The AUSubaru.com.au Forums

Hi all,
my still-new-to-me (owned for about 7 months) 06 Outback has developed an apparent headgasket leak.

Spoke to the dealer to get it looked at, so not confirmed yet. The car has done about 160k, dealer serviced it's whole life and hasn't been overheated as far as I know.

The leak (really a fast seep at this stage) is at the back of the passenger-side head, i.e. right-hand side as you face the car. It doesn't seem to be losing coolant or getting oil into the cooling system (yet...)

Is this 'normal' in an Outback of this vintage and mileage, and how much would I be looking at for repairs?
The dealer has given an estimate of $2500 to replace both headgaskets and timing belt.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts!

never heard of this happening on the newer outbacks.

shop around abit.

curious as to why the timing belt needs to be changed at 160km. If its been serviced properly it should have been done at around the 100km mark and wont need to be done again until the 200km mark.

alex

Thanks Alex.
Definitely going to shop around, it's a lot of cash.

The justification for the timing belt was that it was worth doing early, seeing as the heads will be off anyway.

Not sure if its common on subis or not but most older cars need head gaskets replaced around the 150k mark, I would of guessed around the 2.5k mark for costs. Wouldnt risk doing a backyard job for the sake of a couple of hundred dollars if it means doing all over again down the track. As for the timing belt, i can see your way of thinking, if its all off you might as well do it.

Backyard jobs are easy and i know thhe 2h diesel found in most pre 90 landcruuiser nneeds head gasket replacement every 200k

head gaskets to should last AT LEAST 250km plus on a well looked after subaru.

of course theres afew other cases where they do blow early or MUCH later.

its not uncommon for them to go into 3-400km mark without having any head work.

my ej20 liberty and ej25 outback are both at 195km and neither have had the heads touched.

alex

Hi all,
thanks for the replies.

Got the local dealer (Capital Subaru in Canberra) to take a look and as suspected it is a small leak. Have to say I was impressed with their service department; rather than insisting that I get it repaired then-and-there, their response was 'keep an eye it, it will need repairing eventually, but don't panic'.

Ok.. good to hear they didn't want to charge you 1mill for the work but I'd still check that the system is 100% ok. Take it to a independant place and ask them to check with a IR tester to see your temp gauge is working correctly.

Sounds like a candidate for $6 worth of silverseal from your local autopro joe, in the coolant to plug a seap before it turns into a pressure torrent. Has been excellent long term fixer of little woes like this - since 1928!

Oops; just realised that I never said *what* was leaking in my original post.
The leak on the head is oil (rather than coolant).