1999 Outback Cam Seals

[weerheim]

I just purchased a 1999 Outback Ltd with 83,000 miles for my daughter to take back to school, 300 miles from home. When I brought the car in for inspection and oil change, the local Subaru dealer found an Oil leak I asked about. He said I needed Cam seals, Crank Seal and Timing Belt. Additionally, the valve cover was leaking Oil and estimated $395 would cover replacing the Valve Gasket. I drove home and was able to get the previous owner maintenance records. He had followed Subaru's schedule and had all work performed through a dealer in another city. From his records, it shows everything the Syracuse Subaru dealer wants to do, was already done in November of 2005 and less then 4000 miles ago. But his records, also show that it was recommended he replace both front axle shafts which he declined. Could it be possible the service is needed again so soon for the seals. And, how dangerous is driving the car without replacing the front axles shafts ( has some Vibration betten 30 -40 mph)? I am worried about sending by daughter off to a remote college with a car that may have issues. Any feedback would be welcome.

Thanks,

Woody

[a97obw]

You might want to search through the previous owners records and hope you find where the head gaskets were replaced. If not, I'd look for the tell tale signs of the head gaskets (not the valve cover gaskets) going bad which would include a black slime in the coolant recovery bottle and if that is there you might want to look for bubbles forming in the recovery bottle with the engine running at various speeds once it is warmed up. If you see either you've got much larger problems than just oil leaks that you would want to resolve that would require another set of cam seals, timing belt, valve cover gaskets etc. etc.

 

No, not all of the 4 cam 2.5 engines blow the original head gaskets, but at a rate of 10-15% stated around here it is a very frequent topic.

 

Hopefully the only problem you have is the valve cover gasket is not sealing against the curved portions of the front camshaft caps where the cover has a pair of semi-circles for the caps. A dab of sealent at the spots where the cover goes from flat to curved (4 spots) might take care of the problem.

My front crank seal on my 97 went out at 74k miles, the headgaskets at 91k miles, though the cam seals never did give out but were replaced with the head gasket replacement.

 

As for the axles being worn, supposedly (as I own a manual transmission outback) that shows up as a vibration when in drive and foot on the brake as in at a stop light; the vibration disappears or is much less noticable when in park or neutral with the engine running. Do you notice that?

 

Good Luck!

[nipper]

I just purchased a 1999 Outback Ltd with 83,000 miles for my daughter to take back to school, 300 miles from home. When I brought the car in for inspection and oil change, the local Subaru dealer found an Oil leak I asked about. He said I needed Cam seals, Crank Seal and Timing Belt. Additionally, the valve cover was leaking Oil and estimated $395 would cover replacing the Valve Gasket. I drove home and was able to get the previous owner maintenance records. He had followed Subaru's schedule and had all work performed through a dealer in another city. From his records, it shows everything the Syracuse Subaru dealer wants to do, was already done in November of 2005 and less then 4000 miles ago. But his records, also show that it was recommended he replace both front axle shafts which he declined. Could it be possible the service is needed again so soon for the seals. And, how dangerous is driving the car without replacing the front axles shafts ( has some Vibration betten 30 -40 mph)? I am worried about sending by daughter off to a remote college with a car that may have issues. Any feedback would be welcome.

Thanks,

Woody

 

I would be very suspsious of this. IF (and i mean if) they were truly replaced by the last shop they should be good for another 120K miles.

It sounds like this car may not have had an easy life. Thats a lot to go wrong in less then 100K. Usually the oil leaks start between the 1 and 2 timing belt change. I would do the axles and unless you have clouds of smoke or obvious oil leaks or loss i would let the leaks go.

To tell if it is a leak clean the engine then check it again after a few days.If all those seals were rplaced, then only cam seals and belt should be needed,

 

nipper

[weerheim]

Everyone, thanks for the feedback. The Subaru dealer where the car was first repaired (3 times) has offered to look to look at the oil leak and repair under their warranty. The car was manufactured in 10/98 and doesn't seem to fall under the cars with the Head Gasket problem, even though it has the 2.5L engine. To be safe, should I ask to have the Head Gaskets replaced if they need to pull the motor again? I hate to keep dumping money on repairs if the car isn't going to hold up and also needs a $1000 axle job. After owning many Toyota and Honda's I have never seen anything like the problems Subaru seems to have on a car that was dealer serviced with low miles. Thanks again.

Woody

[hohieu]

The car was manufactured in 10/98 and doesn't seem to fall under the cars with the Head Gasket problem, even though it has the 2.5L engine.

Woody

 

The 99 Outback 2.5 L DOHC does not fall into the headgasket recall, which entails dumping a small bottle of coolant conditioner (sealer) into the radiator. This treatment only works for external gasket leaks common to the 2.5 L SOHC engine found in MY 2000- legacies and MY 1999- Foresters. However, the first generation 2.5 L DOHC engines are prone to leak internally - between coolant chamber and cumbustion chamber. You can do a search on "headgaskets" and find a lot of useful info. Some believe in preemptive replacemnet, but you'll need to decide for yourself.

 

Vibration may be out of balance wheels.

 

In any case, the prices you've quoted seem a pretty high: $1000 for cv axles shafts and $395 for valve cover gaskets. Perhaps the dealer is using new rather than rebuilt cv axle shafts. While I was out of the country, my wife had a cv axle shaft replaced on our 99 forester with a rebuilt unit for around $170 including parts and labor.

 

Good luck.

[79er]

"...the local Subaru dealer found an Oil leak I asked about. He said I needed Cam seals, Crank Seal and Timing Belt. Additionally, the valve cover was leaking Oil and estimated $395 would cover replacing the Valve Gasket."

 

Funny thing, I just bought a '92 Legacy and took it to a dealer-trained mechanic (he has his own shop now) to look over before finalizing the purchase, and he had the same list of recommended repairs--belt, seals and such for about $800. Wonder if dealership training has something to do with it...

 

79er