swarfare

Yeah, well, I wish that was an easy option. I still have a year and a half of payments left on it (with 123k miles) and not that many spare thousand-dollar-bills laying around, so dropping $1000-$1500 on the repair still beats laying out $4k to pay it off and another $3k on top to get a worthwhile used car.

expensive?

I've got an overheating issue with my '99 Legacy Outback that's got local mechanics stumped and is driving me out of my mind. Maybe a month ago, I finished my 40 minute commute home from work, pulled into my parking spot, and happened to notice the temp gauge pinned on "H". I quickly shut off the car to hear the coolant boiling down onto the pavement. Had it towed to the local dealership, who replied with "All that happened is that the tube disconnected when you overheated...you're lucky you didn't suffer more damage, crack the block or something." "Well, what's the problem with it?" "You're low on coolant." "Well, yeah, I know that, the coolant's on the pavement in front of my house. I mean what caused it to overheat?" "We can't find anything wrong with it. It's not overheating for us, so just drive on it for awhile and see if it happens again." "Yeah, thanks a lot." So, sure enough, a few days later, it overheated again while idling. It was at this point that I noticed that: (a) It only overheats when idling, or when stuck in barely-moving traffic for a long while. Intermittently. Tho they all seem to happen in the afternoon/evening after I've driven home from work and the engine's been running awhile. ( Outside temperature has no effect, as it's overheated on 65 degree days and run fine on 95 degree days. ...and the really odd thing... © If it starts to overheat, I can turn the car off, and then immediately turn the car back on again, and the temperature goes back to normal. Whether rolling or idling. So I took it back to the dealership, and they replaced the thermostat. Again they claimed they couldn't get it to overheat. Sure enough, within a couple of days, it overheated again. (ignition off, ignition back on, problem averted). I gave up on them and took it to a local mechanic someone recommended, and they said they couldn't get it to overheat either, but the thermostat was installed wrong (it needed to be bled or drained or something). Sure enough, within a couple of days, it overheated again. (ignition off, ignition back on, problem averted). I'm thinking of taking it to mechanic #3, and possibly driving off a cliff on the way back when he tells me he can't get it to overheat. Unless someone's got any ideas...similar issues...anyone? A little help?

a little followup...I'd done a little reading around the net and saw this was a big problem around the country, apparently the insurance co was on the up and up for many years but then just suddenly up and died, leaving buyers and dealerships all over the country in the lurch. Ain't nobody getting paid. So anyway the next morning I went back in at 7:20am to drop the car off...spoke briefly to the service manager about how disappointed I was about the coverage situation, but wasn't about to pick a fight at that time of the morning. He said they could offer me 10% off, I said 40 bucks off a $400 job really was no bargain. He said maybe we could work something out and I left the car. Later in the day he called back and said "You had a $100 deductable on it anyway. If you pay the deductable, and for the timing belt ($79), we won't charge you for any of the labor. Does that sound fair?" I thought it was pretty fair. So in the end I'm satisfied. Thanks for your helpful replies tho. I was all ready to start preparing my certified letter.

You have some real good points there. Lesson learned!

So I just took my '99 Legacy Outback in to fix an oil leak...106400 miles on the clock, but I bought an extended warranty (for a couple grand) when I got it used from the dealership (Commonwealth Subaru, Plaistow NH) and I'm allegedly covered for another 3000 miles or so. So anyway, they tell me $400 to fix it...but the company my warranty is through has gone out of business (SmartChoice2000) so they won't cover my claim and I have to pay it out of pocket. I argue to them, I bought the warranty FROM THEM at the time I purchased the car FROM THEM and the one time I take it in for service FROM THEM they're not going to stand by their own product? They said that I bought the warranty as a product of SmartChoice, they just sold it to me. So anyway I have to go back tomorrow to get it fixed, and there will be a service manager there I can argue with. Has anyone else out there bought this extended warranty from SmartChoice200 thru their local Subaru dealership? Dealt with this problem?