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2005 WRX Mystery Overheating + oil leak

825 views 3 replies 2 participants last post by  SD_GR 
#1 · (Edited)
2005 WRX, Cobb Stage 2, Thermal Zero Turbo Bag, Mishimoto IC Piping, CXracing TMIC. Some suspension mods, sway bars, endlinks, strut tower bars. 4EAT Transmission. 105k on the Odometer. Oil changes every 3k with Rotella.

I bought it in Feb this year, kid I bought it from thought timing belts just... went on and when he started it up all the valves bent. I traded my garbage 85' Corvette for it, haha. I put heads on it when I trailered it home and it's been running great! Until...

About 2 weeks ago the car got hot- I pulled off the freeway (It was reading 198-196 degrees on my AccessPort) and onto an exit ramp. Idled there for a bit and when I glanced at the coolant temp it was up to 220 degrees. I started to get concerned but kept driving. Temp dropped back down to 198 again until I started slowly maneuvering to get into my spot at home. It spiked to 238 and I shut it off. It was not overtly hot long.

Well, I opened up the coolant reservoir above the turbo and it was very low. Turned the car on after letting it cool for about an hour and added water. Burped the system, (there was a substantial amount of bubbling) then put it in the air at work (I work for a Ford Dealer as a Tech) and took a look.

Whole underside of the car is covered in oil, coming from the turbo. Looks like it could be the turbo drain but the seal above it looks wet too. Hmm. I also can't find any visible coolant leaks which was also concerning. The turbo seals could possibly be a culprit?

I kept driving the car and had the issue again yesterday, this time when I looked at the coolant while refilling it I noticed small black flecks and small orangy-brown flecks floating around every time an air bubble happened. I'm really really hoping those aren't pieces of my HG coming out. But my oil looks clean on the dipstick and is not sweet-smelling. I also am not having ANY running/driving issues whatsoever. Ran a compression test at work and all my cylinders are within 7psi of eachother. Seems pretty quality. The overflow reservoir is also bright green and not discolored at all.

I replaced the IACV Gasket this morning for posterity and I'm about to replace the turbo drain gasket. If neither of these things help I'm suspecting Turbo Seals, even though there's not any oil in my intake beyond what is normal.

Thoughts?

EDIT: Forgot to mention, pressure tested the cooling system as well. It held quite well but I did hear a bubbling sound coming from the IACV area, which is why I replaced it. It recently got cold here in Cinci, so I theorized that the cold caused the IACV to leak minutely at cold start, and once it got warm, it re-sealed. The car seems to white smoke fairly substantially on Cold start, but it has a 3 inch Catless exhaust so some white smoke is to be expected I assumed, when cold-starting.
 
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#2 ·
Why's it overheating though? The turbo seals wouldn't explain all that I don't think. Check the coolant and oil lines to the turbo again just out of curiosity I suppose. Otherwise suspect internal failure at the turbo.
 
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