Idk what to tell you, they are all still driving their Subarus after many years. Some of them WRXs. I like cars, so when someone has a Subaru, I do ask them about any problems they have had because I’m curious. So far, no head gasket failures. Maybe some of them had cars that previously had head gasket failures and were repaired before they purchased the vehicles. That’s not so likely, as folks don’t tend to sell their vehicles after doing expensive mechanical work like a head gasket change. Plus, if they’re replacing a faulty head gasket for the exact same Subaru head gasket, why have the head gaskets in their cars not blown again? They’re just putting in the same shitty gasket design, right?
Anecdotally, I have a Baja. Replaced the head gaskets two years ago this past summer. Then past March, I thought the HGs failed again. Waited until summer, bought a cheap Outback to drive around in the meanwhile, then threw a canopy up (I don’t have a garage). Pulled the engine and discovered the threads in the aluminum block had failed for one of the head bolts. Drilled it out, threaded it, and popped a steel insert in (Time-Sert kit).
I’ve owned enough Subarus over the years to love the boxer engines. Won’t touch a transverse mounted engine, personally. They’re always a pain to work on. Having a bed available, small though it may be, fits my lifestyle perfectly. Until another mfg puts out a small “ute” EV, I’m gonna keep wrenching on the Baja for as long as I can.
We Baja people are a special kind of crazy, though, and are definitely a niche market. I’m not keeping my hopes up.
You should look into the specialist forums on the topic if you’d like to see the real(ish) numbers. The tldr is it’s around a 15-20% premature failure rate for certain engines from before 2002.
Brand reputations are built off those twenty year old events, and it was a problem for a decade. In Suburu’s case it was noticable precisely because it was reliable enough that the owners would keep it for twenty years and then say things like “ran like dream except for that one time…”
That’s great. I understand that the real premature failure rate is higher but only for certain engines. The idea that one could then go and apply it to all Subarus is what I’m talking about. We’re not talking about an old model of WRXs that had that problem, we’re talking about all Subarus.
Idk what to tell you, they are all still driving their Subarus after many years. Some of them WRXs. I like cars, so when someone has a Subaru, I do ask them about any problems they have had because I’m curious. So far, no head gasket failures. Maybe some of them had cars that previously had head gasket failures and were repaired before they purchased the vehicles. That’s not so likely, as folks don’t tend to sell their vehicles after doing expensive mechanical work like a head gasket change. Plus, if they’re replacing a faulty head gasket for the exact same Subaru head gasket, why have the head gaskets in their cars not blown again? They’re just putting in the same shitty gasket design, right?
Anecdotally, I have a Baja. Replaced the head gaskets two years ago this past summer. Then past March, I thought the HGs failed again. Waited until summer, bought a cheap Outback to drive around in the meanwhile, then threw a canopy up (I don’t have a garage). Pulled the engine and discovered the threads in the aluminum block had failed for one of the head bolts. Drilled it out, threaded it, and popped a steel insert in (Time-Sert kit).
I’ve owned enough Subarus over the years to love the boxer engines. Won’t touch a transverse mounted engine, personally. They’re always a pain to work on. Having a bed available, small though it may be, fits my lifestyle perfectly. Until another mfg puts out a small “ute” EV, I’m gonna keep wrenching on the Baja for as long as I can.
We Baja people are a special kind of crazy, though, and are definitely a niche market. I’m not keeping my hopes up.
You should look into the specialist forums on the topic if you’d like to see the real(ish) numbers. The tldr is it’s around a 15-20% premature failure rate for certain engines from before 2002.
Brand reputations are built off those twenty year old events, and it was a problem for a decade. In Suburu’s case it was noticable precisely because it was reliable enough that the owners would keep it for twenty years and then say things like “ran like dream except for that one time…”
That’s great. I understand that the real premature failure rate is higher but only for certain engines. The idea that one could then go and apply it to all Subarus is what I’m talking about. We’re not talking about an old model of WRXs that had that problem, we’re talking about all Subarus.