Shop Subaru Head Gaskets

Before you took the radiator out you should have pressure tested the coolant system with the engine cold to determine the leak source(s).

If you suspect the radiator has a fault, you should replace it. Doesn't make sense to take your chances on an old aluminum radiator that could destroy a $3000 engine. Flush out the system and replace the radiator cap too. Once you have the new radiator installed and refilled, pressure test the coolant system and check for leaks.

Being a 98, the hoses have probably deteriorated inside. Try to get cheap ass to replace the hoses. Nothing last forever and unless she wants to keep driving the thing or she is not planning on selling it soon, she needs to put some money into it to maintain it.

Hey, thanks so much! Yeah, definitely.

Great, that's what I'll do!

Yeah, had to sell her 05 Prius, and I actually found this car for a decent price for her, it's still a good deal after I put the radiator in. But yeah, gonna have to last at least ~2 years or so of grad school and until financial stability.

Is that duct tape I see on that hose? New hose is cheaper than new engine.

I was thinking either duct tape or that foil tape, but he did say she was a cheap ass, so I'd say you're right with the duct tape.

Yeah, it's duct tape. Was there when she got the car, but yeah, :-/.

So... Radiator inlet looks toast?

Yes, and the hose too. I wouldn't be trusting a $50 radiator either. That car isn't going to last through college when the epoxy that holds the plastic tank to the aluminum core cracks, though the MacGuyver job on the hose would burst pretty much anytime anyway. Then when she doesn't bother to look at the temp gauge and the red overtemp idiot light flashes morse code screams of "STOP ME PLEEAAASSSSEEEE" she cracks the block and warps the heads into a pretzel.

New hoses and a new radiator are the only way to prevent such obvious impending failures from happening, and she'll save a lot of money on duct tape. There is no sense trying to be penny wise yet dollar foolish. I can understand not wasting money frivolously, but putting a duct taped hose and a $50 radiator into this and thinking its just as good as new is like playing russian roulette with 5 live rounds. Well, MAYBE you could be the lucky one but I doubt it.

Yeah, if it were my car I would do exactly that. So I'll go ahead and take care of it as if it were mine, thanks guys!

Sometimes you can't just do what she wants, you have to act in her best interests. She may not be happy about the money but if you tell her you found such and such part bad while you were in ther or it was in such bad shape if came apart when you pulled it out she might understand. You have to get her to trust you and your abilities. My girl never questions what I do with the cars. Then again, I'm the one that bought them and I'm the one paying for parts so I guess she has no say anyhow.

One piece of advice for the future is to never look at a car problem without a very bright light, and the LED flashlights are dirt cheap now so get a few. Put one in your house, one in the glovebox, etc. But never order parts based on a general direction of a leak that you saw in the dark. Even in daylight I get out the light to be 100% positive I am right.

Let us know how this works out for you and if any complications come up we can walk you through it.

Ok, new radiator is in and working good, actually looks like a pretty decent radiator for 50 bucks, everything fits, etc.

Anyways, car is leaking, peaked underneath to find it, its looking like the water pump. So that's a bummer. I don't have a garage, doing this in the street and don't have enough time to fix this myself (I have to write and defend my Master's Thesis in the next month). Taking the car to the shop I use to have them put in a new one for ~320$ minus the cost of the water pump.

Friend says she just wants the car to last a year and doesn't want to put any money into she doesn't have to. Might try and convince her a car is more of an investment and the better you take care of it the better the re-sale.

Also replaced the top and bottom radiator hoses, and going to have a new thermostat installed, while they're in there I'll have them check the timing belt and tensioner, I might go ahead and buy those and if they don't need to be replaced just return them...

A holes like that gives us honest mechs and techs a bad name. I wouldn't even class that person as a mechanic.

Well, lesson learned. Doesn't help that someone gutted that stat before. Good luck on that thesis.

Appreciate your saying you knew next to nothing as that helps us help you!

What went wrong with this last oil change to cause you to saying that it was poorly done? Did they spill oil? Did you complain or bring up an oil leak where you park or something?

Yes a head gasket could leak oil but so far I suggest another option based on what you said.

Without fail - learn how to check your own oil manually, watch it and all gauges and warnings till a credible diagnosis has you convinced,

T

Basically, I was finding spots of oil under my car. So, I took it in to get checked and they found some issues.

I don't know what exactly was wrong, but they changed the oil while it was in and said that once they changed it the issue was gone. So, that is totally resolved and not an issue any longer

The other source was the head gasket. It has very minor leaks on both sides and even this morning I found small spots of oil in my driveway.

I'm mainly wondering what I should reasonably expect to pay to get it resealed or beyond that, if I even need too.

Z - anyone: I think they can leak any dang way they feel like it but both the exact same way at the same time I just don't find very common??

