My Subaru enthusiasm has been dampened

Given the longevity of the taureses with thier sideways lopsidedness... Subaru ought to be embarassed. The 2.5 is not as good as the reputation subaru has had in the past. shamefully. It is going backwards and it is disturbing. The past was better in more ways than I can't even think of... and they are going extinct. find a 2.2 or a 2.0 or my favorite, the slow poke ea series soobs of the 80s (by far the most reputable). for cheaper than the cost of thier repairs...

Did you put the coolant conditioner in at 105k that is supposed to protect against that?

What brand who did the original work? Maybe you got cheap parts last time around.

there's a slight transmission leak and the

You got lucky. How bout them transmissions? Keep a stock of replacements out back to just drop in or something?

My 98 OBL with the same motor has twice that mileage and is great. It has never needed a head gasket. If the oil seals are leaking already I would say they were improperly installed.

What evidence does the dealer have to support the claim that the head gasket is "on its way out"? I don't believe you can tell unless it starts to leak.

I guess in response to your post and others...

All maintenance has been done by dealer with OEM parts.

According to the dealer, the coolant conditioner does not help/prevent internal HG leak. It's aimed at external coolant leak on different version of the 2.5L.

As far as my HG status, dealer saw contamination in coolant which would indicate internal leak.

Did you mean "contamination of oil"? - internal leak means that the coolant leaks into the cylinder through fire ring of HG, so it's oil that will be contaminated with ethyl glycol.... If there's a "contamination in coolant" - external HG leak occurs and you are lucky :) By the way, I never pay attention to what "dealer" says for all he says is for $$$$ ( read : " it's a BS")

Sorry to hear about your problem. My 00 Forester with 116,000 miles has had no real issues or problems. I suggest a second opinion on the HG issue.

Whoa...now that's getting a bit deep!

Did he run any further tests? A compression test and a radiator pressure test would probably tell the story for sure.

Dean

This 'coolant conditioner' deal is a boondoggle. You don't substitute snake oil for good engineering. The stock head gaskets on the 2.5 engines are crap, Suby knows they're crap and they are using the 'conditioner' to get the wretched things through their warranty period.

Head gaskets on our '99 Fartster went and were replaced twice under warranty ( badly, by 2 different dealerships) and once by a private garage ( well, with aftermarket gaskets which don't leak.)

That's interesting. Looks like you have a lemon or the dealer/mechanic didn't do a good repair job. For a car with 130k shouldn't have problem like that.

My 03 Forester only 4 years old but has 180k already (mostly highway of course). And, touch wood, no problems whatsover. I don't go to dealer first of all. I found they rip me off with simple jobs like oil change. But I do have a good mechanic and I follow his regular maintenence (not as often as the dealer suggested) every 50k. I do regular oil changes of course. And so far so good.

I understand your concern. You can try other cars (without the benefits of AWD) or try another dealer.

According to Consumer Reports, my problems are common ones. CR's SUV buying guide gives the engine in the first gen Outbacks a solid black circle rating (worst possible).

I can vouch for that. My '96 was a piece of crap. My wife got stranded about 6 times before they figured out it was an intermittent crank sensor.

Al

What, was she triggering it from the driver's seat?

Apologies in advance. Comedy is about timed risk taking. :-)

-- Todd H.

LOL!

You know, maybe you are right ;-)

BTW, I took the "bad" crank sensor and examined it for continuty under different conditions. I also examined it with my X-ray equipment. All it is, is a coil that picks up magnetic pulses from a magnet mounted, I think, on the flywheel. I could not find anything wrong with it. I now suspect that there was a problem with the connector, but can't prove it as the vehicle is long gone. If I had known where it was, I would have made and broken the connection a few times before I took it to the dealer and if I had a clue that that might be the problem. It has been my experince that sometimes intermittent problems can be traced to contaminated/oxidized contacts on connectors. Once this is cleared, normal operation can resume. But, hey, the dealer wouldn't make much money on just breaking and making the connection a couple of times.

Al