theotherskip Posted August 18, 2003 Share Posted August 18, 2003 I'm trying to get a web page together for info about doing a phase 1 2.5L head gasket replacement. I recently completed mine, and took lots of pictures in the process. I put a couple of pages together with parts prices, suppliers, information sources and some other info. It includes pictures of the teardown and some of the tips and tricks along the way. the page can be found at: http://mysite.verizon.net/vze730qe/ i'd appericate any feedback or any other info that anybody thinks i should add to the page. hopefully this will be a resource that peope can use to decide if they want to take it on themselves, or at least give them a better idea of the work involved... thanks for your help (i know it still needs work in the grammer and spell checking areas - i'll fix that later, but i wanted to get any opinion up to this point) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hocrest Posted August 18, 2003 Share Posted August 18, 2003 Looks great! I didn't read it all but it looked very detailed. Hopefully I never lose a HG but if I do, I know where I'm looking. Are you going to post it on the USRM? I see your from Philly, are you gonna make it to any of the local events coming up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theotherskip Posted August 18, 2003 Author Share Posted August 18, 2003 i'm probably going to post it to the usrm once i've gotten done with editing it and any additions anyone else may have. there's a bit more i want to add, but i won't get to it for a few days. the only local event i saw was a race day, and that's not really my thing. if there were more trail days here on the east coast, that i'd be in for! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hocrest Posted August 19, 2003 Share Posted August 19, 2003 Bump for your page... Yeah, I'm not a racer either but I'm planning on heading up just to hang out and see some other soobs. Plus it's only about an hour from me. There is a trail run through the Jersey Pine Barrens sometime this fall. Details are in the Meet and Greet forum and Older Gen Forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theotherskip Posted August 19, 2003 Author Share Posted August 19, 2003 thanks for the bump, i'm doing the same... anybody who's done similar work (timing belts, valve adjustments, head gaskets) have any tips/tricks that they think should be added? hocrest - i'll have to look for the pine barrens meet - that sounds more my style. thanks for the info! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subie Gal Posted August 19, 2003 Share Posted August 19, 2003 the Phase II's are going now... i know of a couple of 2.5 Phase II's that have blown HG... (one Legacy and one Impreza) i wonder if this will be the epidemic the Phase I's are/were...? nice job.. well done on the site... Jamie http://www.subiegal.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShawnW Posted August 19, 2003 Share Posted August 19, 2003 This is a really well done article. I did not know about techinfo.subaru.com but it only covers models down to 1993 so that might be why I haven't used it before since all my Subarus are older than 87 right now. And please by all means let me know when you feel it is up to your standards and I will input it to the USRM for you. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Posted August 26, 2003 Share Posted August 26, 2003 Just got the word this morning, our 2000 Outback with 102,000 miles has a blown head gasket. Mostly highway miles on it and we have always gotten the recommended services in the owners manual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theotherskip Posted August 26, 2003 Author Share Posted August 26, 2003 sorry to hear of your troubles, mark. i just got a reply from a letter i wrote to subaru, and they don't seem too sympathetic. they said that they are unaware of any issues with head gaskets failing on this engine. do me a favor and check back on the website in a few days. once i can get my isp to get their cgi scripts working, i'm going to make a guestbook where people can log these failures, and you will be able to print the list and send it to subaru when you complain, giving more proof to the fact that this IS a problem. i'm hoping to have it up sometime next week... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flo4Legacy Posted August 26, 2003 Share Posted August 26, 2003 Can't imagine that they will admit there is a head gasket problem if it can't be proven by solid facts! This would be a get my money back license for every Subaru owner that experiences a head gasekt problem. Good for the owners, bad for Subaru ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Outback Jack Posted August 26, 2003 Share Posted August 26, 2003 Mine didn't blow completely, but the external coolant leak from the driver side head was stopped successfully by Bars Leaks Extra Strength stop leak. My problem occured at 104,000kms and have 121,000 now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theotherskip Posted August 27, 2003 Author Share Posted August 27, 2003 flo... i don't think they need to do a general recall where they fix all cars, but more along the lines of a silent recall, where they give some support to those who have had failures. it doesn't look good for them to be having head gasket failures on cars that are only 4 years old... there's strength in numbers, and organizing helps, so hopefully we'll be able to get a growing list so they can't say that they haven't heard people are having problems... