Aaagh! So about a month ago, I had a sudden coolant leak from the throttle body; it was so bad I couldn't drive it. I took it to the dealership, and to make a long story short, I had it replaced to the tune of ~$800. Fast-forward to today; I pull into work and notice a fresh puddle of coolant right in front of my car. I had it towed to the dealership again, and as I suspected, it was a blown head gasket. Luckily, the service tech told me I was covered up to 100k for the gasket (thanks to the additive) and it will be replaced at no charge. 59K on the odo...

Did you get that conditioner stuff added? From the Legacy side, I've been hearing good news about that stuff.

A link to add. Possibly WTLW?

http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2...03/183342.html

So... 376,000 vehicles in the 3 years they are covering. Anyone know how many Legacies, Foresters and Imprezas were sold during those years?

I'm just curious to see whether it's a small percentage or something.

ok... so i get this letter in the mail today. all and all my RS had a major leak about 4 months ago. i didnt drive it for almost 2 months after it started leaking because i could not afford to fix it. Well ended up i had to start driving it again because my other car broke down. Leak stopped about 2 weeks after i start driving it again and hasnt done anything sense. doesnt leak anything. but yet smells like coolent really bad after long drives.

now i have borla headers and a full cat-bac system. Stock cats are still in place. Will this affect any work that will/ and can be done to the car? im pretty sure it would be a good idea to have the head gasket fixed because of the past troubles with it.

any info would help... thanks

-J

Yeah, I had the conditioner added when they replaced the TB, about a month ago. Lot of good that did me..

Based on my experience, they won't replace the gasket until it fails completely. I'd also get the conditioner ASAP, so that your warranty on the gasket is extended to 8yr/100k miles. As far as your mods go, try to find a mod-friendly dealer in your area just in case. My dealer told me that SOA told them that they aren't even supposed to touch modded cars. He was nice enough though and is replacing mine without giving me a hassle. I have a CAI and cat-back on now... good luck!

Soooo.... hmm... maybe the conditioner sometimes works?
Could be something else that's causing the coolant to go nuts.

aagh!!! I just got a call from my tech, he says that my head gasket is fine, and it's this hard tube (somewhere around the engine) which has a hole in it. Same thing that happened to my TB. He says my coolant is bad and everything is getting messed up. He's going to replace the tube and flush the system, but what the hell is going on with my car??!?

So it might not necessarily be the headgasket?

You all may want to be reminded, or informed, that most manufactures are using this conditioner in production. It is not Stop Leak. Saturn Thats like bitting off your nose to spite your face. Remember, GM bought into Subaru, Subaru didn't buy into GM. GM would love to have the reliability Subaru has. I would venture to assume that there are factures not mentioned in these stories that may make one understand why the are having a cooling situation. For example, my phase 1 and 2 engines are just fine. All three of them show no signs whatsoever? Why, well because the are a mechine, not an appliance. You maintain a mechine, and replace an appliance, but sadly, cars have become concidered appliances lately - they are NOT!

[ot]
I don't think GM likes Subaru for reliability; GM likes Subarus profit margin. IMO GM wants everyones vehicle to be unoperable in 3 years so they need a new one.
A lot of people buy into the "buy american" loyality, which works very well for the big 3.
[/ot]

Just got my letter today. Driver's side underneith has looked dirty for quite a while. Never had to really top off the coolant tank. Changed it once at 30K, sitting at 72 right now.

First- quality info in this thread. Great expertise.

Maybe I'm the only one insulted by that coment...
I have changed coolant three times and oil religiously in my '00 2.5 RS, w/ 47k. Beyond that, I know how to maintain a car.
That said, I recently dumped in a bunch of antifreeze.

SOA sux for not owning up to the issue & replacing the gasket.

This is my 2nd RS. I opted for my '00 2.5 over Audi's 2.8. I had the $$ for an Audi (or a 330Xi), but my '98 2.5 was
So I did what I thought was the smart move & went RS again, so much car for the $$. My '00 will *very* sadly be my last if the dealership does not replace the gasket. I'll sell it with the transferable 6yr/100k gold extended warranty still in effect & move to an S4- instead of my original plan to wait for Subaru's 2006 machine.

Alternatively, SOA has the chance to make me a fanatical evangelist if they do the right thing. Subaru has sold 2 cars to friends of mine partly because of my recommendation. I hope to not rescind those recommendations

Yes, it is.


