idosubaru

did he pull the plugs to make sure it's not hydrolocked? probably not but at least that's something really easy to do. i agree with what they said, it simply needs diagnosed and repaired, if not by him then take it somewhere else. i'd try to find a decent independent shop by recommendations, etc. subaru dealers are extremely pricey and if you end up needing a motor, which so far sounds like the case, Subaru will be expensive and you'll have fewer options (they won't install aftermarket parts or used engines). i doubt there's any way to "prove" what caused it. it would require tearing the engine down...hundreds of dollars. are you willing to pay 100's of dollars to find out "it wasn't the mechacnis fault" or "it's still uncertain"? probably not and neither is he. unfortunately he is not responsible to do 100's of dollars of work for free. if that were the case folks would be scrambling to get their vehicles there to get some free work done or an engine removed and disassembled for free. i would expect him to if the situation was obviously his fault or a result of the work done, but in this case it could go either way, there's no telling. you may still be better off getting hosed by this current guy than the dealer. there's some good dealers out there and then there's a lot more that will make this situation even worse.

when it starts running hot - pop the hood and verify both radiator fans are running. has it ever overheated with normal driving (no large loads, climbs, gear)? if not then the radiator could be clogged. radiatorbarn.com. i got a 2000 forester radiator for $89 shipped to my door, can't beat it. of course try to verify first before throwing parts at it. i've never seen a good test, i simply pull them out of the car if i suspect one and run a hose through it and another known good one and compare - the clogged one should show a reduced amount of water coming out the other side. i couldn't get temp guns to work, too much going on in there i guess. have the headgaskets every been replaced? if you don't know that it's had the subaru coolant conditioner added i'd be adding a bottle of that. probably with new coolant too once you find out what it going on.

i think you posted somewhere else, this sounds familiar? Subaru dealer in Atlanta charged $250 last year to do my friends - he already had the part so that was labor only. They're over $2,000 high, thievery. You simply need to replace the solenoid. *** As fairtax just said the trans does not need to be removed to do it, it only takes a couple hours. i suppose austin, TX is too far but cardoc is a well respected subaruoutback.org forum member and works at or owns a shop there.

compression test is a waste of time, simply replace the valve cover gaskets and spark plug tube gaskets and valve cover grommets. the spark plug tube gaskets suck and commonly leak. Fel Pro kits i think come with all of those, i recently bought two sets and think that's the case. clean up all mating surfaces well, don't over torque, and get a light coat of oil on the mating surfaces of the gaskets. it's safe to drive so long as the cylinder misfires don't go bonkers and you get a flashing CEL - that is multiple cylinder misfire and risks damaging your converter...and they often don't drive well either in that state. if you cleaned it up while you had it apart chances are you mitigated it some?

avoid 98's they are the only year that has the much more problematic Phase I EJ25. 99+ came with the Phase II which is far less ominous in that regard. and also keep your eye on rust, underneath, lower door panels, rear quarter panels, exhaust, and fuel filler pipes. $5,000 will easily put you in a forester around 2000 era. You can get one for $1,000 or $2,000 if you want to put some work into it. Totally depends what condition you want, how many miles, if you want one perfect working order, etc

Also the nonturbo EJ25's in those vehicles require Subaru's Coolant Conditioner to mitigate headgasket leaks so be sure to add that if coolant has been changed or sufficient amounts lost.

why was the car at the mechanic? why did he test the pressure system - was he working/repairing/diagnosing something else? *** ask him EXACTLY what he means by there are two ways to quickly kill an engine - overheating and lack of oil. those are about the only two things you should never, ever do if you don't like huge repair bills or rendering a vehicle worthless. so yes, it could have. if it barely got hot and you shut it off - no big deal. if it was hot and driven that way for a while then there's no way to know the extent without costing thousands of dollars to tear down the block at which point you might as well rebuild the engine, the cost would be nearly the similar to test verses rebuild. if there's damage you won't know it until years from now, it won't be anything imminent (assuming you didn't run it for hours until it stopped running on it's own). turn the A/C off, the heat on high to dump additional heat, and shut the engine off sooner next time. if the engine is loosing coolant then the cooling system may need purged of air bubbles. these engines typically overheat without a proper burping sequence for the coolant.

