I own a 2001 Forester and got a "customer satisfaction" (ie - recall?) letter from Subaru of America yesterday. This letter recommends "as a precautionary measure" that "a special conditioner be added to the engine cooling system of certain 1999 through 2002 model year Subaru vehicles equipped with 2.5 liter engines". It goes on to say that this recommendation is made "to prevent a possible external coolant leak at your vehicle's engine cylinder head gaskets".
It recommends having this Subaru Cooling System Conditioner added as soon as possible (at a Subaru dealership, of course), at no cost (this time). It then says that, "In the future, it will be necessary to add Genuine Subaru Cooling System Conditioner to your vehicle's cooling system whenever the engine coolant is replaced".
Has anyone else gotten this letter? Are the head gaskets really at risk without this treatment and, if so, shouldn't Subaru be recalling and replacing an engine part rather than requiring owner's to take an extra step when replacing coolant? I mean -- other cars don't require this added step, so is there an inherent problem with the Subaru that they are trying to address on the cheap?
I'm no mechanic, but I never heard of something like this.....
Bert