Brian

Where is the 'Official Blown Head Gasket" Thread?

I couldn't stand searching through 22 pages that my search came up with.

Dealer told me that my 98 GT's head gasket is blown and a mere $1500-1600 would replace both gaskets and machine the heads.

I read through most of the posts here and am in the same mindset as those that feel Subaru is not owning up to what seems to be a design flaw.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with her. I'm starting to consider hybrids in lieu of another Subaru. I was excited about the 05 Legacys (turbo), but hate to wonder if the gaskets have the same extremely short lifespan that the Phase I & II's seem to have.

I'm also certain that all of you with this problem have written SOA questioning the responsibility of manufacturers and possible recalls? Right? If not...why?

Is it me, or does Subaru seem to have a strategy of applying band-aids to problems instead of curing the issue? For example the recent spring recall on Subarus in the salt belt. Did they replace the springs? No, they decided to put a collar on to prevent tire puncture when the spring finally breaks. Not a quality service program in my opinion.

I have yet to hear from the dealer's MECHANIC, only their secretary. I want to know how it was diagnosed. Because I recently changed the upper coolant hose and spilled antifreeze in the engine compartment. I hope that they actually verified the issue.

Also if I'd had the coolant flushed and filled in the recent past, would they have added the stop leak? How would I know? Are they required to notify me?

I'm pissed!

Peace,
Oquipah

Update : No leaks so far. Beginning of February was when they fixed the gasket and used the conditioner. However, that was only 8 thousand miles ago.

Update : it's leaking again. Dammit. And I have no engine mods whatsoever! I've been driving like a granny so it's not me! Ugh! Luckily, my car is only at 87,300 miles. Once I'm over 100k, I'm on my own.

Update : they took care of it free of charge. Well, they charged me $46 for the pressure radiator test (or whatever it's called) to find the leak. Better than $2000.

Dealer put the "conditioner:" my cooling system in April as specified by Subaru. Now only six months later I had to have my radiator repllaced at a cost of $480. Some conditioner.

Given that the conditioner is designed to prevent head gasket leaks and that you don't have a head gasket leak, it seems to be working pretty well.

If I flush my radiator today can I wait until Monday to put this conditioner in? Please keep in mind that I will be driving about 400 miles before then.

i have an '02 WRX, by the way.

How awesome is this. Mine has been leaking more and more. Until the point that I was out of coolant / water. I caught it before it overheated (e.g. dummy light comes on), but it worried me. So, added coolant / water, 2 weeks later, it overheated again.

Bad news is now my car now has 100,500 miles on it. It started happening prior to 100,000 miles so I am hoping that Subaru will be nice to me and not make me spend $1000 to replace the head gaskets. Too bad my dealer in Tucson blows.

Hope my heads didn't warp or something worse 'cause that would make me a sad panda.

-Fish

Just bought a 99 2.5RS. I found out at 59k it had a cam seize. The short block and one head was replaced at the dealer. This would have been around the end of 2003. Do you think it has the new head gasket design? I have 115k now and a slight coolant smell. Also just had the service done for the coolant conditioner, aka stop leak.

Last year, i got in a some sort of fight with subaru canada for my head gasket leaking. They told me i had to go to the dealer and confirm that it was really the problem. But, in the mean time, i talked to the boss of the dealer but he told me that i was prolly loosing my time since my oil changes weren`t made in a dealer ( i do my own change oil and didn`t have the receipt to prove it). He then told me that since one of my warranty was expired, that maybe subaru canada will pay half the price to fix ( wich is around 800$CAD). So, i canceled my appointement to confirm the leaking and added that "Special band-aid anti-leak bottle".

It helped the problem for a few months but, unfortunally, since the cold time is arriving, like subaru say`s " Due to normal expension", it started to leak again. But this time, leaking alot. And from here, i ordered my parts to do all the gaskets on the motor, o-rings, seals, etc. And so my journey to take out my motor and replace the gaskets begins in a few day`s...

To finish this sweet and nice, even tho i have all the head problems, it will give me expererience since i am studying to be a mecanic, and maybe one day a subaru mecanic!!!

Patrick

I forgot all about this thread. Almost forgot about NASIOC!

I guess us 2K RS types are lucky; mine has 88K and still has the same compression on all 4 that it did 5 or 6 years ago.