When Did Subaru Figure Out Headgaskets?

Having replaced a set of head gaskets on a 1st gen Forester multiple times (in the same weekend...), I usually don't sweat them on older Subaru's when I or someone I know is shopping for them.

It took myself and two other guys, all of us with little to no Subaru experience and giving varying degrees of effort while also consuming beer in varying degrees from casual to functioning alcoholic, about 45 minutes to get a 2.5 in a Forester from starting and running (like crap) to completely out of the car hanging from an engine crane. For the record, we had air tools and a good cordless impact at our disposal. We did the gaskets with the engine on the crane and had the car back together and ready to fire up shortly after. I think we started the project around 9PM and had it back together a little bit after midnight. Unfortunately, we put one gasket in backwards, which caused oil to blast out in a powerful enough stream to hit the ceiling. We got another set of gaskets and did the job over again the next day. The car still ran like crap, which we eventually figured out was a bad valve on one of the heads. We got a good head cheap on eBay and the next weekend we installed it, this time without pulling the engine. The car ran great from then on. IIRC, we re-used head bolts and didn't do a whole lot to the block/head surfaces other than remove the old gasket and clean. The thing drove around problem free for a couple of years until a fuel leak caused an engine fire.

That said, and more to the topic of the thread, all of this could've been avoided with a more thorough test drive and inspection. My buddy found this Forester on Craigslist for a "too good to be true" price that was about half what similar Foresters in the area were going for at the time. When he got it, we met the seller and another interested party at a 7-11 during rush hour. The thing started and ran fine cold and then we took it for a short trip through a neighborhood to avoid traffic, obviously not long enough to get up to (and above) operating temperature. We also didn't bother to look in the coolant overflow for the bubbling that we noticed later. He traded some money for the title and keys, and the now former owner briskly walked home. The car overheated after a few miles at highway speeds and the engine shook from side to side pretty hard (a side effect from the burnt valve) when running at or over operating temp. We got it home, diagnosed the HG failure, ordered the necessary parts and started the previously mentioned work that weekend. All in all, even with the cost of two sets of gaskets and a head, he still saved over $1k vs. going with a similar aged Subaru that likely had functioning head gaskets.

Also don't listen to anyone who says their turbo model hasn't had any head gasket issues. Those engines came with a different type of gasket that wasn't as prone to failure as the N/A. My wife, her mother, and her sister all drive 2.5L N/A Subaru's from 2014-2017 model years, 60k-80k miles, and the only issues that have come about between the 3 are A/C condenser failures in the 2015 Forester.

You take a risk with any car you buy new and/or used.  If you're willing to accept that known risks because the car checks all the other boxes you have, then go for it. No sense is missing out on something because of conjecture on the internet (even though the headgaskets are a well known issue in some engines throughout Subaru's history). Shoot 3rd gen Honda Odysseys had a gnarly ABS block issue where bubbles would get into the system causing a spongy pedal. I bet you didn't hear about that because Honda Odyssey owners don't venture into forums to rant. 

It's not a problem it's a tradition.  It goes back to 1970, when the first 1100 cc flat engine came out.

I swear, head gaskets are regular maintenance items on N/A 4-cylinder Subarus. Not sure that will ever change. Newer ones always seem like they fixed the issue at first, but when cars creep up to 75k+, it's back!

For some reason, turbo cars don't have the same issues with head gaskets. They have a whole host of other issues depending on the year, but head gaskets aren't one of them.

 

DirtyBird222 said:

Shoot 3rd gen Honda Odysseys had a gnarly ABS block issue where bubbles would get into the system causing a spongy pedal. I bet you didn't hear about that because Honda Odyssey owners don't venture into forums to rant. 

There is a recall for this unlike Subaru headgaskets.  Also I rant about the terrible brakes (among other things) on 3G Odyseeys every chance I get!  Awful cars.  I'd take another N/A Subaru over one any day.

In reply to ProDarwin :

That's an unfortunate opinion bc I'd take any Odyssey over another N/A 2.5 any day

our 2014 outback 2.5 with 110k miles consumes about 1 quart of oil every 3k miles. Ill top it off but usually just do the oil change within a week or two (after topping it off we dont just run it with the light on for 2 weeks!).  You could have a consumption test done before 100k miles with this generation to have subaru to evaluate a need for repair. Everything I was reading was leading me to believe we were nowhere near that threshold where subaru would replace the block. 

this is our 1st subaru and my wife loves it, but ive noticed after being in a few subaru groups the past 2 years it is kind of alarming how many people just accept that they will have to do headgaskets or replace or motor or trans. like its just part of owning a subaru. 

Weird engine E36 M3 aside it is a damn nice car, super comfortable, the eyesight system is an amazing thing to have with cruise control set on the highway for a long drive, and impressively capable off road.  I figure im hooked into a few local subaru groups now if we ever need to do headgaskets it wont be hard to find someone who has done it before that can lend a hand. 

Knurled. said

 

Subaru USED to be truly weird, like SAAB.  Like 4x140 bolt pattern wheels held on by fine thread lug nuts torqued to 55lb, handbrake goes to the front calipers, front wheel bearings are pressed over the AXLE and not the hub, spare tire is under the hood...  All of which have some very sound engineering reasons behind them, like the hub thing makes sense because the rotors bolt to the backside of the hub (due to large lug pattern) and this way you don't have to mess with the bearings when doing the brakes, but it's also just.... weird.

Yeah, EA82s were really wacky. I rmember when I had mine, I wanted to step up to 15" wheels for more tire options. Except Subaru only put 13s on them and the only other car to use that bolt pattern were Peugeot 505s. Try finding alloy 15" wheels from a 505 these days. The first winter I had my Loyale Wagon, I was ripping around in some snowy parking lots and wanted to try and do some handbrake slides, figuring it was like every other car. Got up to speed, yanked the handbrake and the car just came to a halt. Weird. Maybe I needed more speed. Run the ca rup to speed again, flick the steering wheel and yank the handbrake and the car just kind of stops again. Huh. Acouple days later I had it up on a lift for the first time and notice the cables running the the front calipers. Oh.

 I don’t know why Subaru put the handbrake on the front wheels. But my understanding that Saab put it on the front wheels as a traction aid in the Swedish snow. With an open front dif one click of handbrake helped prevent one wheel peel and a loss of traction. That’s what I was told, but it could be myth. 

GTwannaB said:

I though 2005 was the generally acknowledged year for head gasket improvements. 

That's what everybody thought in 2008 or 2009.

Knurled. said:

Brett_Murphy said:

I also understood 2005 to be the year that the problems were greatly diminished.

Also, let's be fair here. The head gaskets were an issue, but I see crashed 2.5 NA Subarus with 250k miles in the U-Pull junkyards on a fairly regular basis.

I'm reminded what a friend said about another certain car.
  Paraphrased:  "From working at a dealership, and being online, I think that being on a forum causes you to have problems."

 

He was working at a certain Japanese-model dealership and he noted that the main issues he saw with a certain car were from people who were online and bitching about it.  People who just drove the cars and didn't bitch about them online were not having issues.

 

(The manufacturer started with an M, and the model in question rhymed with "Arrecksate")

This. Going by what the interballs says my MS3 has blown up 4 times.