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Wagons Subaru Crew Subaru Forester Subaru Forester Maintenance & Repair Forester - Headgasket Repair & Engine Rebuild
97 messages, Last post on Jun 24, 2009 at 6:36 PM
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bought a 99 in august. just replaced the motor. the heads on these are attached with 4 bolts. so the pressure on the head gasket is uneven. then, when the head gasket blows, a bunch of bad stuff can happen. sometimes, the motor can overheat, like in your case, which means new motor. what happened to me was that the gasket leaked antifreeze into the #1 cylender, constantly washing down the cylender walls, reducing lubrication, destroying the piston ring. Then you need a new motor. I bought and shipped a crate motor from: www.ccrengines.com. Basically a brand new motor, and it comes with a 36,000 mile warrantee. as much as I now hate subaru, the ccr engine folks are great. the ridiculous part is that dealers wont take more than 1500 for a trade in, because they know about the head gasket issues, so, as bizzare as it seems, it makes economical sense to put in a new motor in a lot of cases. a few things to watch out for when replacing your engine: 1. get a new radiator. its worth the few extra bucks. 2. if its a standard, replace the clutch. you've already got everything apart, so all you have to pay for is the part which is cheap. 3. make sure your mechanic and ccr engines are ok dealing with each other - this is important if you have a warrantee issue. 4. have your mechanic double check which cam sprokets you need on the new motor - there are two different types. 5. if ou burned a bunch of oil for a while, you might need new catalytic converters because the old ones mght be fouled with burned oil. sorry. have fun. it sucks.
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I think Subaru knows they have a continuing problem with failed head gaskets because they now recommend adding Genuine Subaru Cooling System Conditioner” per Subaru TSB 09-42-05 (of April 15, 2005). The TSB is applicable to all vehicles. A head gasket failed on our '04 without a repair resolution and after the dealer adding one or two bottles of the 'Conditioner', the leak seems to have been stopped ..... but for how long? You'd think that after a long history of gasket failures, Subaru would re-engineer the application or materials. We're not real happy owners either.
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Replying to: ma99forester (Apr 28, 2007 2:58 am) The heads should be attached with 6 bolts, as can be clearly seen in this photo:  Perhaps your mechanic broke off (from over-torqueing) or simply overlooked two of those studs, if so he's completely incompetent and is to blame for the problem, not Subaru. |
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Replying to: asa (Apr 28, 2007 4:47 am) Where'd you hear that? That's not true at all. Here is the actual text from Subaru: Service Program WWP-99 Dear Subaru Owner: This email is sent to you in the interest of continued customer satisfaction. Subaru of America recently announced a campaign on certain model year vehicles starting in 1999 through 2002. Official Owner Notification Letters will be mailed to all affected customers starting in late February through May of 2004. The timing of the mailings is based on the vehicle model year, starting with oldest affected model year in February through the newest affected model years in May. The following text is similar to that contained in the Official Owner Notification Letter that will be sent to you during the mailing phase affecting your vehicle. Therefore, this email is most likely arriving before most owners will receive their official Owner Notification Letter in the mail. Please do not schedule your vehicle for an appointment for this campaign until after you have received your Official Owner Notification Letter, unless you are experiencing vehicle problems. You can contact your local Subaru dealer for any questions related to this or e-mail us at Subaru.com, contact us. All vehicles? Where? Source? My '98 Forester was not affected. Our late-build 2002 Legacy was not affected. My sister's 03 Forester was not affected. My brother's 04 Legacy sedan was not affected. All vehicles?  C'mon folks, these forums are only useful when the information shared here is accurate. Spreading misinformation like this is harmful to everyone, both Subaru and the customer. I'm correcting you because I don't want Edmunds members to run off looking for a TSB for their car that simply does not exist. Please, folks, check your sources, quote them, offer references when they're available. That will make the advice here a lot more useful. Thanks all.
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Replying to: ateixeira (Apr 30, 2007 7:28 am) "Always add genuine Subaru cooling system conditioner whenever the coolant is replaced. Change the engine coolant and add genuine Subaru cooling system conditioner using the following procedures according to the maintenance schedule in the “Warranty and Maintenance Booklet”." Apparently, they do not want to take any chances... 
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Replying to: xwesx (Apr 30, 2007 9:46 am) That hit 99-02 models hard, sure. I haven't seen reports of head gaskets failures for 03 and later models. Nor did any of the Subarus in my family get a notice that it was to be added. |
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Replying to: ateixeira (Apr 30, 2007 10:00 am) Actually, the head gasket problems hit '96 through '02 models hard. It was only addressed by Subaru in the phase II engines, for some reason. Not that this is indicative of widespread problems, but I heard from a fella in California about his gasket saga (1998 Outback, green), which lasted about 2 years and is just now coming to a close. He ended up having the gaskets (and a bunch of other work) replaced to the tune of $2200. His wife wanted him to dump the car, but he was stubborn and went ahead with the fix. Having owned it since new, he is convinced it has a lot of life left and the $2200 is well spent. I cannot recall the mileage - I think it was in the 80K range. Funny enough, I get many many emails from people who do Google searches and come up with my page covering gasket replacement on my '96 back in Sept '05. So many that I finally set up a folder on my email program called "Subaru Correspondence." 
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Replying to: xwesx (Apr 30, 2007 12:34 pm) I'll check in my sister's Forester Owner's Manual next time I see her, or my brother's 04 Legacy. I seriously doubt it, though. What section was it under? I don't see how Subaru could deny a warranty claim unless owners were officially notified (or unless it's in the manual, like for the 07s). I also wonder if it's in the Tribeca's manual, as the H6 wasn't ever really affected by the issue. I guess what set me off was the "all vehicles" comment, I still doubt that's true. |
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Replying to: ateixeira (Apr 30, 2007 12:57 pm) |
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Replying to: ateixeira (Apr 30, 2007 12:57 pm) As for the coolant additive, it was in the Maintenance section (section 11 in my manual) under coolant replacement. Out of curiosity, is there not a law that manufacturers not require items specifically from the manufacturer unless those items are provided free of charge? If this is the case, this Subaru coolant additive must be a commercially available item. Is that so?
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