how many miles/years on the struts springs? new stuff might be a large improvement? GT suspension stuff if it's any different, they handle nicely. and beefier sway bars. a friend had a 96 brighton and it handled awful compared to every other 95-99 subaru i've driven, not sure why but i bet you're on it with struts/sway bars. 95-99 Legacy/Outback suspension stuffs interchange. that's assuming it's compatible - i thought some brightons didn't have a rear sway bar and you may also need the suspension control arms (forget what they're called) that has the brackets for the sway bars too...memory is vague...someone will know.

If you're running really lean - are you getting good gas mileage? Oh - and vacuum leaks - spray carb cleaner or starting fluid around the engine bay with particular attention to the intake manifold, vacuum lines and connectors/fittings between them and any vacuum lines associated with the FPR (Fuel Pressure Regulator). If the engine surges as youre spraying then it sucked in that "extra fuel" with the extra air in the vacuum leak....and there's your leak. Also check Fuel Pressure Regulator - though I've never done that and don't know where it is or how to check one on a Subaru, they don't fail..or should I say get replaced, very often.

Fueling: Has the fuel filter ever been replaced? Sea Foam or MMO the snot out of the fuel system to clean rails/injectors. Check fuel pressure. ***135k seems really low for this but injector issues? I've heard of injectors leaking - maybe they can also compromise fuel delivery? Places like http://witchhunter.com/ and http://www.rceng.com/ test, do pre and post flow analysis, and clean and rebuild injectors. I and others I know have used them before. I also would love to see/learn a proper analysis of this issue and how to log/look at data. I bought that cable but haven't had time to do anything with it besides just plug it in to my computer and attempt to read basic codes.

oh man, thats no good. maybe still a chance of a simpler cause... were you taking the car in for any issues, reasons? it's been driving great with no issues for the past couple of years? oil starvation, coolant drained during work and forgot to refill it, leading to an overheat? this could be tough for him to figure out without a solid diagnosis of failure, mechanics would get owned by folks taking intermittent or covered up issues to them and then blaming them for it (not saying you'd do that, but just that it's going to be hard for them to determine what's going on). the wal-mart return policy of auto repair.

what he said - mickey mouse gasket, oring, and shaft seal. dabs of sealant (very small) go on oil pump housing at 12 noon and 6 oclock where the case halves meet if you look closely at the block. i suspect that step is probably skipped fairly often but it's in the FSM.

it's fading away then - i tried a bunch and couldn't get any to work - they all said "This vehicle is not in this dealers inventory." or something like that, a message that never happened before. I got like 5 yesterday and struck out every time.

the drivability issue is only the knock sensor - they are $15 on ebay and require ONE BOLT to replace. doesn't get much easier than that, though the DOHC EJ25 is a little tighter but still easy. 10 minutes or less. 0420 can not cause any drivability issues. fix any exhaust leaks first. used to be a member on the forum here - mike - username svxpert that used to work on subaru's. i've been to his place and we've exchanged parts before. unsure where he lives, but he would know a good place if you're close enough.

i have seen 99-01 ABS lumped together and other things lead me to think it may be different, but i'm unsure as well. these 99's are weird with the Phase II engines/trans in earlier bodies.

OH MY. i thought i recalled discussion about your car previously, what a mess. sounds like you own a german car, you are very resolved to have the car in the shop that often and spending that amount of money. if you're game on to do this again use the EJ25 turbo headgaskets (which don't leak) and resurface the heads. heck at this point i'd be tempted to tell them to resurface the block for good measure! "this is getting stupid." - you are a very good person, or polite forum user, or both, to only say that!

looks like this isn't working any more?

