My inner head gasket failed. I had no external coolant leak; coolant leaked into the cylinder.

 

So I took it to the dealer; thank god they replaced both the inner and outer head gaskets under warranty. I have 140,000 km on it.

 

I know the phase II engines do not have a history of inner head gasket failure. My questions:

 

1. Are the replacement gaskets ( both inner and outer gaskets ) a different ( better ) version of the original gasket?

 

2. Should the new gaskets last longer than the originals?

 

3. Do the techs have to remove the A/C refregant and recharge the system inorder to change the head gaskets? ( My A/C is not as cool since the work was completed).

 

4. I am worried about future HG failures. Should I be?

 

 

 

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

did you get an invoice of the part numbers of the gaskets they used? thats the only way to know if they used a different one or not.... its possible that the ones that came on your car missed a step or got punched wrong (factory error) its all possible....

 

depending upon whether they removed the engine would give more clues as to whether you got a recharged a/c system. if i have to do that to my car (replacing head gaskets next week), i'll be pretty hosed....but if they left the engine in, i doubt they recharged it (it should say it on your invoice)

 

if the shop did them right, you should have good HGs for quite some time (otherwise theres gonna be some heads rollin at Subaru )

You dont have to discharge the AC but its possible they bumped the bolt on the line at the compressor and some leaked out.

second time around head gasket failures are not common, i can't recall seeing any on the boards.

 

i can't imagine they'd use an "old" headgasket, they probably can't even get one. they are well aware of 2.5 engine work and would do it right. highly doubt you have anything to worry about. if you're still concerned, ask the dealer/check the invoice for the part number they used.