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Posted August 27, 2003 Share Posted August 27, 2003 Theotherskip, thanks for coordinating an effort to document the blown head gaskets. I opened a case with Subaru this afternoon and will send them copies of the services I have had done to the car. It will be difficult to document the oil changes since that is something that I do but it will make me feel better. I also plan on filing a complaint with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems/. I believe that the NHTSA would start an investigation into this if they had a significant number of complaints recorded. For what it is worth, I love this car except for this suspected defect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lsr3177 Posted August 27, 2003 Share Posted August 27, 2003 Flo4Legacy: What type of solid facts do you feel are needed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theotherskip Posted August 27, 2003 Author Share Posted August 27, 2003 mark - from my understanding, the nhtsa is not too concerned about reliability problems with vehicles. they tend to spend their time fighting automakers over safety issues - things like the throttle body missing bearings, and the bad paint on springs for cars that live in the rust belt (all recalls on my car). in fact, you can look up the 97 legacy ob on their site, and it won't mention the alternator recall, because it is not a safety issue, and was therefore not mandiated by the government. manufacturers sometimes issue recalls to fix defective parts, but it is usually voluntary, at the company's descresion. subaru chose to do this recall because of the high failure rate. i'm interested in continuing the issue with subaru... i had a friend who had a toyota pickup a while ago (sorry, some of the details have failed me). something went wrong (again, i can't remember specifics), and the engine died. he went to toyota for help, and they showed him the door. he had a salvaged engine installed, and was back on the road. 2 years later, he got a letter from toyota explaining that they finally acnowledged the problem, and were reimbursing claims that had been made... he ended up getting the new engine paid for by toyota... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flo4Legacy Posted August 27, 2003 Share Posted August 27, 2003 I would say a solid fact would be a third party appraisal stating that there is technical or design failure which leads to the head gasket problem. Or if EVERY 2.5 engine would suffer the head gasket failure. Now it seems that there are lot of head gasket failures but not on every engine. And we don't know the exact portion. High mileage or the driving habits could be the reason for the failure ... For me it looks like that Subaru made a small design flaw. More people than usual are reporting the head gasket problem. Subaru owners are just don't used to it. And then are very disappointed about that situation. Let's hope that it will turn for the better with the new model. At the moment it looks like it will ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theotherskip Posted August 27, 2003 Author Share Posted August 27, 2003 i think i got the kinks worked out with my isp and getting the guestbook running, so please sign the guestbook if you have had a failure. you can reach the guestbook here: http://mysite.verizon.net/vze730qe/guestlog.html hopefully we can get a good list going that everytime somebody writes subaru they can include, so subaru can't keep saying they haven't heard of any problems. i'll make a new post for people to sign after a few others try it and i know that everything is working ok...l thanks, skip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lsr3177 Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 I can't imagine a 3rd party that would open themselves to a lawsuit by a large corporation like Subaru, by publicly proving a design flaw. Unless it was a government agency, and they are only concerned with safety issues. There are numerous auto companies that have many reliability issues. People still keep purchasing the product for various reasons. Yet those companies still keep producing problem vehicles. A few years ago Consumer Reports labeled a vehicle a roll-over hazard under certain circumstances and was the object of expensive lawsuits. That was just for a potential safety problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theotherskip Posted August 28, 2003 Author Share Posted August 28, 2003 a lot of the non-government mandated recalls come from class action lawsuits, from people that get together after being ignored by the company. there aren't many third parties that care about issues like this (that is reliability issues on older cars). consumer reports rates new cars, then also shows some additional data on maintenace and repairs, collected from surveys of model owners, but it is just a summary and doesn't cite specific examples. many manufacturers have had engines that are lemons - just ask a mechanic. sometimes they can be the best source of info on which are good used cars, because they have seen what are the common problems with the different manufacturers and different engines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flo4Legacy Posted August 29, 2003 Share Posted August 29, 2003 And now why should a auto company admit a design flaw if there is no reason to? That is the problem we are facing with the head gasket failure. The failure still doesn't happen enough (by the way what a luck) to urge Subaru to take care of this problem. Maybe they recognized the problem and made some changes. But we all can be sure that they won't give us a cost free new engine! There always have been several models with design flaws. And some sold like hotdogs. May it be that the Subaru crowd is a little bit dissapointed that there IS a "smal"l problem with the engine??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theotherskip Posted March 10, 2005 Author Share Posted March 10, 2005 old post, new link. http://home.comcast.net/~skipnospam/ i just changed internet providers, and moved my web page of head gasket info & the log of failures. hope everyone is well. cheers, (the other) skip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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