my wife's 2000 outback has had a slow coolant leak for a little bit. i finally took it in today. it's a head gasket. the car has barely any mileage (i consider 60k a joke.) is this common? man, i should have gotten that extended warranty. :( guess i'll look into it for my '04 sti.
Hi,
I thought it was premature, but when I blew a headgasket at ~69k on a Toyota truck, my machine shop guy said not at all. He said early failure's not unusual on today's engines cuz the heads are generally "empty" (not a lot of metal) to maintain a lot of coolant flow. So they suffer a fair amount of thermal warpage.
He told me the good news is this warpage is pretty much "one way." In other words, the head warps, you resurface it and install new gaskets, drive off happy and don't worry about it again. On the Toyota, he was right. I haven't replaced the gaskets on my Subie yet, so can't speak to that engine.
If it's just a little seepage, and you haven't already committed to having it torn down, a little bit of Aluma-seal may help. My head gaskets drip occasionally, and I add about 1/4 tube (the aluminum powder stuff, not a liquid variety) at each coolant change, about once a year, and it generally takes care of business. Lots easier and cheaper than replacing head gaskets that aren't blown.
Best of luck,
Rick
hi rick. thanks for the reply. i did a little digging and found that the gasket would be covered under the 5/60 powertrain warranty. the car has 60,400. they agreed to cover it. WHEW!
well, i'll hope for the best for my sti; it has a semi-closed deck, which, in addition to strenghtening the cylinder, will hopefully prevent general warpage. i'm still going to get the extended warranty tho'.
thanks again.
Don't know how common it is, but my '02 OBS had a leaking head gasket at around 60,000. Glad I had the extended warranty.
My brother had to have the head gasket replaced in his Outback. I've heard it is a problem with the 2.5L engine.
So it had over 60,000 miles on it when the gasket went and they covered it? Very cool. Who's the dealer?
I have a 99 Forester and I experienced the same problem about 6 months ago. I was told that the radiator cap was faulty which caused the engine to overheat. I was still under the 36,000/3 years warranty.
Good luck, Emmy
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