Replace All Seals?

[fourcornered7]

Hey All - we have an 2005 Legacy Wagon GT with around 160k on it. It's had an oil leak that has been persistently getting worse over the past year. We brought it into the dealer and had the fluid put into the oil so they can shine a black light on it and see where it's coming from. Supposedly it's way down in the bay somewhere, where to get at it and address the issue it's going to be a bunch of labor as they have to take the whole top end off. The tech instead recommended pulling the entire engine and redoing all the seals. The total is around $2500 for this option. It's slightly more then the other option but they seem to think this will be better in general. While we love the car and don't much feel like buying a new one the thought of dropping $2500 into it and having it crap out anyway in 8 months isn't a pleasant one. Have you folks redone the seals before? Should I be doing anything else while we're in there to prolong the life? Be great to get a couple more years out of it. Don't drive it a ton but don't want to my wife feeling like it's going to break down every time she leaves the house. Thoughts?

[MilesA]

Oil is cheap, comparably speaking. Suggest you wait until you need to pull the engine for something else, then do the seals at the same time.

[Max Capacity]

I'm sure any local repair shop that fix's Subaru's can do the valve cover gasket for a lot less money.

 

The car doesn't have to be fixed by the dealer.

[rhd gvr4]

Try a tuning shop,should get better labor rates

[ttnio]

welcome!