Greetings Subaru Owners!

 

We own a 2011 Forester with 75000 original miles that we purchased new in May 2011. The local Subaru dealer has informed us that we are leaking oil, specifically that the passenger side cam seals are leaking.  To correct and repair this the total cost from this dealer would be about $2,500.

 

We are not under warranty anymore or else reportedly Subaru would cover it 100% (great timing on our part!).

 

Three questions:

 

1)  If we pay say $2,500 to have the passenger side cam seals replaced, would it not make sense to also have the driver side cam seals replaced?  My guess is that these too would one day leak.  We are planning to keep the car another five years. This is very labor intensive work (the parts are not particularly expensive).  So I am seeing this second cam seal replacement as "preventive maintenance" and ultimately cost-saving since the engine will be torn apart anyway.  Your thoughts?

 

2)  Also, a friend has suggested that while these seals are being replaced, we should also replace the timing chain (or is it a belt?).

 

3) Finally, has this oil leaking with the cam seals been corrected in Foresters produced since 2015? Does any one know?

 

Obviously, we are not mechanics.  Before this oil leak problem arose, our costs for running this 2011 Forester have been completely normal. But this is starting to look like a horror story.

 

If any qualified person could give us some guidance on any of these three questions, we would very much appreciate it.

 

Rusty

 

 

Take pictures or video of the underside of the engine, passengers side and post them or links to them.

 

Passengers side oil leak is usually just the oil cooler gasket or valve cover gasket. Cheap and easy repairs.

 

You would hope shops are diligent and honest but they're often not. It's best to be a little proactive. Which is easy with forums like this. A $2,500 repair on that car is usually an over zealous prognosis.

 

Or hire me to come do better work than the dealer

 

2011 forester has the FB engine which doesn't have cam seals nor does it have a timing belt. So most of your information makes no sense.

 

You either misquoted something or they fabricated something.

 

We need to know if it's an:

EJ25 engine (2010 and earlier forester)

or

FB25 engine (2011 and up)

 

Again take a picture of the top of your engine and we can tell. Or google image search and compare.

 

EJ25 has a huge front cover that's BLACK PLASTIC

FB engine has a huge front cover that's SiLVER ALUMINUM

To your questions.

 

1. 2011 doesn't have cam seals. But for cars that do yes you generally are best replacing both cam seals and resealing the oil pump. Same labor for all of those so cost difference is negligible (or should be for an honest shop). The seals are only $7 each. It doesn't make any sense to not replace them.

 

2. 2011 doesn't have a timing belt. Subaru Timing chains are pointless to replace. They simply never fail. I mean never is a strong word but it's such an outlier and low percentage chance faikure that doing the repair has probably higher quantifiable risk. Your tires probabiy have higher probability of a rare blowing out after 1 year than a chain failing but you'd never replace tires ever year. It's not a statistic anyone lives by.

 

3. Newer engines don't have cam seals so they can't leak. Even still - prior Subaru cam seals aren't high failure rate items.

We have the same problem.  We have a 2012 Subaru Impreza with less than 35k miles.  We got a strong smell of oil one day and took it to the shop.  Fortunately the warranty was still valid - for another 25 days.  

 

Our car will be in the shop for a week.  Same story- engine has to be removed.  Something as serious as removing an engine to address an issue concerns us.

 

Our question - Can we rely on the car after this has been fixed or is this a known defect that could happen again?  I