and that he'd replaced it and everything should be just fine. And yesterday it WAS. This morning while cruising to the bank the temperature gauge was fluctuating, looking like it was getting hot then dipping back down. I pulled off the road and popped the hood - no steam, no boiling. I called my mechanic and let him know, so we scheduled to have him just look it over later in the week. When I left for work this afternoon, the car was hard to start. It had done that to me a few months ago, due to a bad O2 sensor, but I had that fixed. Well, on the way to drop the kids off at day care, the temperature gauge was getting WAY up there, hovering just below the red zone. I didn't see any steam or smell coolant, so I just took it easy on the RPMs. Right as I was turning in the daycare, steam started POURING out of the engine and there was this horrible noise.... So I popped the hood, let out a little whimper, and rushed the kids inside. I ran back outside and called my mechanic. He came over and traded cars with me again. He told me it's been a bad week - lots of very bizarre Suby problems. *sigh*

I'm really distraught over this - what if it's just time to part my beloved MA5T3R out? I don't want to....

Oh well, at least I get to drive a turbo suby for a while, right?

Head Gasket? I'm sure your mechanic would have checked that, but thats what it sounds like to me.

or Hopefully it could be the thermostat.

When you said water pump, do you mean you replaced it or just the seals? Maybe a defective water pump.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let it be the thermostat...

*fingers crossed*

And I had the water pump entirely replaced. At least that's what I paid for...

I trust my mechanic, so I'm sure it was done :)

I hate to say it but it does sound like a head gasket. Sorry.:(

Okay, so assuming it IS the head gasket....

what kinda damage am I looking at here? And I am referring to this mishap's direct impact on my cash flow... in other words what is this sucker gonna cost and is it worth it?

Parts are cheap
 

labor will be expensive though.

My dealer quoted me a price of $1800 to R&R them. I did it myself. Gaskets were $33 each.

I agree wit da' Freaks diagnosis. Head gaskets.

Todd

~*le sigh*~

well....

I'm hoping my mechanic will go easy on me, seeing as how he's the only one I let work on my car and have given him PLENTY of business in the past 7 or 8 months.

He didn't seem to be too horribly concerned when he picked my car up today, and of course it isn't HIS car, but he is really very fond of my car...

Good thing I have stock options.

I didn't know your car was modified in the first place?;)



















But really I hope you can fix it. (Afford to fix it)

<<Yesterday I pick the SVX up again. He told me the radiator cap was bad and that he'd replaced it and everything should be just fine.>>



i think the problem was the mechanic didn't properly bleed the air out of the system. he blamed the "rad cap" (haha) and then you drove it thinking everything was fixed, (my bet is after you picked it up you didn't drive to far) then it overheated and blew your headgaskets the next day after some longer driving. sorry about the situation. you might need some professional help here (lawyer).

INTERESTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you very very much for this info. I hope it won't come to that, because I really do like my mechanic; but if it comes to blows this is very handy information to have.

I told him today how odd I thought it was that I went in with a busted radiator hose and my car is now in worse shape than it was in prior to the hose blowing....

Haha :p No mods on my baby ;) But yeah, I *can* afford to get it fixed, but that would require using savings, taking out a loan against my 401(k), depleting my college tuition fund, and so on...

Generally speaking, unless the temperature gauge goes into the red zone, no damage is done. There are rare exceptions, but this is generally the rule. (Those gauges are surprisingly accurate.)

It's quite common for thermostats to be faulty right out of the box. The fluctuating temperature is highly indicative of a faulty thermostat. Head gasket problems are very easy to diagnose, so your mechanic could eliminate that problem right away. (The most reliable and easy way to test for a bad head gasket is with a little test kit that works much like a pH, chlorine, or pregnancy test kit: just a little strip you dip in the coolant that can detect exhaust by-products.)

In any case, cooling problems are not terribly difficult to diagnose. Your mechanic may have been trying to get you taken care of quickly and overlooked another possibility, or simply found and fixed only one problem when in fact there were two problems. Since you had no problems when you went in, the only new problems will be directly related to whatever was done while at the shop the first time. If they are aware of this, and your comment about the irony of how the car is worse now than before indicates that they are, then they know it's their fault and difficult to deny, and very likely they will fix it as soon as possible.

Be careful no to chide your mechanic prematurely or too harshly, as we all make mistakes. You don't want a bitter person with a monkey wrench working under your hood.

That is why I don't like most aftermarket parts. Their low cost is not worth the problems they might cause. I've never seen a bad Suby thermostat right out of the box.....and I've sold plenty. But working in the aftermarket I did see LOTS of dead-on-arrival parts.


Did your mechanic slap in a $5 thermostat and a $20 reman waterpump to save money??




Dave

Re: My SVX is DYING!!!!!!!!!!
 

Key question: Was the steam coming from the radiator cap, overflow reservoir, or elsewhere?


dcb