Overheating issue [updated: pictures]

[chubbs]

Boostaddict / Tomthebomb, any updates with head gasket potential fix and costs?

I briefly met with a couple of forum members tonight (fortunately a few experts were present - Bruce, Mick, Owen, etc) who noticed I had oil residue in my expansion tank.

I had no indication of any problems with the car- no loss of power, blowing smoke, burning oil or coolant, smells/sounds, etc. It drives perfectly (as it should with only 68xxxx kms!!!)

I've only had the car for 4 months, it has no mods other than an exhaust (and I presume standard tune), and due to the low kms and condition of the car, I didn't get an extended warranty. It's about 1 month out of the 3 month statutory warranty provided by the dealer.

Will be taking it to a local Subaru mechanic tomorrow (Cromwood) for a look, and then possibly off to fight the dealer for repair costs.

I'm absolutely devastated, and having just bought our first house, have no money to fix it

FUCK YOU SUBARU! WHO BUILDS A $65k+ CAR WHICH BLOWS A HEAD GASKET UNDER 100,000kms?!?!?

sorry to bring this bad news to you david but if it is the head gasket its good we picked it up now and not later when something bad happens. Let me know how you go a Cromwood and get a couple opinions on it. I know what your going through and it sucks.

Alex.

[Monkey]

Yeah I know.... thanks I guess

Currently alternating between angry and sad. I threatened to torch the bastard, but was advised against it by my fiance

[Newbie GT]

Yeah I know.... thanks I guess

Currently alternating between angry and sad. I threatened to torch the bastard, but was advised against it by my fiance

Hope it's okay David and no issues. Might be a dumb thing but can we get a picture of the expansion tank oil residue as it will enlighten me and others what to look for. Thanks mate

[owen]

Might be a dumb thing but can we get a picture of the expansion tank oil residue as it will enlighten me and others what to look for

Yes it is a dumb thing. You would be looking out for oil residue in the expansion tank.......

[Monkey]

Yeah I know.... thanks I guess

Currently alternating between angry and sad. I threatened to torch the bastard, but was advised against it by my fiance

Hope it's okay David and no issues. Might be a dumb thing but can we get a picture of the expansion tank oil residue as it will enlighten me and others what to look for. Thanks mate

Thanks. Me too!
Yeah I'll take a photo with my phone tomorrow in the daylight, but I doubt the photo will reveal much.
It's basically brownish green coolant with some gunk (small blackish solids) on the inside of the expansion tank. I've seen a lot worse in radiators of older cars, but not in a Subaru to compare with.

For anyone else with head gasket issues, I found a pretty comprehensive write up here: http://allwheeldriveauto.com/subaru-hea ... d-part-ii/
In particular,
"The single biggest [draw?]back to a boxer engine is that the critical engine fluids such as coolant and oil will remain in contact with the gaskets as opposed to an Inline or V engine the fluids drain down or only contact the side of a gasket rather than gravity forcing it to stay on top"

My knowledge about cars is pretty limited, but after doing some reading tonight I'm wondering if aftermarket coolant is causing the head gasket to deteriorate and this, coupled with stretching head bolts, then causes the head to lift / break the seal, which causes oil in coolant, and then coolant in oil....thus resulting in need fo engine reco. So, if my assumptions are correct, HG failure could potentially be prevented by using only genuine coolant and replacing head bolts early on(?)

[TomTom]

Boostaddict / Tomthebomb, any updates with head gasket potential fix and costs?

I briefly met with a couple of forum members tonight (fortunately a few experts were present - Bruce, Mick, Owen, etc) who noticed I had oil residue in my expansion tank.

I had no indication of any problems with the car- no loss of power, blowing smoke, burning oil or coolant, smells/sounds, etc. It drives perfectly (as it should with only 68xxxx kms!!!)

I've only had the car for 4 months, it has no mods other than an exhaust (and I presume standard tune), and due to the low kms and condition of the car, I didn't get an extended warranty. It's about 1 month out of the 3 month statutory warranty provided by the dealer.

Will be taking it to a local Subaru mechanic tomorrow (Cromwood) for a look, and then possibly off to fight the dealer for repair costs.

