hoffy14 Posted March 2, 2007 Share Posted March 2, 2007 Hey all, I've got a '98 Outback that was overheating, I thought it was leaking coolant - brought it in and they said I needed a new water pump and timing belt. Two days later on a long drive it overheated again. After poking around and looking at http://www.subaruheadgasket.com, I now know it's definitely the head gasket. Does anybody more mechanically-inclined than me think I was robbed when they put the new water pump and timing belt in? That is, now that they are going to charge me for the head gasket, should I be pissed that they did the other work too - was it necessary to replace the water pump and timing belt when all along the head gasket needed to be replaced? Thanks all for any help, Mhoff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericem Posted March 2, 2007 Share Posted March 2, 2007 Welcome to the forum, can u specify ur mileage? and engine size? but ill guess its a 2.5l right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoffy14 Posted March 2, 2007 Author Share Posted March 2, 2007 Welcome to the forum, can u specify ur mileage? and engine size? but ill guess its a 2.5l right? thanks for the welcome and you're right - its a 2.5L EJ25 with around 75K miles on it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnceggleston Posted March 2, 2007 Share Posted March 2, 2007 Does anybody more mechanically-inclined than me think I was robbed when they put the new water pump and timing belt in? Mhoff yes and no!! the timing belt is due at 105k miles, so if you disassemble to do the head gaskets at 75k miles you probably don't want to reassemble with old parts just to go back in in 30k miles. on the other hand, they are going to charge you twice for the labor for the t-belt. and actually the work they did wasn't needed and didn't fix the problem. (usually you do the water paump at the same timne as the t-belt, since water pump or t-belt failure will cause head/valve damage. and rarely do water pumps last 200k miles. mine went at 98k.) so if you use the same place to do the head gaskets, make them discount the price. act as though you paid for a repair and they didn't do it right. ask what made them think it was pump and belt. why didn't they look for the real cause. however any subaru mechanic worht his salt would have known or guessed head gaskets. you might consider it a lesson learned and look for another shop. one other thing, given the fact that they apparently don't know what in the world they are doing, check to see if you have warm air coming out of your heater when the temp guage rises. there could now be an air bubble in the coolling system causing it to overheat. search 'burp' an read how to get the air out. why are you now convinced it's a bad gasket? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted March 2, 2007 Share Posted March 2, 2007 Just one thing to point out, the timing belt has a mileage OR time interval for replacement. The time interval is 7 years, so they were correct to replace that. I would check for air in the cooling system first, then have it checked for a blown HG. You may luck out and it may just be an air pocket. nipper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted March 3, 2007 Share Posted March 3, 2007 check for air like nipper said. assuming they misdiagnosed this, have you asked how they want to proceed? they should have correctly diagnosed the cause of the problem, but this is an easy one for an uneducated person to mess up. they may be willing to work with you knowing they didn't fix the problem. and yes they messed up, they didn't do it in the right order. if it's true that you should have replaced the timing belt, it sholuld have been done at the same time as the headgaskets. as it stands now, you paid the timing belt bill once and you'll be paying it again - because the timing belt has to be removed to replace the head gaskets. part of the expense of a headgasket is removing and replacing the timing belt since it has to come off. so you're paying twice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msmithmmx Posted March 3, 2007 Share Posted March 3, 2007 I FEEL your pain. When my sub overheated I had it towed to a local shop were they told me my radiator was restricted, they replaced it for 450.00. On the way home from picking it up it over heated. The shop you went to as did I is better left to brake jobs and winshield wiper replacements. I would consider this a lesson learned but if you want to brake stones you could ask for the cost of labor back. In the end I opted not to replace the head gasket on my 2.5 and replaced the engine with a 2.2. Looking back if I had known about this website I could have saved that 450.00. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msmithmmx Posted March 3, 2007 Share Posted March 3, 2007 Wow, I just saw your specifics. You have an extended warrenty to 100K for your head gasket for the 2.5. Can anyone give the specifics of the extended warrenty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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