Hi All,

 

I was referred here from the CarTalk forum to seek advice on my to-be-crippled 2007 Forester. I'm the third owner of the vehicle, and the used dealer that I bought it from did a number of services to it before I purchased it, including new head gaskets. Well, his have started to fail now, and the Subaru specialist in town here has quoted me $2k for parts&labor. One person on the CarTalk forum suggested that it may be cheaper at a dealer, so some feedback on this would be appreciated -- is this a fair quote? 

 

The other thing I'm thinking about is selling the car, as I've been getting the P0420 engine code on and off for the past year now, and don't want to buy a new cat converter. How much is a fair price if I were to sell this to a dealer, and if I'm selling it privately?

 

The car has 131k miles, a new radiator, all belts/hoses in good shape.  

 

Thanks so much!

 

Ryan

 

 

We have quite a few members here in the Denver area, and there are several good independent Subaru shops in Denver. The car is almost certainly worth fixing, and with the gaskets repaired properly youll get many years of good use out of the car.

 

Hopefully some members here can chime in with recommendations for shops. You should get a second opinion and possibly even a third to be sure you're getting a fair price for the repairs.

Is there proof of what the dealer did to the car? or just his word? I have had used car dealers tell and promise me all kinds of things, just to get the sale. 

 

the p0420 could be other things as well. Leaks or O2 sensor etc. Or it could be that the cat is bad from the engine burning oil.  

You have a car that at a used car dealer would cost about 7K per Kelly blue book, 

2K to do head gaskets and have them fix the p0420 while at it, maybe you can get it all for $2500 max?  I would do the repair.  But I think 2K is on the high side. What warranty do they offer on their work? 90 days? 3 years? depends on the shop. cheapest is not always best.

 

Most of this question depends on if you like the car enough to keep it long term, that the investment will pay off. You will not get much for it unless it is fixed before you trade it, or sell it anyway.

 

"mechanic special" cars are only looked for by people who want the car and when it is said and done they got a better deal than buying it already running well, or someone who thinkgs they can fix it and flip it to make some $$.

Edited June 25, 20169 yr by whynot

You should consider RetroRoo in Henderson. Shawn owns this site!

 

If you don't know how often or severely the present engine was overheated by the previous owner , consider a junkyard engine.

So what's a fair price for the HG job?

I had one shop give me $1800

 

 

Got a new engine put in for $1900 +the engine

they were pissed we didn't use their engine of 6k+ a little.

So we were a few hundred under the 6K not by much though.

 

Oh well won't be going back to that shop.(they didn't give me enough vasoline no wonder I sore haha)