will subaru ever get back the trust of the early 90's

The only Texan I ever voted for Prez was Ron Paul. Dude, get with those other 200 folks and hire yourself a shyster or shut up your whining. "get along little dogie"

carl

bj wrote:

Hmmmm...

Ed's experience changing coolant mirrors mine. You've gotta be careful AND know what you're doing and why you're doing it in a particular order. And it takes TIME to do it right. So while the bubbles are coming to the top, let's think about something with having the quickie lube place do the job:

People with lots of education and years of experience design cars. People with years of experience building a certain make put them together. The dealer service departments USUALLY require a fair amount of education, both initial and continuing, of the people working on those cars. New things are learned along the way and TSBs are sent out. Service procedures are developed and/or modified. This all costs money. And it's STILL not a perfect system.

So Joe Carowner figures he'll save a buck or two by taking his car to the local quickie lube where some 17 yr old high school dropout type who probably can't even spell "TSB" let alone has read one, has 10 minutes to change everything in the car for $19.95 or whatever, while the "manager" under pressure from above tries to sell JC on all kinds of other "services" to keep the store's sales figures up and growing. And in all this haste JC's car gets screwed up... I think we've all heard enough quickie lube horror stories to fill their own NG.

Should we blame the manufacturer? I wonder how many of the "damaged" cars were the result of dealer servicing vs quickie lube vs DIY types? That might tell a REAL story!

Rick

The ownership and quality surveys don't support your opinion. Subaru customer satisfaction and quality has only gone up since the 1990s. You're entitled to an opinion, but it's so focused on a single problem (head gasket) that you're not seeing the bigger picture of vast overall improvements to date.

My two duckets, LK

Anyone that has one of these models and has experienced a HG problem is going to be upset especially if it's on their dime. BTDT!

Will have to say the the Subaru design leads to these kinds of problems. Flat engine with coolant exit between front and back cyl (if engine not level there is bigger chance of air entrapment when replacing the coolant) and very low mounted radiator compared to engine position. All these things help contribute to trapped air. For many if not most the Subaru is their only experience with this design and thus not making them aware of potential for entrapped air when changing coolant.

Subaru could do themselves and their customers a service if they would stress this to a greater extent than they do. Not every owner takes their car back to the dealer for this kind of simple service.

In some areas where Subaru's are not popular even so called professionals may not have the needed knowledge to purge the cooling system correctly. Ran into this myself some months back while on a trip and had cooling problems. Radiator plugged from coolant conditioner. Radiator shop close to where I was at the time had never worked on a Subaru before and had no knowledge. I pulled the radiator myself, let them do their thing and I reinstalled, filled the cooling system and purged according to the manual. If left to the shop, overheating was just a few miles away.

Mickey

mickey, finally someone making sense...a swirl tank would have been an easy fix by subaru.....agree the owners manual doesn't go into any detail on changing coolant....a $ 2000 oversight for some

rick, show me any other site about any other make and head gasket failure...the problems you see on that site are a fraction of those experienced. Do you really believe the any but a small fraction of the owners with HGFailure found that site and took the time to post? Hardly.

Ikreh,...better check the years 96-2000...consumer reports and others question the engine

Carl the cowboy....texas..a whole lot of nuthin'

BJ,

As I alluded to in my first reply to you, it's clear your mind's made up and trying to confuse you with facts is a waste of time, so you'll pardon me if I don't parry with you further in the search for continued entertainment.

Rick

Before quickly brushing aside the guy's valid but maybe slightly exaggerated concerns what about answering his question whether you work for Subaru?

MN

In 1986 i was the owner of a Renault 5 ( LE CAR ) You also had to bleed the system after flushing the cooling system or replacing the radiator. I always buy a haynes manual when buying a new car and evaluate the skills tools and potential problem before starting a job.

Save a lot of $$$$

My 2 cents

Pat

"MN" a écrit dans le message de news: bEACe.159$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr13.news.prodigy.com...

Sorry, no such question's shown up on my newsreader, but if it had, NO, I don't work for Subaru (or any other car company.)

Rick

easy fix by subaru.....agree the owners manual doesn't go into any

Well, I just put googled 'n' head gasket failure and changed 'n' half a dozen times. Here's a sample out of what were consistently long forum, complaint and advocacy returns.

From the vague descriptions, sounds like this is exactly what I have on my 2.0L...pressurized tank,higher than rest of the system...thanks!

I have. Me thinks you've missed the point. -LK

SOA has finally issued a TSB for the rattling heat shields ...coat hanger. They aren't actually admitting that the shields rattle, but the mechanics are instructed to install the coat hanger on cars that have come in for the Bar's Leak head gasket fix.

Rumor has it that SOA has recently purchased some 19,000 rolls of duct tape in bulk. Not sure what they have planned for that, but I'm certain that whatever it is, it'll be a refreshing advancement in automotive service technology. It's clear that GM's involvement has been a good thing (initially there were concerns). -Danny

They aren't actually

the coat hanger on

bulk. Not sure what

refreshing advancement

good thing (initially

Should we assume the cynicsm meter pegged on that one? :-P

...gee, when will we see Subaru "Employee Discount" pricing?

They aren't actually

install the coat hanger on

in bulk. Not sure what

refreshing advancement

a good thing (initially

Mostly. Uhh oh, this just in... "Exciting changes are due!" "SOA to become SOL in '06."

I bet a dime to a donut it's the minute that Subaru figures out that $26k SAAB

The aircraft site said the problem was fixed by drilling and tapping a small tube into the coolant tube above the engine, and connecting that to the coolant reservoir.

Would this fix the problem, or is a swirl pot needed? Is there a reservoir, or just an overflow bottle, in these cars? Alternatively, could the tube be simply fitted with a tap to allow bleeding?

I'm just trying to work out what to as the repair shop to do to our engine while it's out of the car... in addition to valve guides, head machining, gasket, clutch... :-(.

Clifford Heath.

cliff, i think a swirl take would maintain your radiator pressure..what ever your rad cap is set at......connecting it to your reservoir wouldn't maintain pressure

my guess is a bleed screw may not do it since it may take a while for the air to get out...the swirl pot (the highest point of the system) is pressure tight but has enough size to it to catch the air

you may be able to email the guy via his web page

Agree.

To catch how much air? Do they have a valve to let it out as well?

A colleague at work had a Commodore (Australian GM V6) with exactly the same design fault - except it had a bleeder. He used a tall funnel taped into the radiator to fill it, with the bleeder open, running until the stat opens up and topping until the bleeder stopped burping air.

I think that's the minimum I will do with our Suby.

the aircraft site said a couple of cups....the bleed screw should be on the swirl pot.....i see the aircraft guy has an email address....might drop him a line..