EJ25's have headgaskets issues at least to 2009 - well documented. an ongoing failure log on subaruoutback.org with gobs of references points for statistically relevant data. there's also a new thread with the new 2.5 liter FB engine having an externally leaking headgasket at 30,000 miles. still isn't definitive that Subaru has resolved the issue. i hope so with the FB and have been strongly favoring that Subaru would be keen on doing something definitive about it, time will tell. the 05-09's leak external coolant or oil - oil being very common. they are still required to have Subaru's Coolant Conditioner added to them. doesn't matter too much if it was replaced. probably have just as much chance of a "replaced one" leaking at some point later as one with the original gaskets. Subaru installs the same failure prone gasket that it came with *and* most don't resurface the heads. not really a top-notch headgasket job, so i wouldn't let a "dealer headgasket job" reassure me too much. that being said - i don't know that non-resurfaced heads cause any higher failure rate so that's just speculation i just simply wouldn't ever skip that step on such a frequently leaking headgasket myself. if it ever needs replaced in the future make sure to have the heads resurfaced and use the EJ25 Turbo headgaskets, they don't leak. HG replacement dosn't show up on car reports - or if it does it is simply a positive, but if it doesn't show up it's not necesssarily a negative - or it's a false negative, it by no means precludes that it could have been done (and not reported via the methods used to compile those reports). those reports aren't humans that go look...they simply tap into existing systems of data. a job off those data lines, which is frequent since car maintenance/repairs aren't typically compiled like other data, won't show up.

never seen that - you mean if you pull with needle nose pliers it won't come off? yank it without scratching the sealing surface the seal slides onto.

russ- do you know if the relay is in the hydraulic unit or something?

good quesitons nick, though i think he's probably up on this stuff - mileage and general tune - original front O2 sensor(s)? plugs, wires, air filter? exhaust leaks? later models do use the rear O2 for additional purposes, but not until 2005 or later. good point i bought an entire OEM exhaust from a western/non-rusty state for $175 minus the header for my 2002 OBW earlier this year. nice, non-rusty, OEM quality for cheap.

rear wheel bearing. it could be rust rubbing against a pad or a pad hanging on the pad clips or slide pins - so inspect your brake hardware. if it's been doing it awhile the effected pad and rotor side will start to show evidence as well - uneven wear or corroded spots on rotor from pad not keeping it clean. subaru rear diff failure is almost unheard of.

i have a Subaru OEM harness that's plug and play - $25 plus shipping. can you simply find the stock connector that's made for the trailer wiring harness to be plug and play and just use those wires? a few second search would show which wires are which and then no running the length of the car? if not, should be able to squeeze it through the firewall around the steering column, there's usually a few grommets there you can slit and run through. brakes are on both sides, but i'm not sure what exactly you need for inputs, it may vary by the harness. does yours have the "converter" box thing or is it just straight wires? there's quite a bit of info on line with wiring instructions and body wiring locations.

have you posted about this before? remove the converters and ream them out, straight pipe with no fitting/work/cost. someone will know if that causes a CEL or not....surely tons of people have done that before, i've always wondered as well since converters aren't required in my state. new converters would also put off the inevitable...like the current aftemarkets are currently doing from when that decision to replace was made - and it'll come back due to a running condition in the engine that's frying the conveters (if that's really what's happening - that's thrown around far more by mechanics than it actually happens so it's hard to know). cardoc has a thorough thread on subaruoutback.org that goes through tracknig down the actual cause and not simply throwing one of two band aids at it - the spacer or new converter. that being said, a spacer is by far the better and cheaper band aid. a converter is an expensive band aid, though it may stick for a long time.

wow, that is no good. that is a long ways. it starts pushing 3/4 up the gauge even when the *radiator* is full? if it overheats and pushes coolant into the overflow then the rad may need refilled and burped of trapped air again if it doesn't get properly sucked back into the radiator (which i guess it should if it's got all new cooling gear and radiator cap). make sure it's not trapped air but at this point that hardly sounds like the case. travely at night (cool), no A/C, heat on, take the least stressful pass and fill it up entirely with whatever keeps it the coolest (all water?). try two bottles of conditioner, that's a good bet for existing leaks. keep the a/c OFF and the heat on high when it starts overheating. pull over, let it cool down, and refill the radiator if you have too. unfortunate to see that on such a tradiationally good platform, i have two H6's because of how reliable and low maintenance they are.