idosubaru

it's a curve, a percentage, there's no magic number. risk increases the longer you wait but at 105 months the failure rate is really low.

it's as-is, you likely have no recourse. if you did have recourse folks could start overheating and blowing every headgasket on every used car they buy and claim it was previously known and have the engine rebuilt/resealed. that sounds dumb, but trust me people are so dishonest they would do it. i'm sure "as-is" probably evolved from stuff like that. that being said, if it's a dealer and they have a reputation to uphold i'd at least give them a chance and see what they say. $900 is a fair price for headgaskets, that's actually about as cheap as you'll find to get it done. any cheaper and i'd worry about the quality. NOTE - make absolutely certainly whoever does the job is using Subaru headgaskets. aftermarkets are known to be unreliable.

throw some new headgaskets on it and you're golden. the turbo's tend to crack the heads - check for cracks in the exhaust ports, cracks between valves don't mean much. more info on that here. slight chance it's only an intake manifold gasket leak since they like to do that as well, but the turbo's tend to blow headgaskets fairly easily so don't count on it. use the Fel-Pro permatorque heads and add 5-10 pounds to the final torque sequence.

any time you change tires that might help too. if you install snows and the sound doesn't change or rotate and it does...those are indicators as well. when they gradually get louder over 10's of thousands of miles it's really hard to tell as you get used to it and cant' recall "how loud" the normal noise is for your given vehicle.

i don't know. i've found a few Subaru wheel bearings difficult to actually diagnose. no play, listening to the coil springs like some folks do didn't work, and rotating tires has failed to produce any noticeable signs on at least three i've done. all were just guesses sort of based on noise, when removed they were noticeably bad but for some reason had no signs while on the vehicle - 2000 Forester rear, 1997 Legacy front, and 1996 Legacy rear. Neither of those exhibited any signs except noise...until removal. i've since then gotten a temperature gun that allows you to shoot things with a beam and get a temp reading. that isolated my current daily driver rear which runs much hotter than the other side. it's a neat little tool and i think they can be had inexpensively now. have to be consistent and get a few readings to see a trend since temps vary wildly based on a number of factors - part of rotor, kind of driving, how long since driven, braking, etc. most should equal out but where on the hub/rotor/wheel - a little bit makes a big difference. *** edit - but i didn't have that gun when those other ones happened so i can only assume they would have been hotter. they were really bad so i would assume they would have been anyway.

check tire wear, pressure, and diameter, it needs to all be right. center diff is a viscous type and it's a sealed diff so changing the fluid does nothing for the center diff, only the trans. but changing trans fluid is a good thing. being a sealed unit the center diff has to be replaced if it's failing....or run it in 2WD by removing axles/driveshafts once it's completely hosed

differential is noticeably central where wheel bearings would be noticeably left/right. are you able to tell a difference? subaru wheel bearings can be really tricky to diagnose, i've seen them smooth on the car, imperceptible while mounted. then once the hub is completely removed they are noticeably bad. not sure why they turn fine and don't have play but it makes them tricky to diagnose except that there's just not much else that could be causing it. the front diffs do fail, it's a low percentage but i've seen a few. i'd call it more of a grinding/metallic noise than all the wheel bearings i've heard. the wheel bearings sound more and more like road noise, louder, humming, etc. even the one wheel bearing i had that was so bad the entire wheel was wobbling, tone ring cracked, etc wasn't all that loud compared to the bad front diffs i've seen.

i doubt it.

you're amazing, that's awesome chux, good job! weird subaru would make such a small adjustment. your thoughts on why they'd do that? think it's an RS/model change or newer updates?

Ding ding ding ding, you are the winner! Aftermarket axles are a gamble, a relatively high percentage have issues. If 30% have issues, then %70 are still good so that's why some people don't mind. Too each his own, my time is too valuable for whatever the percent failure is, I've had a bunch of bad "new" axles so I don't do it any more. My worst story is a brand new axle I had that didn't make it out of the parking lot I changed it in. Blew to pieces in about 50 yards, balls all rolling over the ground, etc. It was awesome. I can get used axles for $30 a piece so the aftermarkets aren't cheaper by the time i reboot a good used Subaru axle that i know for sure will last the life of the car. It's a little more time but I just suck it up and realize i'm saving myself from past headaches. I dont' even know how many bad axles I've had to deal with, but it's a lot. Reuse your boots off the blown axle on a good Subaru axle?

i tried welding to an EZout once and it woudln't take - not sure what they're made of?

drilling a hole next to the ezout to allow some "wiggle" room would probably be my choice. being brittle i wonder if some stiff hits with a hammer and chisel would bust it into pieces? they break rather easily with impact.

distributor. i've had two distributors fail on cars that sat for a long time, so that's my guess. let us know what happens.

i just use a long socket extension - 3/8" to insert through the hole. whatever you try, just don't drop it down there.

