We have a '96 Subaru Outback that has about 100K. We thought it was
> in fairly decent working order. However, last weekend my husband was
> on the freeway (65mph) about 1 hour into a trip when the car seized up
> and he had to coast to a stop. There was steam and smoke coming out
> of the engine and water and anti-freeze everywhere when he opened the
> hood. Before the seize-up he didn't notice any degradation in
> performance and no extra lights on. He had it towed to a Subaru
> dealership and to start with, we would have a bill of almost $1300 and
> only then will they know if we might have a cracked head gasket
> ($1200-$1500) and/or it will need rings replaced (?) ($2400). He said
> that we have a 1 in 4 chance that it could be something in addition to
> the $1300. We are at a loss as to what we should do. We are thinking
> of trying to sell it for parts but wondering how realistic this is and
> whether we could recoup much money there. This is a second car for
> us (not desparately needed), but probably down the road would need to
> get another, even if we decided to cut our losses now.
> My questions are do the costs above sound outrageous? Does it seems
> stange that they can't tell us for sure how much it will be in the
> end? There is a laundry list of things they will be fixing with the
> initial $1300... it says on the invoice that the timing belt melted
> (it had been replaced a year or so ago), along with the water pump,
> thermostat, more belts and seals and pulleys.
> anyway, any advice would be appreciated. Like I said we are at a
> crossroads and just want to know if anyone here thinks this is a
> no-brainer one way or the other...
>
> tia
> Michele