I'm absolutely devastated, and having just bought our first house, have no money to fix it

FUCK YOU SUBARU! WHO BUILDS A $65k+ CAR WHICH BLOWS A HEAD GASKET UNDER 100,000kms?!?!?

Agh, sorry to hear. Yeah mine is around the 89,000 mark, but as you've probably noticed there has been a fair few lately. You're probably looking at the 3K mark easily, I hope for your sake its not a gasket but something a lot cheaper and simpler to fix. You could save on parts by sourcing them yourself, I know some Japan/US suppliers are a bit cheaper.

I posted an image of my resevoir a few pages back, my car was running fine. But I think my cause of this issue was due to a blown radiator hose a few weeks earlier, then again who knows...

[TomTom]

Yeah I know.... thanks I guess

Currently alternating between angry and sad. I threatened to torch the bastard, but was advised against it by my fiance

Hope it's okay David and no issues. Might be a dumb thing but can we get a picture of the expansion tank oil residue as it will enlighten me and others what to look for. Thanks mate

I posted one a few pages back.

[bass_straitener]

Boostaddict / Tomthebomb, any updates with head gasket potential fix and costs?

I briefly met with a couple of forum members tonight (fortunately a few experts were present - Bruce, Mick, Owen, etc) who noticed I had oil residue in my expansion tank.

I had no indication of any problems with the car- no loss of power, blowing smoke, burning oil or coolant, smells/sounds, etc. It drives perfectly (as it should with only 68xxxx kms!!!)

I've only had the car for 4 months, it has no mods other than an exhaust (and I presume standard tune), and due to the low kms and condition of the car, I didn't get an extended warranty. It's about 1 month out of the 3 month statutory warranty provided by the dealer.

Will be taking it to a local Subaru mechanic tomorrow (Cromwood) for a look, and then possibly off to fight the dealer for repair costs.

I'm absolutely devastated, and having just bought our first house, have no money to fix it

FUCK YOU SUBARU! WHO BUILDS A $65k+ CAR WHICH BLOWS A HEAD GASKET UNDER 100,000kms?!?!?

I found this post about your car which suggests it wasn't a standard car previously and was in fact modded and tuned.

You can hardly blame Subaru for the issues you're facing at present.

may as well put in my 2 cents

I've ordered a dump pipe from Phat
Im in the process of ordering a TMIC from somewhere (either AVO or whoever else has one thats decent and available)
Already have Fujitsubos and HKS panel Filter

Going to get the ECUtek from HPF

Hopefully its fun times and Ill post up dyno chart/power figures.

[Monkey]

I found this post about your car which suggests it wasn't a standard car previously and was in fact modded and tuned.

You can hardly blame Subaru for the issues you're facing at present.

may as well put in my 2 cents

I've ordered a dump pipe from Phat
Im in the process of ordering a TMIC from somewhere (either AVO or whoever else has one thats decent and available)
Already have Fujitsubos and HKS panel Filter

Going to get the ECUtek from HPF

Hopefully its fun times and Ill post up dyno chart/power figures.

[/quote]

Hmmm... OK, thanks for that. I don't recall seeing this previously. I'm pretty sure it doesn't have the dump pipe now. No idea whether that or the ECUtek was ever applied. I spoke with Bonski who advised the only mods were the Fujitsubos and the panel filter.
Regardless, I'm far from an expert, but I wouldn't consider these things to be significant modifications which should cause a head gasket to be replaced with less than 100,000kms unless the car was severely abused and left unserviced.

[Monkey]

[/quote]

Agh, sorry to hear. Yeah mine is around the 89,000 mark, but as you've probably noticed there has been a fair few lately. You're probably looking at the 3K mark easily, I hope for your sake its not a gasket but something a lot cheaper and simpler to fix. You could save on parts by sourcing them yourself, I know some Japan/US suppliers are a bit cheaper.

I posted an image of my resevoir a few pages back, my car was running fine. But I think my cause of this issue was due to a blown radiator hose a few weeks earlier, then again who knows...[/quote]

Thanks. Yeah it's wierd how a few have had this problem in the last 2 months. I guess it might be one of those things which consistently fails at a particular time like the airbag sensor in Holdens at 10 years.
is yours fixed? Was it around $3k or did you have other work done? If mine needs a HG, I'd probably do timing belt at the same time.
Will have a look for your pic posted.

