Reseal my engine or buy rebuilt?

What kind of car?

jw

sorry...its a 1997 legacy brighton wagon with the 2.2L engine.

Hi,

How badly are things leaking? If it's just a tiny coolant leak (no overheating, serious loss of coolant, etc.), you may be able to put a half tube of AlumaSeal (the powder, not the liquid) in the radiator and get a few miles out of it for about $4 or so. That's taken care of most of the "weeping" coolant leak in my engine (that my Subie parts guy tells me is "common") for well over 100k miles. I still have to add coolant every couple of weeks to top it up (about 1/2"), but I can buy a LOT of coolant for $2k!

If things ARE more serious, I'd think about shopping for prices. $1600 for labor, even at the local rate of $80/hr, comes out to 20 hours on my calculator. Someone's working even slower than I do. Or working the flat rate book awfully hard! I'd ask for a breakdown on those labor charges before committing!

Rick

That's insane! Better to do a motor swap.

A "re-seal" is a waste of time and money. It's a ploy to charge you a lot of money without having to guarantee anything. If your engine fails a month later, they can simply point to the fact that the engine was old.

Anecdotal truth: If you spend any time on automotive dicsussion boards, or talking to real mechanics, you will NEVER hear anybody say, "I just re-sealed my engine".

The previous advice about powdered stop leak is a much better idea than the re-seal. If it doesn't work, and you have to spend major dollars on the car, get a rebuilt engine or have yours rebuilt. The money spent on a re-seal won't make the eventual rebuild any less expensive. You will never recover any of that money. A rebuilt engine, OTOH, adds value and longevity to the car.

just my $.02, Steve

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so far, i've not had to add any coolant. there's just some coolant on the underside of the engine that is coming from the head gasket says the Subaru dealer.

meanwhile, i'm also hoping to slow or stop the oil leaks with one of the additives that restores seals. it's been in about 600 miles and i think that might be helping. again...so far...it's more a smelly and occasionally smoky nuisance. haven't had to add oil between changes.

the labor was broken down and totalled about 18 hours I believe. I assume this wsa from the flat rate book but maybe bot accounting for overlap.

thanks, Jim

Yes.

I'd be hesitant to use a mechanic who charges like that...

Most decent mechanics I've known can beat the flat rate book by somewhere from a little to a LOT. In my "real life" I'm a tax consultant, and a couple of my clients are dealer mechanics--both tell me they should double the book rate in their shops, in other words, do the work in half the time the book says. While an independent might not be so quick, since he may be working on more kinds of cars, etc., he still shouldn't be overlapping charges. Unless you just like to toss money his way...

Are you a mechanically inclined person with time and a place to work on the car? I'm thinking $1600 will buy a lot of tools!

Rick

So would I I guess I should at least get a look at a flat rate manual.

Nope. On this car I change my oil and that's about it. I did some more stuff on much older cars, but never involving pulling the engine. I might have the skill, but not the patience. :-(