to all those who provided info on the 2.5 ph 1 headgasket issue over the past year. I discovered this board this last weekend and it has saved me several thousand bucks in overcharges at the minimum.

 

For any owners in Seattle, I highly recommend not using the service dept. at Carter Subaru - especially if you profess to not know a whole lot about cars.

heh i think theres a few people on the board that work at carter... or at least one. Thats what those subagurus are for tho...

I doubt the service guy I dealt with particpates on this board, as he told me the hydrocarbons in the coolant were just as likely due to a bad head or block problem as a head gasket. That's even after I told him it has never overheated. But before he offered to trade my car in (pre repairs) on a new one.

i work at Carter

 

and i was a carter customer with a bad head gasket issue loooong before i started working here... they treated me right and kept me posted on what was going on with my car

 

that only made me more interested in eventually becoming a member of the Carter Family Good people here.. and you will find that many of them have been here for 5.... 10.... 14... years.. even longer.

 

You dont stay with a company that long unless they are doing something right!

 

swing by sometime and say hi...

My office is located in the new Carter quick lube/tire building

 

have fun

Jamie

I'm getting a little sentimental here. My first new car, an '83 GL-10 wagon, came from Carter.

 

You didn't say what really fixed your problem.

 

You ought to take Jamie up on her offer. She may be able to help fix things up. I have worked with her a little and got great help from her.

Well I won't know for sure until this week - but it sure sounds like the headgasket problem experienced here by too many.

 

The work is not being done at Carters, as the $3600 they would have charged me to do the headgaskets and change the timing belt seemed just absurd.

Hey!

 

nice username.

That is a lot to spend. I suppose they were going to put new heads on for that much money; which would be a good idea.

Nope. Prices specified were $600 to tear down the engine to determine what the problem is, plus $2200 to replace the headgaskets if that was the problem, plus $800 to put in a new timing belt (told me there was no savings in doing the timing belt at the same time as the headgaskets). If it needed new heads it would be significantly more (amount not specified). Then with these dollar amounts floating around he said they would accept it as a trade-in pre-repairs. See why I'm a little skeptical of the motives here?

 

That is a lot to spend. I suppose they were going to put new heads on for that much money; which would be a good idea.

So I just got the car back from the shop with a new headgasket set, timing belt, water pump, etc. Total was $1,800. Thanks again to everyone who contributes on this board - you saved me big, big money.

 

 

 

I'm getting a little sentimental here. My first new car, an '83 GL-10 wagon, came from Carter.

 

You didn't say what really fixed your problem.

 

You ought to take Jamie up on her offer. She may be able to help fix things up. I have worked with her a little and got great help from her.