I've been reading here and it appears the head gasket issue is fairly common on pre 2005 outbacks but ours is a 2008 with 83,000 miles on it. And we are being told by the dealer that it needs new head gaskets. Does this problem extend to the newer Outbacks as well? What do you think? By the way this is a great sight with a tremendous amount of information.

 

Thanks,

Gary

Edited December 30, 201015 yr by dellangary

2005+ headgasket failures are very rare and not seen very often. That doesn't mean much though. It either means they actually are rare or we're just not seeing the trend yet.

 

Trends won't bear themselves out until these newer vehicles become less valuable and get into the hands of folks that are members of forums like this.

 

For instance someone with a $10,000 vehicle is likely to have it repaired under warranty or pay to have it fixed and never ask about it here, toss the car up on craigslist for cheap, etc.

 

This is probably one of the most practical and mechanically experienced forum for Subarus, that's why it's my favorite. But there are others that probably have more newer vehicle owners - like subaruoutback.org. I don't spend much time over there but I don't recall many HG posts.

is it leaking oil at the heads where they meet the block?

thats appearing to be the most common type on the new ones.

Not near as bad as the leaking coolant or the compression blowing into the cooling jackets causing bubbles and coolant blowout.

 

if its just oil, and you are using synthetic, maybe just switch to non synthetic it might stop.