Co-Worker has been advised she needs new head gaskets on her 99 Forester (sorry don't know SOHC or DOHC) due to severe oil leak. What other things should be replaced during this work? I have advised timing belts but would appreciate other comments to pass on. Thanks.

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Co-Worker has been advised she needs new head gaskets on her 99 Forester (sorry don't know SOHC or DOHC) due to severe oil leak. What other things should be replaced during this work? I have advised timing belts but would appreciate other comments to pass on. Thanks.

 

i would get a new mechanic. your not going to have a head gasket cause a severe oil leak unless the head fell off.

I agree, find another mechanic.

 

nipper

Scary, that's the dealer talking to them. I thought it must just be valve covers but they are quoting $1500 Cdn. I think they are being hosed.

needing head gaskets for an oil leak. If it was an external water leak OK. There sure are a lot of other places for this engine to leak oil that are much cheaper to fix. I would want another opinion.

get another oppinion. it is possible to leak just oil with no other problems through a head gasket. if you look at a headgasket and see it has a port for oil supply it can degrade there and leak. not very common and i would not expect that to happen unless it's an old engine and being a 2.5 liter the head gasket would likely fail by loosing coolant, not oil. but it is possible, more so on certain vehicles than others depending on engine layout, to leak oil at the head gasket. headgaskets may have a rubber o-ring inlayed in the material for the oil ports, that is where they will leak oil.

 

but i agree, they need to have it checked again or clarify from the dealer what exactly the problem is. maybe they are fixing a cam oil leak and wanting to fix the headgaskets at the same time since these 2.5's do have that issue? i doubt it, but i've had that happen with people that don't know anything about cars. they come to me and dont' relay exactly what was said by the mechanic. i don't trust people until i have a reason to, so my first suspicion is the dealer, but that's not always the case.

 

on subaru's it's a good idea to clean the bottom of the motor or watch from underneath while it idles to verify where the oil is coming from. the flat layout of hte motor makes oil leaks trickle down towards the heads before finally dripping to the ground. this makes non-headgasket leaks look like headgaskets leaks, and the problem gets harder to diagnose the dirtier the underside of the motor gets.

Thanks very much guys, they are know armed with some more intelligence to ask the right questions and some knowledge as to what the right answers could be.