jklingel

Shawn: You said " On top of that who is stupid enough to overheat it more than once? " How many names do you want?

Gross: Well said, if not a little conservative. A $1000 repair bill on a recently purchased $5K car would be devastating to most, painful to the others. Now for my last post on this issue: Subaru had my daughter's HG repaired for a peanuts cost to her. EOS. That is what I expect from a good company, and Subaru came through splendidly. This tells me that the HG issue was an aberration, they knew it, and they ate it. Lesson learned, and loyal customers kept. Thanks, Subaru.

Shawn: (1) Good info, and I see your points. You are obviously very experienced w/ these critters. I don't think anyone here is bashing Subaru entirely, but I do think that this HG problem is real, and serious. To say "It could be worse" is true enough, but to me that trivializes the problem. Don't let 'em off the hook too easily. Given too much wiggle room, they'll just become another car cranker-outer. Why was this problem not addressed and smashed as soon as it surfaced? Why did it take years (if, in fact, it has been resolved)? Sure we could have 'rus w/ all kinds of problems, like some other manufacturers, but then we wouldn't have a Subaru. Subarus are DIFFERENT: That is the whole point I am trying to drive in. I am not driving a Chevy/Ford/Chrysler, etc, so I don't EXPECT bad HGs, OR bad cams, or anything else. I expect a Subaru. If I wanted problems I'd buy any old brand and hope for the best. (2) Above you mentioned a "low mileage problem but no mention of fluid changes" (to that effect, anyway). If that was my rig, the oil was changed often, and to the best of my recollection (it's my daughter's car) we followed the book on everything. I always do. And I am not so sure that oil changes every 7.5K are all that bad. A point was made on another forum that "ever 2.5 to 3K oil changes" is a 30 yr old rule, and oil, filters, engines, etc, have advanced since then. A lot of the guys on that forum are changing oil every 8 to 15K miles on ALL their rigs, and running them into the 200K miles plus range. I can't go that far myself, but then I am old school. (3) I'll post the details tomorrow, but my daughter's car (the 18,731 mi job) is fixed and Subaru of America is going to help out "a lot"; we haven't seen the paperwork yet. (4) A friend had his '99 repaired at about 80K and got it done for half price. Either very generous of Subaru, or a reaction to the class action suit that he signed on to. I don't know, but apparently they are standing behind their rigs, and THAT is why I will continue to be a 'ru fan, but still encourage them to be DIFFERENT. (4) Thanks again for all your top notch info.

More tidbits; no idea of the authenticity, but interesting in what they imply, anyway. I hope this issue is put to rest in the best interest of us loyal consumers. http://www.subaruproblems.com/ ‘99 to ‘02 coolant leaks http://home.comcast.net/~skipnospam/guestlog.html

Thanks, all, for the info and encouragement to keep the 'rus. Fear not. I won't jump ship just yet; these are why I gave up on GMs many years ago. I know recurring problems intimately; got tired of 700R trannies blowing up, etc. This is just NOT SUBARU, in my book, and it is hard to swallow. I just spoke w/ a friend whose 98' ru had HG problems at nearly 80K miles (a bit more understandable than 19K) and he found and signed onto a class-action law suit over this. That indicates that this may be bigger than I first thought. He said a mech in town is sure that, w/ that particular engine, HG failures are close to a "given". Disappointing to hear. Every manufacturer has problems; I recall Toyota having some black eyes over the '07(?) Tacoma. And that came from Consumer Reports, which I think is fairly reliable info, not just anecdotal. At any rate, I am going to look for this class-action and see what the hey. BTW: My friend got 'ru to pay for half of the HG replacement. Maybe they know that he is a convicted arson (kidding). Y'all be good, and happy 'ru-ing. We love ours; bought our first ones, used, in '90 and ran them till they had over 160K on them; no sweat.

This is apparently a pretty big concern, not rare isolated cases. Discouraging, w/ 3 Subarus in the family. And I switched from GM for this?

Gary: I am curious about this head gasket problem. I realize that stink happens, even w/ the best rigs, but this head gasket problem seems a bit too prevalent for my tastes. Our '00 wagon is still going strong, but my daughter's '03 Legacy just blew BOTH head gaskets, at 18,731 miles. How prevalent is this head gasket problem? Do I need to dump my '09 wagon ex post haste? Is Subaru helping people out at all on this deal (financially)? Good God; not 19K miles and the head gaskets blow out? Pretty sad for a company w/ such a good rep. Any help you, or anyone else, can be about how to gingerly lean on Subaru would be appreciated. I realize that the car is "off warranty", but for the miles this is inexcusable, IMHO, and it sounds like she is not the first one to experience this. In fact, when my wife was talking w/ a gal at the dealership, that gal was in for head gaskets on an '05. Thanks.