jbbancroft

Can someone tell me how you know when the head gasket is leaking? This is on a 1996 Outback with 145,000 miles. The car runs fine. The Subaru dealer looked at it and said the head gaskets needed replacing. Another good local mechanic, familiar with Subaru's said it was ok. The ouside of the engine is clean and no leaks. There is a film of oil coating the top part of the radiator bottle, but the coolant is clean with no oil mixed with it that I or the local mechanic can see. I'm wondering if the headgasket is OK??? Jim

I just replaced the rotors and pads today. This job was a piece of cake. I think a non mechanic person could do it. Only clich I had was a couple bolts were rusted in pretty good. Had to use a little heat on one. the right side rotor fell right off when I took the caliper off, The left side I had to use the removal bolts. Took a test run and its working great. Parts at the dealer were $230.00 plus tax. Thanks for all the advise. Jim

Alias, Appreciate all the info. Thanks, Jim

I'm going to replace the front rotors and brake pads on a 2001 Legacy Outback. I have a Chiltons service manual that covers the outback up to 1996. Question is, is the proceedure the same for a 2001?? Also if it is, the manual says to thread 2 metric bolts into the rotor, and apparently they push against the hub to seperate the rotor. Does anyone know what size these bolts are and how long?? Any info. is appreciated. Thanks, Jim

Thanks Kevin, Guess I'll have to get the rotors from Subaru dealer, looks like the only place that has them. I'll get the parts and tackle this myself. Thanks for the info. Jim

Nick, thanks for the reply and that parts site. I bought this car used, in June, with 20,000 mi.. I took it to the Subaru dealer in July or early August, because of brake grinding. They resurfaced the front rotors at that time. They said I had 60% wear left on the brakes . After that I still had intermittant grinding, maybe once every 2-3 weeks and then it would only last for about 15 minutes and go away. Anyway a couple days ago I took it back to the same dealer to have the grinding checked out. This was the diagnosis taken off the work order they gave me. " 35695 FRT BRAKE JOB NEEDED LEFT INBOARD PAD SHOT, RIGHT ROTOR .887 L IS .920, WILL NEED RIGHT ROTOR REPLACED". The warrantee expired on Oct 21, 2003. I told the service guy I would probably do the job myself as I think it was near $400.00 with parts and labor. He also said, they alway replace both rotors and all pads on the front when they do this job. I hope they diagnosis this right, being a Subaru shop, I would think they know what they are talking about. Thanks, Jim

Hello, Just had the dealer check my brakes. I had intermitant grinding. I have 35000 miles on car and it just went off warrantee in October. Dealer quoted a price of somewhere over $300.00, to replace both front rotors and pads. I didn't have them do it, I figured I could do it myself. I checked with local parts stores. They list brake pads but no rotors. I'm wondering, is this a dealer item only, or are they available somewhere else? Dealer price is $79.00 each. Also kind of strange the rotors failed with only this many miles? Thanks for any assistance, Jim