06 Legacy 2.5i Overheat to Point of Head Replacement

[LikeUCare]

I have the bestest story ever. I had a beater.....ugly.....92 Mercury Topaz. Drove the piss out of it. Loved the fact I bought for 300$ and it just kept on going.

 

Wife gets the new car bug. We get a good deal on a 06 Legacy SE. Trade in beater. (sniff) Not too long, start smelling antifreeze, wife complains. I check the fluids, life is good, tell her not to worry...new car....so much better than beater. I drive it, start to smell antifreeze.....alot, past the point of the radiator cap is unseated, overflow bottle sloshed....any of the reasons that a dealer would acount to it. Decide screw it......new car....warranty, let them figure it out.

 

Take it to dealership. Called back a few hours later, "Hey, your car is fixed, it was the radiator cap not holding pressure." Scratch head. Radiator cap not holding pressure is the cause? Ask. Told, "Yup, not uncommon." Fine. Life goes on.

 

Fast forward a couple of weeks. Antifreeze smell is back. Notice the car is running warmer than it normally does, check the fluid, a little low. See the radiator cap has been spewing all over engine. Take to dealer. Same song and dance. Ask again about radiator cap not holding pressure is the cause.....really scratch head. One bad cap......possible, two bad caps, unlikely.

 

Fast forward a couple of months. Notice the car will get no where close to 30MPG on highway as pronounced. Car runs a little above the midline on the thermometer. Bam.....anti-freeze smell back again.

 

Take back to the dealer. Don't even talk to the service writers, go right to the service manager. Tell him that there is something wrong with my car and I don't even want to hear the words, "radiator cap". Tells me he will get is best tech on it.

 

Get a call. Guess what? Not the radiator cap. While monitoring the pressure in the upper radiator hose, tech notices alot more pressure than should be. Calls SOA. They say it is the head gasket. Tech and service manager are doubtful, as they think it is a computer control issue.....fan relay, thermostat, etc... Finally they pull the heads. Guess what? Its a head gasket......WEEEEEEEEEEE! But here is the kicker, even with me and my wife really watching the temperature, it still managed to overheat in Colorado in the middle of winter to warp both heads! They are both at 4/1000th deviation, with the max allowed at 3/1000th.

 

SO......my car sits in the shop waiting on parts because heads for an 06 aren't something that they stock. My confidence is quite shaken in our "new" car that has to get the entire top end replaced at 9,000 miles! As for the lemon law, it is on day 10 right now, so we have a long way to go.

 

My concern is the longevity of the bottom end of the engine....I have some serious misgivings about the relability of a block that has gone through something like this so early in life. Any thoughts or suggestions??

[zhabodav]

I had an 06' SE for 7 months and put 14,000 somewhat miles on it. I had zero problems, I raped the car, drove it at 120mph when I could I mean really pushed it. No problems, not a single one whatsoever. Even the people at the dealership that inspected it said it was fine. Now.......I got an 07LGT, and well, it took a shit one morning at 600miles...yes 400 less of "breakin", the belt broke, the cam shaft broke, the gaskets broke, the whatever broke....but when they gave me a new block, it has been running fine every since. Good luck....oh yeah, to get a new block, took 3 weeks...be patient

[07Waggin]

My '07 2.5i MT5 Wagon just got a new radiator. Good thing it blew in my driveway coming home from a 40 mile long jaunt.

 

6K miles and a new radiator? This leaves me wondering why I left my Chevy dinosaurus for a new high-tech high-quality Japanese design.

 

I guess the sticker does say 'Manufactured in Missouri' or something to that effect.

[LongHiway]

There's the infamous head gasket problems on Subaru's of '95 through '99 (+/- a few years).

 

Had the engine re-built after the gasket blew on my wife (she continued to drive for longer than any of us might have). car was fine for another 60 K miles, and we traded it for a new Outback. Just cause I could, not because the car was troublesome.

 

It's not my car but, I think you should be OK. See if they will "give" you an extended warranty. The price of a warranty is very negotiable, so even if you kick in some $ it might be worth it just for piece of mind.