[TomTom]

Thanks. Yeah it's wierd how a few have had this problem in the last 2 months. I guess it might be one of those things which consistently fails at a particular time like the airbag sensor in Holdens at 10 years.
is yours fixed? Was it around $3k or did you have other work done? If mine needs a HG, I'd probably do timing belt at the same time.
Will have a look for your pic posted.

Mines actually still being worked on, I've got a few other things being done as well including a new clutch, major service, CV Boot. Get some part costs from your mechanic and do some research, id stear clear from the OEM replacement I've got a Cosworth going in with some ARP head studs. I think 2-3K is a decent estimate, you don't know what needs replacing at this point so who knows what it'll cost.

[Boostaddict]

Boostaddict / Tomthebomb, any updates with head gasket potential fix and costs?

I briefly met with a couple of forum members tonight (fortunately a few experts were present - Bruce, Mick, Owen, etc) who noticed I had oil residue in my expansion tank.

I had no indication of any problems with the car- no loss of power, blowing smoke, burning oil or coolant, smells/sounds, etc. It drives perfectly (as it should with only 68xxxx kms!!!)

I've only had the car for 4 months, it has no mods other than an exhaust (and I presume standard tune), and due to the low kms and condition of the car, I didn't get an extended warranty. It's about 1 month out of the 3 month statutory warranty provided by the dealer.

Will be taking it to a local Subaru mechanic tomorrow (Cromwood) for a look, and then possibly off to fight the dealer for repair costs.

I'm absolutely devastated, and having just bought our first house, have no money to fix it

FUCK YOU SUBARU! WHO BUILDS A $65k+ CAR WHICH BLOWS A HEAD GASKET UNDER 100,000kms?!?!?

Man I know it fucking sucks man.!!! It's piss weak!!

Mate I'm not having the "usual" symptoms either. All I have is a recurrant CEL P0171 and some bubbles in my overflow tank and some hesitation down low. No smoke, no watery start ups, no smell or visible leaks nothing!!

The quickest way to tell is a tee Kay test ( I think that's what it's called ) its an additive they put In your coolant and it reacts with combustion gasses and turns a gauge from green to yellow or something !! Now my head hasn't blown bad, but started changing colour within 15-20sec.

So I'm just gunna gather my parts all up over the next month or so. Keep an eye on all my fluids and just putt putt around and stay off boost pretty much..... Easy for me as I have the kids in the car 80% of the time.


And I've been talking to different people/mechanics etc and it seems like I may have bought my car like this and they put a gasket sealant in it and sold it. When i bought my car and Kiddo did a fix tune on it, that code P0171 was turned off. So kiddo and i said lets fix the tune and turn it back on. So because I have done more mods and tuned it and pushed it.... Bye bye!

Also my car has only got 88k on the clock.!!!

Good luck and keep us posted mate.

Adam from Tuspeed is gunna love us after all of these HG issues!!

[Monkey]

Thanks guys

Good luck with both of yours and if you can keep us all posted on progress and costs that'd be great. if it is a HG, I too will go for the Cosworth .78 and ARP head studs [maybe we can get a bulk discount? ]

For anyone interested, here are pics of expansion tank

IMG_20130829_100015_389x518.jpg (30.36 KiB) Viewed 4739 times

IMG_20130829_100043_518x389.jpg (36.79 KiB) Viewed 4739 times

[chubbs]

i have started a trend! ever since i posted a few months back my HG going everyones is going. This is crazy! mines been fixed for a few months now and ive completey forgotten about it just in love with the car again. id recomend getting the Cosworth HG and Arp 2000 headstuds to everyone its worth the extra money doing it right so you dont get any future problems, it gives you that extra peice of mind :

[owen]

i have started a trend! ever since i posted a few months back my HG going everyones is going. This is crazy! mines been fixed for a few months now and ive completey forgotten about it just in love with the car again. id recomend getting the Cosworth HG and Arp 2000 headstuds to everyone its worth the extra money doing it right so you dont get any future problems, it gives you that extra peice of mind :

Now you just need to get your tune right so you don't do your block