Hi fellow owners. BIG problems. First time poster from long island. I bought a 99 Forester last year. Loved it. Car had 100k miles (previous owners used to visit family in midwest canada often).

 

I only used it locally for past 9 months. Suddenly, some funny "diesel" like noises. Take it for complete fluid change. Next day on highway, it ka-putts. Tow it home, a few days later, slowly get it going to a garage about a mile away - very noisey and wheezey. I don't know anything about cars but inside the handbook is a sub dealer work detail recommending fix leaky head caskets (??).

 

As I pull in, mechanic friend says, "it's dead". Checks it out anyway and a few days later gives me these options:

 

Subaru engine 6.8k

re-manu engine 6k

junkyard engine 1.8k (plus labor, 30 day gtd)

 

 

Now, I only payed 9k for this forester. Book now is what 7k? (write it off?) what would you do? Body and everthing else works fine and I like driving it around town (very hilly). I don't drive it hard, only local stuff, no commute. Would you risk the junkyard model? My mechanic offered to buy it from me for a few grand.

 

This hurts.

As someone once said, "I feel your pain ". Sorry about the sad news. You could cut your losses now and move on to a newer Forrester. They made improvements to the newer models that you may like. If you don't want to spend more money on a later model and really want to keep what you have then I would recommend you purchase an engine from CCR instead of buying a used engine you know nothing about or higher priced new one from Subaru. You will get a very good warranty and a rebuilt engine from one of the best engine rebuilders in the business. Here is a link to their web site: http://www.ccrengines.com/

 

The cost of doing this will be fairly high but you will have a new engine in the car with a warranty. If you do go with the engine it may be worth getting a new radiator also at the same time.

my mechanic found a 2.5L for 1.6k (labor 1K +)....this is painful.

Waitasec, what's the actual diagnosis on the state of the engine?

Fluid levels, etc?

Are there any leaks anywhere?

 

Maybe there's an internal problem that would be easily fixed without getting a whole new engine.

my mechanic found a 2.5L for 1.6k (labor 1K +)....this is painful.

Did you check with CCR about a rebuilt engine. Remember, you will have a new 36 month warranty with it. That is worth a lot. The same as a new car warranty. If something happens to a used engine 6 months or more down the road guess who pays for more repairs. This is the route I would go if I wanted to keep the car for at least 4 to 5 years. When you cost average it then the cost isn't so bad. You may be to get by with a used engine just fine but these engines can have problems, particularly head gasket problems. This is why I think having a warrantied engine is important. You don't want to go through this again.