Ashtonlg

My main question now is should I pay for the job or use that money to trade it in?

It has only overheated twice in my posession. The first time I pulled into a gas station as soon as I saw the gauge going up, waited for it to cool, then drove it to the advance auto. The second time was a few days ago - it began overheating on the highway so I had to pull over and wait. I started it up after a while and had to run it (while the temperature was going up) about 1 mile to the gas station. Those are the only times it was overheating in my posession. However, I have only owned the car several months.

P.S. - Another question - is it possible I shouldnt get this fixed at all? I was just talking to a guy from one of the repair shops around here and he said at 130,000 miles the job could damage my engine and he wouldnt want to be responsible for that so he wouldnt want to do the job. Just wondering if anyone has had experience with something like this.

Thanks for the input. Is there an easy way to check and see if Blue Devil is clogging my system? I heard to flush it out is a hard process since it cant be exposed to air.

Thx for your input. I have the phone number of the shop that did it - so I can find out what kinds of products they used. It says machine shop/head resurfaced on the receipt i have from 2011. I don't know much about the shop at all. I called to see if they would warranty the job for me and they declined - their policy is 12 months. They seemed nice about it and wanted to give me a discount to fix it, but I bought the car in Georgia so going to them would be impossible anyway. A lot of people have told me that this could have been caused again by overheating, as the heads are aluminum and react badly to that - but the car hasn't overheated except as a symptom of the heads going bad! I am confused how overheating can be the cause and the effect. Also, when I get it done this time - I will make sure I get it done right. Spending that much money, I wouldnt want to skimp.

I have a 2002 Subaru Forester that I bought in January 2014. It had records of a head job done in 2011 - the head gaskets were replaced as well as the heads resurfaced at a machine shop (this was at 94,000 mi), In February (at 130,000 mi) the car began to overheat. I pulled over and waited 15 minutes, then started it up. It was running cool, so I drove it to the nearest advance auto. I smelled exhaust in the coolant and saw bubbles in it, so I bought Blue Devil and followed the instructions exactly. I even drained and replaced the coolant first. I have been using a conditioner as well. In April, 3 months after the Blue Devil, the car overheated again. When the car overheats, the heat inside the cab turns cool. When we stopped, I smelled the bubbles in the coolant and it smelled like exhaust. I am thinking that there is an internal leak again. It seems I need a head job again. Here are my questions: 1. Should I try to replace any of the following first? - radiator cap? thermostat? (with Subaru thermostat - since the others have copper), de-clog the radiator? retorquing the head bolts? 2. Should I try the blue devil again? (I would really like to put off the cost of the head job for 1-2 weeks until I can get the $ together) 3. If I need the head gasket job done, is it a bad idea to try to do it myself? (Get the heads resurfaced at a machine shop then do it myself?) 4. If I need to get this done, even at a shop, why did it happen again (2011 and 2014) and how can I prevent it from happening again in the future? Is it worth putting $2k into if it may just happen again? Thanks for your help in advance - this is a tricky one! P.S. - I really want to keep the car - other than the heads it is in AWESOME shape for a 2002. Ash