Wait, you've got a genuine Subaru Gold extended warranty and this engine problem (and diagnosis) is going to cost you $$$ out of pocket? What? That right there is a reason I'd call SoA and find out WHY this is going to burden you with additional cost. For God sake, that's what the Gold warranty is for!

Sorry about your woe's my friend. That stinks. Big time. You might look into the trade in and get Subaru to help you out with the new car purchase. They will do that, seeing as how you'd be a repeat customer.

 

Thank you, My thoughts exactly. My dealer tells me the warranty pays for the repairs, but not the diagnostics/labor to try and ID the problem in the first place IF no warrantyable problem is established. Driving me crazy. Or in other words, it won't cost me anything if they ascertain the problem is a problem that would be covered by warranty. An engine take apart and put back together is about 5k in labor, so that small risk of being out of pocket 5k+ exists, if they take it apart, find nothing (or nothing that would be covered under warranty). That's a risk I'm not prepared to take, obviously.

 

If you've done no modifications, then I fail to see how this issue wouldn't be a warranty claim. You've got possible coolant in your oil. Something is wrong, no doubt.

Edit: What Rand said.. maybe a 1 hour labor charge for a diagnosis. That's understandable. Oh look, your oil is contaminated with coolant. Warranty.

 

An oil analysis would tell you whether coolant is getting into the oil, and if metal from a wearing engine component is present. It could be one or both conditions, and the results will make for better decisions.

 

Agreed with the above, communication between everyone (you, the dealer and Subaru) are paramount. Like 2012 stated, some dealers choose to charge for a diagnostic evaluation and that's acceptable. But when push comes to shove, on an UN modified, under warranty vehicle this should be covered. I've got the Gold+ $100 deductible and see everything under the sun listed as covered. Would be nice if everything was listed in alphabetical order no doubt.. Lol! Hard to dig in and decipher it all at a glance.

I'm sure you can get this sorted and fixed. Might have to try a different dealer and call SoA to start a case. Still, doable.

 

Your dealer is very lazy and are ”taking you for a ride”.

During the warranty period (Subaru warranty only, not a third party warranty) all diagnostics recommended by the dealer are covered by the warranty.

Open a case with SOA. They will discuss with the dealer and then they will authorise the diagnostics and they are then covered by the warranty.

SOA number is in my signature.

Seagrass

 

I was in a similar situation that is not exactly apples to apples but my previous Honda Passport was starting to have a lot of issues pile up that I just kinda sorta got tired having to address this here and that there, not to mention that some of the fixes didn't really effectively solve what the issues were. It got to the point where there was one issue that I invested a good chunk of money in that didn't provide the solution I was looking for though it improved things but did not address the core problem. I just decided that I was going to trade this vehicle anyway within the next calendar year and I went ahead and traded it for a new Outback Wilderness that I am currently driving.

Peace of mind and quality of life made my decision for me because I could have kept that Honda and been okay but those issues and other things that I was frustrated with from day one (ie Honda sensing) just made me want to get back into a new Subaru and move on. My former 2021 Outback that one of my friends in Wisconsin purchased had a lot of issues and is continuing to have a lot of issues that I did not want to deal with as well. Similar situation with my former 2010 Outback that I offloaded and immediately got into a new 2018 Outback back in 2017.

My take is just get rid of the car and let it be someone else's problem because that's what I would do. YMMV

 

I’ll have to agree on quality of life, peace of mind and vehicle enjoyment are very important. No one wants to throw $$$ into the fire, but sometimes it happens and we move on. Not like I’m made of money or independently wealthy but there are far more important things in life to worry about.

As much as I like my OBW, the day it starts acting like a turd and no one wants to step up and make it right.. down the road she floats. Which would truly suck as I’ve got no desire for that one bit. But one never knows.

 

2- use my guaranteed trade in value and get rid of this thing, and buy and new one.

Who exactly gives you that? And how is that differs from the regular trade-in you'd get somewhere else? Do you know? I'm curious about that. Subaru can guarantee a trade-in of $1K, but I wouldn't trade it for that, so curious if it's actually better than any other dealer, or just smoke and mirrors. Thank you.

 

Subaru Guarantied trade in is currently higher than CarMax for my OB.

 

ve been losing coolant for sure, dealer has topped it up and now 2k miles later it's pretty low again.

There is thread about the same, lot's of people experience the same it seems

https://www.subaruoutback.org/threads/am-i-having-a-coolant-leak.574658

Mine goes from full to low every 3k in wilderness 2025 (18k miles) and had about the same in 23 limited xt

 

a thought...

Good to confirm coolant is or is not evaporating. checking the glycol % could show the water portion is simply evaporating and not being consumed internally by the engine or similar.

lots of vehicles struggle to stay at the full mark, and when topping off near immediately drop to the min mark and stay there.. Ram Promaster cargo vans do that, and theres nothing wrong. Certainly no warranty support from CDJR.

 

From my understanding, the warranty is to make sure that you have a functioning car, and not primarily to cover the repairs. This means that any and all costs should be paid for that are necessary to ensure that the car is working, with the only exception being that you are responsible for the fault.
Thus finding evidence for coolant in the oil should be enough to make it the garage’s responsibility to go on from there.

 

you have a gold warranty and they say it's not covered, bullshit!!

 

trade it in at another dealership, let them deal with it

 

#2, but be aware when they give you a higher trade in as advertised they will try to tell you it will then be full MSRP on the new one. Trade and negotiate .

 

If you decide to trade it in, and you hurry, there are big discounts and great financing on 2025s right now (while there's still stock). I know, because I just bought one

 

what % off msrp are you seeing?