What causes it? Could be plenty of things. Improper installation, borderline quality gasket, etc.

 

not sure what I'm looking at on an FB engine - they said 'head' not 'valve cover' ?

anyway - hope it's a one-off failure.

 

...just curious...what is your mileage on the car? Ours went at 58,000miles...



...head gasket failure with the boxer is not a one off thing...there are way too many of them over the years for it to be that...will they ever get rid of the head gasket gremlins??

 

It's a bad picture. They said head gasket. There is a leak between the block and the head. It looks like a metal gasket.

 

I broke out the service manual and looked to be sure I wasn't confusing parts but yes it is the cylinder head gasket driver side. The leak is oil.

 

not sure the rate is higher than other 'recent' models from other manufacturers. It's a 2013, not a 1998.

could the car have been overheated?

 

My car is has 33,000 mi. I never noticed a high temp light. I wonder if short trips caused this to happen earlier than expected. My wife drives this car 7 mi round trip during the week. I change the oil using sever service schedule. Dear ship said this would be there first FB gasket replacement. Not sure how I feel about that.

 

i am sure they've done thousands of headgaskets before, maybe just not that engine.

At my dealer, they advertise the price of replacing headgaskets on an flatscreen TV in the waiting room hah!!!

 

At my dealer, they advertise the price of replacing headgaskets on an flatscreen TV in the waiting room hah!!!

... If I was a first time buyer at the dealership seeing that...I would certainly second guess my purchase choice...

If I owned a dealership...not something I would advertise

 

I have heard of oil leaks at the pass side corner of the chain cover.

if it isn't one thing it's another......

 

Things like this twist me the wrong way. I guess that's machinery at its best. When it comes to mechanical stuff I like to find what caused a problem. Thats probably what bothers me the most. That and someone else working on my car.

 

The big deal here is it is a 2013 with the new FB engine. This engine-design is supposed to resolve the most common head-gasket issues by NOT having antifreeze passing through the head-gasket. (The heads have dedicated coolant lines plumbed to them...[seen in your photo])

Please keep us informed regarding the outcome. Lets hope the oil-leak is NOT head-gasket.

 

As posted earlier it goes back on the 20th. Service manager said ok to drive but keep an eye on the oil. He thinks the leak is so small I wouldn't notice any drop in the oil level. I think we will only drive it if necessary.

 

They will probably never be able to totally stop head gasket leaks in the boxer engines. A vertical parting line is almost certain to leak eventually as long as there is a fluid (oil in this case) moving through it. Gravity will eventually migrate the fluid through the parting line past the gasket as parts tend to shift with heat cycles and vibration. Even V shaped engines exhibit some seepage at the lower parting lines. Upright, in-line engines do as well. The nature of the design of the boxer tend to make it a more serious issue.

 

I had thought that boxer engines were a little more vulnerable to heat cycle issues, and therefore HG failure..

Inline 4 and 6 cylinder designs show some difference in failure rate on the outer cylinders (1,4) vs. inner ones (2,3).

On a boxer 4, every cylinder is an outer. On a boxer 6, 2/3 of the cylinders are outer.

 

That is why I was wondering if short trips would speed this process up. The engine might be at operating temp when my wife gets to work then again when she get home. We were discussing this last night but she brought up a good point there are a lot of newer outbacks around here it a smaller small community everything is really close so others are probably driving about the same as us. Even in the U.P. Everything is a 5 min drive. To me this all makes sense heating up then cooling down twice a day 5 times a week has got to take its toll.

 

Could be first reported case

Guys,

This could be the very first reported head gasket failure for FB25 engine. I wonder if there are any reported failures for FB20 engine which is in Impreza and XV Crosstek.

 

This could be the very first reported head gasket failure for FB25 engine. I wonder if there are any reported failures for FB20 engine which is in Impreza and XV Crosstek.

Remember, head gaskets can fail for many reasons. I've had two previous vehicles out of twelve that experienced such failures at higher mileage. There might not always be a common factor behind such failures; in my case one was a warped head and the other the reason was never determined. But in the case of the EJ25, there was a contributing cause found common to every unit built: The coating used on the gasket compound had a finite lifetime when exposed to coolant, and the sealing surfaces between the coolant passages and the exterior were a rather short distance.

I wouldn't go comparing FB25 to EJ25 based on one documented failure logged on this forum.

 

you can find some mention on-line, I just think it's way to soon to assume the rate will be near the EJ 2.5 .

on a horizontal engine, one issue is oil/fuel 'pooling' at the bottom of the head/block interface - potentially affecting any gasket coating. Couple that with the shiflting around that might be allowed by an open-deck design....


I dunno, but the FB has separate cooling so, no coolant passes thru the gasket, and it's a semi-closed deck.


I don't think they're immune - but there may not be enough data to condemn the FB as having 'HG problems'.

 

Update

Got the car back today it was in the shop 3 days. They called yesterday am asking to keep it another day to let the three bond sealant dry for the timing chain cover before adding engine fluids. Coolant and oil were replaced, obviously. I only drive it about 20 miles and didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. I opened the hood when I got home to take a peek and other than coolant splatter and the three bond all looks normal. I did notice the driver side cyclider head had a slightly differant sound compared to the passenger side, driver side was replaced. The sound is the same just slightly louder. I have to say I'm insettled about the deli only because someone else did the work. I am very detailed when doing any type of repair, I don't want to be that guy but I wished I could have watched. Car seems good at this point.

 

When Subaru pulled my driver side head on the EJ they cleaned it up checked surfaces and put in the updated gasket. It was a 24hr turn around, easy job really. The valves did have a slightly different sound. This was at 64,000. At 180,000 I needed a bigger rear seat for a kid and after lots of contemplating getting rid of the Legacy GT 5spd which I still really enjoyed driving we got a new 2010 EJ OB.

73,000 and going strong. I will say this the OB might be hauling more people, but its had an easy life compared to the old Legacy GT, that was flogged like an old race horse every time I drove it solo to work through our local canyon. My neighbor has a 2016 wrx for his daily commuter. He does our back canyon route also. He burned through his first set of tires in two months. My legacy got a new set every 2 yrs. Ha ha

After getting a massive two week head gasket engine rebuild twice in a toyota. The Subaru $1500 head job is peanuts. I dont loose sleep over it.