1998 Subaru Outback from North America - Comments

I myself own a 99 Outback..

Last February the passenger side head gasket blew for no apparent reason.. no overheating, knew it blew because of all the smoke.. dumped a whole radiator of antifreeze into the exhaust.. pulled motor, changed head gasket, problem solved till one month ago.

Driver side head gasket blew for no reason.. no overheating to cause this. Pulled the motor, changed the gasket and like before with an exhaust full of anti freeze it smoked for awhile. decided to drive it down the road, got no more than 2 miles away and car was HOT!! Got it home, went to Subaru and bought another gasket. Now this is 2 gaskets in 2 days.. Did Subaru ask why so many gaskets?? NO!! they just continued to sell them..

Put new gasket in thinking maybe it just wasn't clean enough when I replaced it and guess what.. Same problem.. once again pulled the motor, decided to have the heads checked for cracks and planed to correct the warpage that had occured.. decided to do both just to make sure this didn't happen in the future.. driver side was very warped and passenger side not so bad..

Bought two new head gaskets again and does Subaru ask why so many gaskets?? NO!! Put it all together, started it and of course it smoked a lot.. drove it about 50 miles and it got a little warmer than usual.. pulled over, checked the fluid and it was low for some reason.. refilled and it brought the temp down and guess what.. it stopped smoking.. I thought great.. got home, let the car cool off and restarted it.. smokin like a beast again, and again the fluid was low..

I am out of options and don't know what to do?? Maybe the block is warped, but that's too much work.. $1500 on Ebay for a new motor might be my option.. Don't know.. I am sooo confused.. Had the motor out 4 times for the same problem, and many hundreds of dollars, and still it is not fixed.. anyone have any ideas or forums I can go on to maybe get some help on this.. I am desperate here.. :(

Subaru sucks all around.. I have owned the car since day one off the lot.. original owner VERY well maintained.. the car was great when it ran without smoking, like it was on fire with an unbearable smell of antifreeze, but with so many people having the same problems you would think they would have a recall of some sort.. and charging $1200-$3000 to fix this problem is ridiculous..

Head gaskets $90 for 2, machining the heads $80 for 2, pulling the motor 1 hour tops, and changing head gaskets 2 hours tops for 2. That's 3 hours tops of real work.. How does that equal $1200 at a minimum?? How much do these places charge per hour?? That's ridiculous..

OK how about this one...1996 Subaru Outback. Horrible clunking knocking noise met by a ton of resistance when turning at low speeds. Doing a U turn sounds like the car will break. 90,000 miles. Any ideas???

Thanks..

http://www.subaruproblems.com/

I own an Auto repair shop in NJ. I have regular customer who recently (6 months ago) purchased a 96 Subaru Legacy with 93K miles on it. He got it for $3500---not bad, car is in nice shape. He brought it in to me a couple of weeks ago with this random overheating problem. It has the 2.5L engine. I haven't heard of this head gasket problem as I am not a Subaru specialist. I checked this thing over and over and could not find the cause of this random overheating situation. I have seen many head gasket failures in my 15 years as a professional mechanic. This one did not act like a head gasket? I searched on line and found many forums like this one describing the problems with these engines blowing head gaskets. I sold my customer the repair. I removed the engine. I first removed the R/S cylinder head and inspected it----it was not blown (now I was worried). I removed the L/S cylinder head and there it was----thankfully. The head gasket was blown at coolant passage right next to the cylinder bore. This engine uses the old style 1 piece head gaskets----many manufactures have had problems with these. I worked in a Honda dealer for 7 years before I opened my own shop. We used to replaced head gaskets on a regular basis---same thing, 1 piece design.

I replaced both head gaskets, both valve cover gasket sets, all 4 cam seals, the rear main seal (since the engine was out) both coolant o-rings on top the block, timing belt, water pump, timing belt tensioner, both radiator hoses, intake manifold gaskets, exhaust gaskets----the whole 9 yards. Do the job right and do it once! It cost my customer $1600 for the whole job. The motor now runs excellent and is very solid---as I addressed the other possible future problems I.E. extra seals, gaskets, hoses timing belt etc. My customer should have trouble free (engine anyway) driving for a long, long time.

