Should I trust my dealer?

[MBrown]

I brought my car in to my dealer to get the 60k mile service. They said that I have a busted head gasket and it needs to be replaced. Really? I bought this car brand spanking new (2010 Impreza 2.5i 5MT) and haven't missed a single service interval except for the last one and I have a head gasket issue? Should I trust my dealer? Its the largest Subaru dealer in New England by volume and I think its in the top 5 in the country so I would assume they would be honest. Luckily its covered under my extended warranty but I still have to pay a $100 deductible for it.

 

[chucky2]

Generally trusting any stealership is not wise, but there are exceptions...hard to say if they're (or their mechanic and/or service writer and/or service manager) are on the up and up, who knows.

For $100 I'd let them do the work as long as you confirmed it was going to be $100 only. The other thing I'd find out, prior to allowing them to do the job, is if things like timing belts, valve adjustments, etc. are normally done at 100k or whatnot. Since warranty is going to be paying to open up the engine, it should cost you very little to get some preventative maintenance completed on the cheap.

Chuck

 

[WilliamM2]

If it's warranty work, they generally will need some proof the work was needed to get paid.

 

[unokitty]

I brought my car in to my dealer to get the 60k mile service. They said that I have a busted head gasket and it needs to be replaced. Really? I bought this car brand spanking new (2010 Impreza 2.5i 5MT) and haven't missed a single service interval except for the last one and I have a head gasket issue? Should I trust my dealer? Its the largest Subaru dealer in New England by volume and I think its in the top 5 in the country so I would assume they would be honest. Luckily its covered under my extended warranty but I still have to pay a $100 deductible for it.

As a rule of thumb, I would say that it is unwise.

However, with warranty work, I'd let them go ahead.

Maybe someone that knows more about Subaru's can comment further. But I believe that they had a run of engines that tended to blow head gaskets. Don't know if yours was part of that run.

Best of luck,
Uno

 

[Zorba]

I brought my car in to my dealer to get the 60k mile service. They said that I have a busted head gasket and it needs to be replaced. Really? I bought this car brand spanking new (2010 Impreza 2.5i 5MT) and haven't missed a single service interval except for the last one and I have a head gasket issue? Should I trust my dealer? Its the largest Subaru dealer in New England by volume and I think its in the top 5 in the country so I would assume they would be honest. Luckily its covered under my extended warranty but I still have to pay a $100 deductible for it.

The 2.5i Subaru engine has had a long history of head gasket issues. I just had to have them replaced on my 2006, with 117k miles. They claim the gasket that came out in 2009 fixed the issue, but who knows. While they were in there I had them replace all the front wearables, belts, seals and water pump and only had to pay for the parts. I'd make them fix both sides at the same time, the other side will leak in the future.

Ask your dealer to show you the leak. I found it myself when doing an oil change. Since 2005 almost all the leaks have been external leaks.

From what I've read, it doesn't seem to matter how well you follow the maintenance guide lines, if it is going to leak it is going to.

Edit: I think the latest design actually came out in 2011.

 

[MrBond]

Head gaskets on non-turbo Subarus are a known problem. I would have thought they'd have fixed it by the 2010 MY (I thought they started using multi layer gaskets after 2009).

I've seen photos that show what to look for to make sure the corrected head gaskets are installed when shopping for used Subarus but I can't locate them now. Since its a multi layer gasket you should be able to see the different layers.

For $100, you're getting off cheap. That's usually a 1500-2500 job I think.

 

[T2urtle]

$100 only, that isn't going to concern me very much.

But here is the thing, a good dealership could have a few bad/new techs. Those new/bad can be poison if not handled the right way or allowed to keep doing this.

But a headgasket job isn't exactly a cake walk job so i see no reason for them to lie about this even on a slow week. I rather do nothing then a HG job on a boxer engine.

 

[NutBucket]

That doesn't sound right. Basically the HG issue was with the DOHC motors in the early 2000s. Any of the non-turbo SOHC EJ motors from about 2003 to present should be fine. I'm actually suspicious that they just want to do the job to make some money. Has the car been running any differently? Smoking? I would want to know why they suspect there is a head gasket issue.

 

[jagec]

But a headgasket job isn't exactly a cake walk job so i see no reason for them to lie about this even on a slow week. I rather do nothing then a HG job on a boxer engine.

How about a clutch job on a transverse-mounted mid-engine car?

 

[Kelvrick]

I'm curious how they know the headgasket is going. Did they do a compression test? Has your car been overheating? Is there oil/coolant mixing? The headgaskets are not as big of a problem as they used to be with subarus anymore, especially if you kept up with replacing the coolant according to the maintenance schedule.

 

[NutBucket]

How about a clutch job on a transverse-mounted mid-engine car?

Step 1: Remove engine from car.

Not horrible if you have the right plan

 

[jagec]

Step 1: Remove engine from car.

Not horrible if you have the right plan

Indeed, that's how I did it.

Of course, I didn't have an engine hoist...

 

[Zorba]

I'm curious how they know the headgasket is going. Did they do a compression test? Has your car been overheating? Is there oil/coolant mixing? The headgaskets are not as big of a problem as they used to be with subarus anymore, especially if you kept up with replacing the coolant according to the maintenance schedule.

The vast majority of HG leaks on 2.5i SOHC Subarus have been external, so you can see it when you are under the car doing an oil change. The nice thing about an external leak is you have some time to plan for the replacement, and you might get lucky and never have to actually replace it, if it never gets bad enough. In my '06 Legacy just all of sudden the car started slowly loosing oil and coolant, but they weren't mixing. Then when I was doing an oil change I saw the leak on both HGs.

 

[Zorba]

That doesn't sound right. Basically the HG issue was with the DOHC motors in the early 2000s. Any of the non-turbo SOHC EJ motors from about 2003 to present should be fine. I'm actually suspicious that they just want to do the job to make some money. Has the car been running any differently? Smoking? I would want to know why they suspect there is a head gasket issue.

The SOHC have had issues from MY 1999 until ~2011.

http://users.sisna.com/ignatius/subaru/headgasket.html
http://allwheeldriveauto.com/subaru-head-gasket-problems-explained/

The problem seems to be extremely wide spread on the SOHC. The dealer that did my HG replacement said they do at least 4 a week, and that is at a smallish dealer in Wichita, KS.

The issues on the Turbo were fixed back in ~2003, as you said, but for whatever reason Subaru refused to move the working turbo HGs technology to the SOHC engines.

 

[bryanl]

The standard powertrain warranty is for 5 years, 60,000 miles, no deductible, and covers head gaskets.

Large dealerships are no more competent or honest than small ones but play the system better - sell more unneeded maintenance, charge higher prices, know when to back off when caught.

Impreza forums have information about free repair after expiration of the normal warranty: http://forums.nasioc.com

 

[Doppel]

How many miles are on your car?