Trying to be a nice uncle and buy my niece a car....she just had her first baby.

So, what might be wrong with this car?

http://nh.craigslist.org/cto/2692681186.html

Rich

Head Gasket

Most likely heads. Both my boys have had Subaru's. Both had head gasket failures. One had a rod come through the top of the block. My mechanic(yes, I don't work on my DD) likes Subaru's he replaced the short block and rebuilt the heads for my youngest boy. Many miles later he now is using coolant and likely needs heads and gaskets done again. My mechanic is convinced Subaru's are 300,000 mile bottom ends if you keep oil in them.

Head gaskets, and a good chance the cams are bad if there is any water/coolant in the oil. The 99 motors are great if running. I would think you would plan on a full rebuild on that many miles on a dohc engine.

jcl

Abel, my middle boy (Rocket) is a mechanic by day....
So, I also use a mechanic for the DD cars...

Right now he is out on leave due to his third knee surgery...but he can do this for me shortly...he is just about healed up for work again

Then he is part of the present...helping his aunt.

He hates doing headgaskets too....lol

I will go take a look today..we shall see.
Its not my favorite car, but she live in Maine and needs good MPG, and room for baby stuff...
That car seems to fit the need..and its AWD which is another plus.


Rich

You already know the head gaskets are bad. If it overheated, it is likely the heads have warped too.

If you put a known good engine in it for say $1000, then you have a $2K runner.

How's the rust situation?

My '99 Legacy Outback is in the same situation; overheats under load at 215k miles.
I am saving money for a full swap to other used engine w top-end rebuild, new timing belt etc
First estimate in the high-cost San Fransico Bay area was $4,000 for everything, all labor too.

Anybody else have an opinion on the quote??
Favorite Subaru shop in Marin county?? Or within 100 miles towing of PT Reyes??
I put it out to pasture last month, and start it every week.

But, with leather interior, new tires, heated seats and mirrors, great stereo etc I want to keep it!

It was the 2.5 twincam motors, 96-99 in the Legacy, with the headgasket problem. It isn't difficult to fix, R&R the engine, have the heads gone through and replace the timing belt and water pump, with parts cost (a few years ago) under $1000. The Subaru valve grind set has the upgraded replacement head gaskets, so you're good there. That car is getting up in miles, but with reasonable maintenance those Subaru engines go forever, so doing the gaskets will probably get you another 100K.

Alternatively replace the engine. Craig's List is usually cheapest but is hit and miss, so look on www.car-part.com (choose the "non-interchange search" on the first page to search for a range of years) for auto recycler engines near your zip code, and it lists miles for a lot of them. It's a good way to see probable cost for the engine alternative, even if you're just going to do the gaskets, to compare. Those engines are $1000 or less now, so sometimes you can run across a low mileage alternative to doing the gaskets yourself.

FWIW, The DOHC motors were not and are not the only motors with HG issues. I'm seeing 00-05 with the same issues. Some at very low miles. I'd search out an early to mid '90s with a SOHC 1.8........

Interesting. Any feeling for what proportion of cars develop the problem? With the twincam cars it was pretty common, same with the single cams?

I had an external HG leak on my '03 SOHC 2.5. Both oil and coolent. I was able to do the HG replacement myself with the engine in the car. Was not easy though...