I do not think Subaru makes a bad vehicle. Yes you must remove the engine to replace the head gaskets, because of the horizontal design of the engine, but it was not a bad vehicle to work on----Heck it could've been a VW!!!

A piece of advise for all you people out there with this head gasket problem. All manufactures that were using the 1 piece head gasket through out the nineties had problems with head gasket failure. It is a gasket, these things happen. All the others were just easier to diagnose than this Subaru was. The new gaskets for this Subaru engine are a revised design---it is a multi layer steel gasket. Almost all manufactures are switching over to this new design head gasket. I personally have never seen these multi layer head gaskets fail on any engine yet.

Good luck to all of you. I hope this advice helps you.

If any of you live near N/W NJ you can call my shop. I would be happy to take care of your head gasket problems.

As stated above---it cost my customer $1600 for the entire job and I used all genuine Subaru parts and went well above and beyond simply replacing just the head gaskets.

DO it right, Do it once.

(908) 475-1509.

I am about to buy a 2000 Subaru Outback with 125k miles. The price is low, the car is clean and I love the car. I had been warned about the head gasket problem and now I feel like I should reconsider. Are there any mechanics in Manhattan that read this blog that would be willing to take a look at the vehicle before I buy it? (please contact me via email if so)

If the head gasket is going to blow really soon, I'll just knock it off the price (if the seller is willing)

Anyway... thanks for your help.

You can email me at: drparkerjob@mac.com

Any timely advice on the Subaru Outback would be appreciated.

Dated: Dec 12, 2006.

We purchased a used 1998 Legacy Outback and it appears we are facing the same problem. Has anyone found any recourse from Subaru? AJ

I just purchased a 1996 Outback with 129,000 miles from Washington State. Nice looking car, price affordable. Had it shipped up to me (I live in Alaska) and received it two days ago. I didn't purchased warranty with it as I spent all my money on the car. Drove it yesterday for about 10 miles and it started overheating. Oil in the coolant. Took it to a mechanic and he gives me an estimate of $2800 to fix the blown head gasket. The dealer I bought it from claims no responsibility and said it was my fault, that he wouldn't sell me a car with blown head gasket. I have no choice, but to borrow money to have it fixed, but wish I would have read this forum beforehand. Just my luck, but I expected to get more than 24 hours use out of this vehicle.

Hi All.

I'm just about to pick up my 1998 Outback from the dealer in San Diego after forking over $3500+ for head gasket repair, new radiator, thermostat, water pump, timing belt, engine seals... I have 96K on the car and it has run reliably for the last four years since I bought it used until I was driving down the freeway and noticed the temp gauge redlined. Looks like I am also a victim of the nefarious Phase I head gasket problem. I enjoy the utility of the vehicle, but as a medical student I can't really afford to continually pay for repairs on this beast. Id like to see it run to 200K, but who knows??? Anyway... if you find a way to shove it to the man... let me know. jep1780@yahoo.com.

It seems that my wife and I are the most recent victims of Head Gasket malfunction. Our 1998 Subaru Outback has 115000 miles on it and looks clean. But apparently these little engines harbor some pretty sinister secrets. Our "third party warranty" refused to pay for the repairs because the damage to the head gasket was not "verifiable." We are going ahead and replacing the water pump and timing belt while we have the engine torn apart. I do plan on contacting Subaru. It wouldn't hurt them to hear from a few thousand unsatisfied customers.

Thank you for this valuable site!

On our '98 Outback the head gaskets failed 18 months ago. We are now (12/14/06) on Round Two of the notorious failing head gaskets. And here we thought our mechanic might have messed up!

One point of confusion--one of the linked sites here said '1999-2002' cars, and if you try to register, the drop-down menus start at 2000. Seems like this problem goes back a bit further than that, yes?

Remember the Chevy Vega? Maybe aluminum engines aren't all they're cracked up to be (sorry!).