for this motor you want to stay OEM on the plugs and wires. plugs you can get at any store, wires will have to come from Subaru. if there's anything you want to try yourself, we can help here. if there's a state inspection they'll take care of power steering, tie rod boots, ball joints, brakes, axle boots, etc. but all of that stuff is really easy and nearly all of it is seen by just looking under the car.

drilling a tap out is mind numbing, you likely wont' have luck unless you have really high grade bits, go slowly, and oil the bit a lot. i meant to use a left handed drill bit when the EZOUT is gone, to get the rest of the bolt out. are you removing the head? if so, just take it somewhere and let a shop do it. this is not ideal but i've done it. i've drilled a hole next to the problem and then "knocked" the ezout/bolt/problem part into the adjacent hole...basically gives some room to "wiggle" it out. then you can repair the threads with a helicoil or if you're lucky they'll be good enough to use. i also had a spare engine to "practice" drill on and make sure there was nothing important there.

another method, that is very quick, is to get the breaker bar or socket with pipe over the handle under the frame rail of the car and then bump the starter. your new found "impact" - one click of the key and the bolt is loose, it's magic.

unless it's something custom i would think you match the cylinder which is the block side - so you'd use an EJ25 headgasket. the heads are just flat metal, not a big deal. i assume you've already found that Phase I EJ25 block is compatible with Phase II EJ22 heads?

i've done that a few times as well, just like he has pictured, works with any EJ auto or manual. you don't need a leveler like he has......if you don't mind spending an extra couple hours adjusting . you'll be needing to lower and re-raise a bunch of times to adjust angles without one so get a leveler. are you talking about dropping it from underneath or pulling from the top? the lump is really heavy, keep that in mind and the trans fluid is going to dump all over the ground.

if your state has a state inspection then a lot of this stuff is covered with that. and you're paying high dollar for stuff that takes literally 13 seconds. and, most of this stuff gets a cursory glance when they're doing basic stuff like an oil change. that's how they make money. if you need the piece of mine, and some folks do, of paying a lot of money for very little service then tear it up. "package deals" like this often include a huge list of things that are all but pointless and are often saying the same thing more than once. "Inspect steering" - that sounds like a big deal but it's something a 5 year old could do. they're going to say "hey the steering works, check". then look at the boots. that takes 15 seconds. any doing an oil change will catch this, it's just a typical thing to look at particularly since the boots are 4" from the oil pan. same with "inspect axles" - there's nothing to inspect, takes 10 seconds too look at the boots, will be seen with an oil change or inspection. if the boots were cracked you would smell grease as it comes out of the joint and hits the exhaust/engine. and on an on, it's a long list of things that sounds good but is more a marketing ploy than a functional list of things that help the customer. indeed those are good things to check but all of it takes a matter of seconds and has a 99% chance of being good so it's a lot of money for %1. there are a few good items in their pile of verbage: brake fluid and trans fluid (if it's an automatic i believe yours has a filter as well). PCV valve is a good idea too but i would do that at the same time as either a tune up (plug/wires) or a timing belt change. i see they have plugs listed. coolant is a good idea to change but this comes down to personal preference. personally i'd plan on having the car to 200,000 miles (300,000 km?). so i would replace the water pump when i replace the timing belt. when that's done obviously the coolant gets drained so i would do the coolant change then...which might be in a year or two for you. assuming it's an EJ25 (4 cylinder) yours requires a coolant additive with the coolant change, make sure that's known by whoever drains coolant from your car, non-Subaru folks are likely not to know that. i'd be mostly concerned with replacing those fluids.

for future reference there's tons of information on removing those intake manifold bolts and how to get them out if they're sheared, including recommendations to avoid EZouts like the plague. throw away all your EZouts, they're absolutely terrible tools. if anything comes out with an EZout, it is easy enough to get out with other, and safer, methods. are you working with the intake on the engine? did it shear off inside the head or inside the intake or you don't know? remove everything else and you can actually pull the entire intake manifold off. often requires PB Blaster (liquid wrench, Yield, etc - any high quality penetrant like that - WD40 does not count) and turning it. by turning i mean rotating the entire intake manifold around the sheared bolt until it comes off. the intake manifold doesn't have threads inside of it - so there's no worries mangling things up in there. the threads are in the heads, and even then don't worry about them as they can easily be repaired. left handed drill bits are how you want to remove these bolts. just drill them out. don't worry about being perfect, if you have to repair the threads then so be it, that's not that hard.

yep it's headgasket, suggested the test in case you wanted more evidence. there's still mechanics out there unaware of EJ25 specifics.

HELP! which kind of GL, is that EA81 or EA82? along with Rob's FPR suggestion, i'd check for a broken timing belt and spark - those two things only take a minute. no check engine light, check the codes?

that's why i put a question mark, wasn't sure if maybe he did it already but didn't say yet? that would probably be the most helpful piece of info. it's going to pass a compression test, most of these do, so don't bother doing that.

test for combustion gases in the coolant? auto parts stores sell kits to do it yourself or any mechanic can do it.