[dominator391]

2008 Subaru Outback 100k miles, Stick
Hello everyone - Just looking for opinions. I'll try to summarize. Kids ran the oil down to what I believe was almost nothing. Mechanic flushed the engine, cleaned the solenoids and put in fresh oil. Two weeks later it breaks down on the interstate. There's no oil in it and the engine seized. I'm being told it's because of the ring damage most likely done when it was run with little or no oil. Bought it for 5k, put another 4k into it with a head gasket, shocks and struts, tires, battery a a couple other things. So 9k for 1 year of use. Do I consider putting another engine in it or cut my losses? I appreciate any and all feedback. Thank you.

 

[Evil Soob]

I suggest you look at JDM in Richardson Texas. I bought a replacement engine from them for $1350 delivered to my door and I couldn't be happier! You can find my comments on this forum regarding the engine and the swap. Mine is the H6, 3.0 and it was way easier to swap than I'd anticipated!

JDM has distribution points all over so you may be able to find one near you. That would be the best option so you can go look at the engine and have them run a compression test before you purchase.

If you deal directly rather than through ebay, you'll get a better deal!

 

[1 Lucky Texan]

^^^^

check car-part.com and JDM import prices for engines, then, examine the labor side....

may not be a good risk if you must pay someone else for their labor.

also, what are the odds the transmission and brakes have been well-maintained?

 

[Norskie]

Unless you happily work on and maintain the car, cut your losses. Sell the car for scraps and put it into the next vehicle.

Sounds like your kids have a lot of lawn-mowing and gutter-cleaning coming in the next couple years.

 

[dominator391]

Thanks for the replies everyone. The garage that did the head gasket is going to try and get the provider to cover the labor by telling them the gasket had a tear in it. I'm waiting on a cost on the engine, which he said he would give to me at cost. So once I have that cost I'll make a decision. I didn't grow up learning how to do stuff like this. I wish that I had, not only for my sake, but also so that I could pass it down to my kids.

Knowing the person I bought the vehicle from (relative) the rest of the vehicle was probably not maintained well. I kind of knew that going in. Was trying to help her out while getting my hands on an inexpensive stick that the boys could learn and beat on. They're 17 so I'm chalking it up to a learning experience - for them and myself.

Norskie - They both work and are on the hook for everything miner and 1/2 of the major repairs. That was the deal going in.

 

[CS_AR]

You've got a good bit of the mid-life refresh items already in the car. If you get a new engine, be sure to install new seals, gaskets, and of the good parts from the existing engine. Since the new replacement engine will be out of the car for easy work, and you don't know the service history, I would send out the heads to be machined and install new head gaskets. You want to set yourself up for a good 100,000+ miles of service after this operation.

 

[z28dug]

The garage that did the head gasket is going to try and get the provider to cover the labor by telling them the gasket had a tear in it. /QUOTE]

Is the gasket really torn or you simply looking for someone else to pay for your kid's mistake?

 

[dominator391]

The garage that did the head gasket is going to try and get the provider to cover the labor by telling them the gasket had a tear in it. /QUOTE]

Is the gasket really torn or you simply looking for someone else to pay for your kid's mistake?

I'm not looking for anyone to pay for mine and my kids mistake. The garage offered that to me. I did not ask for it. Not sure if they are feeling some responsibility on the issue since they have done all the work on the vehicle since I got it. Maybe he feels as though they should've checked to see if there was ring damage when that happened? I know the one manager is still trying to make up for the fact that the second manager misquoted the original work at $1600 when the final bill came to $2900. I'm fully prepared to either pay or cut my losses whatever they had told me. But if they're gonna offer up free labor to swap out an engine i'm not about to turn it down.

 

[dominator391]

Engine Options

Here's an update. No free labor on the swap, but they're willing to go half on it. So labor on the swap is $750. These are the engine choices they gave me:

$1250 - 164K - 6 Month parts only covered
$1850 - 110K - 90 day warranty
$3100 - Remanufactured Engine- 3yr Unlimited Mileage Warranty

So, in my mind these are my 3 options
1. dump the car now if I can find a buyer for it - no idea what I would get for it. (anyone have an idea?)
2. put in the cheapest motor, with labor for $2000 and dump it right away for hopefully $4000-$5000 and make some $$$ off of it.
3. drop in the Reman for $3850 and drive the **** out of it.

What would you do?

 

[subiesailor]

Here's an update. No free labor on the swap, but they're willing to go half on it. So labor on the swap is $750. These are the engine choices they gave me:

$1250 - 164K - 6 Month parts only covered
$1850 - 110K - 90 day warranty
$3100 - Remanufactured Engine- 3yr Unlimited Mileage Warranty

So, in my mind these are my 3 options
1. dump the car now if I can find a buyer for it - no idea what I would get for it. (anyone have an idea?)
2. put in the cheapest motor, with labor for $2000 and dump it right away for hopefully $4000-$5000 and make some $$$ off of it.
3. drop in the Reman for $3850 and drive the **** out of it.

What would you do?

Get an engine hoist and give my kids a picknpull gift certificate.
As you said you wish you had more experience dealing with this stuff. University of Youtube and the interweb combined with motivation to have a car will have your kids learning real quick.

My first car was a 50/50 deal with my parents if it broke half of it was on my dime. I worked 3 jobs all summer to pay my room and board at college. I never broke the car and watched fluids like it was on life support was too scared of what it would cost me if I blew up the car.

If your going to hand them the keys again buy them a 1990’s Automatic 4 cylinder Camry the ugliest one you can find and tell them if it breaks they are riding a pink Huffy.

A manual Subaru is not a car you beat on without costly failures. An auto box Camry wont let anything happen that will destroy costly parts.

 

[rustbeltah]

I would dump the car and move on, once they pass 100k all sort of problems can start to emerge. I drive a 07 manual as well and it has cost more to keep it on the road post 80k reminiscent of our family Buick wagon from the 1980s!

Two other big repairs I have had to do in addition to your repairs (head gaskets are a give on this build) is the throw out bearing failed early on the clutch as well as rear drive shaft bearing. TOB failed at around 100k (clutch plate still looked good but labor = might as well put a new clutch in) and the rear shaft bearing failed at 128k. The TOB is a common problem, the rear shaft not so much but both are readily found here in threads and are not cheap repairs............