Tom

I guess I should have worded that better. I don't know which way the headgaskets commonly leak.. as far as weather it's the head gaskets or not if they did not degrease the engine and re-inspect then it's not properly diagnosed(in my opinion). I would get a second opinion for sure odds are it wouldn't be leaking from both head gaskets, but weirder things have happened.

And they are sure it's not just the valve cover gasket leaking down on to the head making it look like the head gasket is leaking?
I would clean the engine up the best i could then drive it for a few days and keep checking and see if you can see what's leaking before it drips onto anything else.

I'm not there looking which hurts for something like this. I just find it interesting that two head gaskets both are leaking just this way?!

Anything is possible but head gaskets can leak anything they seal in any direction and for two to have the exact same issue and you would do both if one was bad just seems unlikely to me.

If you can identify the spot, clean it - heck - put talcum power on it and watch the trail or get a diagnosis that's credible as so far I'm not totally convinced and do think techs are mostly not trying to make up work for no real reason and not saying that but would like to see this diagnosed for sure, not guessing,

T

Thx 4 letting us know the outcome....

They say a picture is worth a 1000 words.....

I won't go on & on...... I'll just leave it at

"Wow....There's really not a lot you can say about that....it's pretty obvious"

Thank You for coming back with what was found and now I tend to agree. I'm still surprised it made it very far at all. Great that this could be fixed for just $300 -- I was real worried about that causing a real nightmare.

I'll see if just one pic will direct post for archives,

Thanks,

Thttp://cprcomputing.com/images/HB2.jpg

The mechanic is saying that the Woodruff key was tightened in the wrong position and was never locked. He said it was clear that it was a result from being put back on and was obvious when looked at.

The previous mechanic says that if it was done incorrectly that it is a very long bolt and that it would have came undone right away and not after being driven for a month but is willing to look at the old part to determine if they are at fault.

Thanks for all of your input it is greatly appreciated.

Namaste

Well that's a good sign he is willing to look at it. Most shops if they caused the problem will step up and take care of it.
If it was a defective part or a bolt that broke then you can't really hang that on the shop.

This is where it's better to let the tech who can "see it" make the call........ I'm not sure what he meant by the "keyway (woodruff) installed in the wrong position", there is only one position for it. Even if he put the key in backwards (some can be installed backwards, others have no frt or back), he would've had trouble getting the balancer on, but once it was on, if the keyway didn't fall out it would've held....


The bottomline for me would be, either show me a defective part or explain to me a very convincing theory on how a part that was removed & installed came off in such a short amount of time......

Just a quick look from the shop owners side. He has to judge what type of customer he is dealing with. We won't even go into the bad ones because this isn't the case here (but he has to deal with those as well). Sometimes when work is performed on cars, other areas fail thur no fault of the tech (sometimes right there in the shop). The customers stand point is, the car was fine, I never had this problem before until you worked on it. Normally it can be logically explained and shown that it was just something else that fail but it usually never goes over well and more times than not, the dishonest mechanic card is played. That is probably where he is at right now, trying to figure out "what happened?" Was there a defective part? Did something break? Has someone else worked on this car since?

If it's obvious one way or the other, he will probably do the right thing....

My lastest......An 05 F150 came in for a diag & lof AND window diag..... The lady stopped at B/K for coffee on the way to the shop & regulator cable broke while she was in the drive thru and the window fell into the door. The SA & I argured for 10 minutes about who the lucky one was....My theory was he was the lucky one....that cable would've broke on me if she hadn't of stopped & he would've got his azz chewed out bigtime..... His theory was, I was lucky because I would've been doing the motor & regulator for free...... at the end we agreed we were both lucky.......Not lucky she had a problem, lucky her problem didn't happen in our care.........

Wow...A gas station with a repair shop....Now there is a dying breed you just don't see too much of anymore. which is really unfortunate but like anything, a sign of the times we're living in.....(Man I have a ton of great stories.....ok,ok enough nostalgia)

This is a tough situation and the key point is really vague, "the bolt was not put on correctly"

With any repair, when something comes apart or fails in an area that you worked, while it's not a guarantee it's tech error, it's pretty much "guilty until proven innocent". I may not agree with this, it's just the way it is.....

I think in this case it would come down to how the bolt came off. If it simply fell out, that would be a sign it wasn't tightened properly. If the head of the bolt broke off, that would've been a defective part.

I see where the repair is a month old but didn't catch how many miles have been put on the car since then........

I am not sure exactly how many miles we have driven but I would estimate about four to five hundred. Went on a long drive the day before (187 miles as google flies) with no symptoms.

I realize the key point is kind of vague and hope to learn more tomorrow morning. When I hear all of this talk its like the school teachers in a peanuts cartoon but tomorrow I will write everything down since this is not being easily resolved as I hoped it was going to be.

Thank you for the insight

Namaste