Dealer HG repair=bad news=outrage

[logic23]

I had a customers 01 OBW came in this week for a timing belt @ 110K. I had let him know that I have been doing preventative HG replacements on phase 2 engines when I do the timing belt etc. He said that that it had been done @65k under warranty.

So i crawl under the car to drain the coolant and low and behold severely leaking headgaskets.

I call and let him know the "good news" and he said go ahead and fix it.

In cases like this I take a ton of pixs.

To make a long story short: The dealer rushed/botched/f'ed this job about as bad as you could.

1. timing belt mark were hand painted and off a tooth (pass cam)

2. heads and block were both cleaned/preped with a dual action orbital sander leaving all kinds of valleys and scratches.

3. on of the alignment sleeves/pins in head was peeled back on itself which prevented the head from seating against the block...also damaged the hole in the head that it went into. This was the DS head which was dumping oil...go figure.

4. the headbolt torque seemed off...it was real easy to break them loose probably didn't do the last 90 degree turn. There were no marks on the bolts to help keep the torque sequence straight

I have long thought that the dealers were doing shotty warranty work to get people ouit the door and out of the warranty period but this is bulls**t.

 

I'm embarrassed for the dealer and embarrassed to be on the same "team" as these jokers. We'll see how the dealer reacts to having thier work called into question. I called national subaru of america customer service to alert them to the problem.

[Durania]

Dang, that's awful. I'd be prepared for a crap storm.

[OB99W]

Isn't being an independent servicer "fun"? In a business I owned a few years back, it was interesting to see the work of some dealers and "authorized" servicers. What an eye-opener! While most customers were appreciative of being told of past poor work and wanted it corrected, there were certainly some who either didn't believe things were that bad or wanted the problem "patched". I took a pass on those jobs.

[GeneralDisorder]

It's frankly amazing that it ran at all. I must say that head gaskets are very tough and tenacious critters from my own experience. Other than the factory failures - which generally still take 10's of K's and sometimes 100k+ to begin leaking - most of the time I'm impressed with their ability to hold even after being abused. That story is some of the worst I've ever heard - but part of me cheers for the Subaru engineers that this thing held compression and ran without overheating in a big way . The grooving and rough surface finish are just icing on the cake - that it held as well as it did is simply a testament to the head gasket design people. That is AWESOME.

 

The alignment sleeve being peeled back like that is unforgivable and running a D/A over the heads and block to clean them borders on idiocy. I can't beleive the dealer is even at fault here beyond hireing a complete fool for a mechanic. That is what I would expect from some tweaker doing it in the section 8 housing parking lot. .

 

GD

[SuBrat84]

1. timing belt mark were hand painted and off a tooth (pass cam)

 

How long were they driving it like this and didnt notice? What kind of issues would this cause? I have been worried that the guys that did my head gasket job didn't exactly know Subarus very well and I may be a tooth off. I just haven't had the motivation to open up the timing covers and find out for myself.

[logic23]

Not sure how long it had been leaking. This is a new customer....friend of a friend. It had its plastic cover on the bottom of the engine...i personally don't like the covers makes it too hard to see whats going on.

The biggest issue is tons of oil all over the cradle and exhaust. it hadn't gotten into the cylinders.

[Fuzpile]

That is just messed up!! It is good to post for the other reason. Reading the members here I'm seeing a level so far above that example. Folks doing work out on their driveway without lifts still want to get everything right. If they have a question they ask it and get expert advice.

The possibility of an abrasive grinder used on a block that isn't bare means that everything is compromised.

[GeneralDisorder]

A D/A isn't out of the question on a tractor engine that's cast iron . But on Aluminium it's not a good call.

 

If it's me I'm calling the customer and telling them they should consider another engine - the possibility of the head gasket blowing in the future from an improper block surface RA is a little troubling. And having the block resurfaced is problematic without complete dissasembly - at which point you are basically looking at a ground-up rebuild and a used engine would be cheaper.

 

On the other hand it ran for the last 45k so....... I would be concerned about oil and coolant leaks mostly since it obviously has good enough surfaces to hold the fire rings from blowing out. Still - it's a lot of work that you are preparing to do..... possibly to solve nothing at all if it still weeps fluids when you are done due to a poor surface RA for gasket adhesion.

 

GD

Edited July 21, 2010 by GeneralDisorder