[iyalla]

It should be ok. But push for a warranty as mentioned above, tell them your confidence has been shaken and you would like a little reassurance

[LikeUCare]

Update: Talked to the dealer, they can't locate a passenger side head in the ENTIRE country........Just my luck... So......I am really hoping that this just keeps on keeping on. They are are saying 2+ weeks to get one from Japan. I am actually hopeful that it will take that long. I am not going to call the dealer, let it get on the back burner and hopefully it will go over that magical 30 days in the shop. Here in Colorado it doesn't have to be at the same time, just 30 days within the same year. We will then invoke the lemon law and get them to buy the freaking thing back.

 

Redid the day in shop count, it is at 13 today.

 

As for the extended warranty, I am definitely going to pursue that. I have read on forums that people have gotten an extended warranty for far less than what our car has gone through. My main concern is the antifreeze in the oil passages. I have seen cast iron blocks get pitted to hell with the stuff, I can only imagine what an effect it would have on an aluminum block. The tech assures me that there was no cross-pollution, but how can he be so sure? I think that after the repair is complete that I am going to make them flush the block completely. Anyone know of any good products out there that might help in that endevour?

[ilh]

SOA gave me a 7/100 Gold warranty for my troubles during my first year as I was nearing lemon law territory. Push for it.

[LikeUCare]

UPDATE: My car spent a good amount of time in the shop, they replaced the heads, I got a 7 year 100K Gold Warranty, all that jazz. For full details please read rest of post.

 

Driving back from Wyoming.....just cruising down the highway with cruise set at 80.......BAM!!! it happened all over again. Stopped and checked out the radiator....cap blown again. Overfilled the overflow container, checked the oil....it was almost a quart low, refilled oil (head replacement was at 9K mind you, only 12K now) and limped it back home. Got home, check the radiator fluid, was low again as expected, and oil was about a half a quart low.

 

I took it back to the local dealer, they saw the car rolling into the bay and I literally heard a collective sigh......told them not to even try to fix it, to get the factory rep down here, as this was fix attempt number FOUR for the overheating problem. Contacted SOA with my intent to follow lemon law procedures, contacted the BBB and filled out the form needed to get arbitration between me and SOA set up......giving them all the histoty etc...

 

SO...with that said....I got a call from the service mangager this morning. The factory rep has decided that this car does in fact qualify for the Subaru buyback program. YEA!!!

 

We are going to meet with them in a couple of days to see what the offer is.

 

What do you guys think is a reasonable offer? We purchased the car for a little under 19K new......a good deal I might add, and the current loan amount is around 16.5K. The kicker is that we are going to have to buy a new car now, paying new tags and registration.......which is pretty pricey in CO. This isn't something that we had planned on. Does anyone know how flexiable these buyback offers are? I am not trying to be an ass about this, just don't want to come out worse than I have already with the wasted time and hassle.

 

Let me know what you guys think.....and stay away from a blue/grey 06 legacy SE first registered in CO with a dealer buyback at 12K!!

[LongHiway]

How long have you had the car?

 

How long have you had the car in good working condition?

 

Subtract the two and that's the reasonable mileage.

 

Now, your pain and suffering says that the dealer and SOA should do better than the used car price - deducting the "useful" miles you've had.

 

Would you take a 1 year old low mileage demo car as an even trade?

 

Then, shoot for a new car and settle down.

 

Or, take the money and run over to Mazda. Er, tell than that before you actually run to Mazda, see if they increase their offer.

[LikeUCare]

Update....we ended up getting a dealer/manufacture assisted trade. They gave us 16K for the car, 1K from the dealer for a down payment, and another 4K from SOA. So.......we are pretty happy about this.

 

We ended up going back to a WRX wagon...07, gun metal grey.....very cool. So glad to be done with the Legacy. It sucks because was such a nice car....but man we love the WRX wagon. This would be the 4th WRX wagon we have owned, so we are pretty ccommited to that platform.