I've had the same problems as mentioned here. at 125,000 miles my car started overheating and I replaced the water pump and thermostat. within a month it was overheating again where my new mechanic told me about the common head gasket problems. I spent $3,000 in repairs on it because I figured that as long as they have the engine out to do the head gaskets I may as well get the clutch and various other things done as well. then two months later I was on a road trip and my car was overheating again. guzzling up coolant in both the reservoir and radiator. I got the car back home and had another water pump put in it and a new radiator. they said the seal on the water pump wasn't done properly. after all this money, I finally felt like I had all of the mechanical issues with my car fixed and I would have a good dependable car for a while more. I just totalled this car a couple of days ago while driving on some slick mountain roads and I am completely bummed that I put all of this into fixing my 'lemon' of a car for nothing. I really adore Subarus, but I'm paranoid to get another Subaru for all the overheating/head gasket problems. this car is safe on winter roads. does anybody know the engine type that Doesn't have these problems?? I really want another Subaru, but I cannot bring myself to starting this stream of problems again...

I am a repair shop owner in Baltimore maryland, Subaru of America is currently replacing head gaskets on 2000 Outback engines, call Subaru of America, the dealers may not be aware of certain models covered. Those not covered, all new subaru parts including head bolts, gaskets and seals. Have machine shop pressure test and resurface head to correct finish, inspect block for warpage, inspect threads in the block and if they appear damaged Heli-coil them, Heli-coils or Thread-Certs are generally stronger than original aluminum threads because the aluminum hole in the block is now bigger in diameter and covers more area.Follow the torque procedure carefully using a gauge and or paint markings when turning bolts by degrees!!! At our shop we are able to remove heads easily on Outbacks without removing the engine. Good luck

Count me amongst the unlucky Subaru Outback owners with failed head gaskets. I have a 1998 Outback Limited which has been mechanically "babied" via the local dealership for all of it's 81,000 miles. My conversation with SoA yielded an offer of an additional cash rebate if I were to purchase a new Subaru. My confidence in Subaru's reliability, however, is shaken to the point that I'll probably move on... Coincidentally, I've just been informed that a friend from work has just had the same diagnosis on his 2000 Outback. I'll be watching this list to see if any acceptable resolution is being offered via SoA.

I have subaru 98 Legacy outback with less than 80,000 miles.

Just recently there is overheating problem, and liquid come out from top of reservoir.

This does not happen everyday, so I brought my car to shop and they told me thermostat was not working, and changed that, it cost about $100. I asked them to test drive, the problem did not dispear...

Now they asked me to change water pumper...

I took car to another place where I have service done before, and they test and find gas in reservoir, indicates a head gasket issue.

Looks like subaru's gasket really has problem.

This is a depressing message board to read. I am a recent victim of the phase 1 gasket problem. I purchased the car, a 1998 Subaru impreza 2.5rs with just over 110k on it, and less than 9k later, and I am randomly overheating. Has bubbles in the overflow, smells like exhaust. Has oil build-up in reservoir, which is obviously faulty head gasket. Before finding out the problem, and looking on the net I like many before me replaced the thermostat, water pump, radiator, and timing belt to still overheat. My total bill after getting everything replaced, and the gasket set replaced I am out just over $2000. Anyone with the ability to take care of this problem without taking car to dealership/mechanic and save the $65.00 or so an hour. They are very dramatic in time taken to pull engine, and get deeply into your pocketbook. This is a frequent problem it sounds like, that we have to get resolved. Subaru must know they have the problem, local news crews, papers etc. need to hear from a few hundred dis-satisfied customers about the subject. Let me know about a class action suit, or any help from a dealership to pay for the problem. Shame on Subaru. My whole family drives a subaru, various makes and models, and everyone is dreading going through the same set of problems, but at least they won't be completely in the dark about the situation! Email is darksideofasaucerfulofsecrets@yahoo.com

Would be great to get some input. Full time student that can't afford constant repairs on a reported reliable car. What else can I say, extremely bumbed out :-( Into my new baby for 10,800 which I could be driving a wrx or possibly an sti for that.