The head gasket issue was a real thing, and eventually caused problems for some owners. Subaru's reputation continued to build through the years that added up until an engineering mod fixed the problem.
From what I can see, and from my own experience, they are quickly becoming the most common car on the highway. Subaru's loyal customer fan base is really something. And good reason for it. My wife was badly injured in a snow caused car crash in 1983. From then until we bought the first Subaru, she'd stay home if 6 flakes of snow fell in the county. And this even in the years we had our Suburban. Eight months after I bought my Outback, she bought hers. Snow isn't even a consideration now when she feels like driving 90 miles to see the grandkids. The capabilities and handling of the Outback in bad conditions engenders an almost cocky sense of confidence. And with as many as are on the road, if there were serious mechanical issues, they'd be broke down everywhere. I've seen exactly one on a flatbed in the 3 years I've been driving mine.
I have a 2014 a Premium 2.5L with 112K miles. Headlamps go out about every 10.000 miles. I have a 4Runner with 90K miles and on my second set of lamps. Mine burns zero oil, but some burn oil like crazy. My cat shield rattled, so my repair guy added screws where the welds failed. I need to do the plugs, but one of them takes hours and a pound of forearm meat to get out. I do filter and oil every 8K or so, Air filter every 25K. Original brakes. Overall it is a good car for the mountains around here. I get 30mpg on summer fuel. Get 27 in winter. I was thinking of selling it, but it is probably a good car to keep.
I bought one because it was available when I needed it. I had the head gasket, timing assembly, water pump all replaced when I bought it. Have not had any issues, dependable and great in the snow, just do not wish to be filmed driving one! I drive a 5 speed and with size 15's it is way too small for me , but it works for now. It is paid for , which is a blessing.
The head gasket issue was a real thing, and eventually caused problems for some owners. Subaru's reputation continued to build through the years that added up until an engineering mod fixed the problem.
From what I can see, and from my own experience, they are quickly becoming the most common car on the highway. Subaru's loyal customer fan base is really something. And good reason for it. My wife was badly injured in a snow caused car crash in 1983. From then until we bought the first Subaru, she'd stay home if 6 flakes of snow fell in the county. And this even in the years we had our Suburban. Eight months after I bought my Outback, she bought hers. Snow isn't even a consideration now when she feels like driving 90 miles to see the grandkids. The capabilities and handling of the Outback in bad conditions engenders an almost cocky sense of confidence. And with as many as are on the road, if there were serious mechanical issues, they'd be broke down everywhere. I've seen exactly one on a flatbed in the 3 years I've been driving mine.
What year did they fix the head gasket issue?
+2 ... Inquiring Minds...
Orion2000 and WYcoyote; Top of the morning gentlemen, I trust the day in your respective parts of the world is looking to be decent to you and you're well.
Here in rural BC we see a lot of AWD SUV's and 4x4 pickups. The roads are steep, the ditches sometimes terminal if you go off the road and road conditions in winter often interesting to say the least. Just to get out of our yard, the driveway is 105yds long and there's a 100' elevation change. In winter it can be a luge run...
My good wife bought a 2009 Forester with the 2.5 non-turbo in maybe 2014 with 100,000km on it. From the research we'd done the head gasket issue was supposed to be solved during the 2009 model year.
It was flat out amazing in snotty, slippery snow and ice. She could stop on the driveway, then slowly roll away and in my Dodge 4x4 with new snow tires and limited slip rear there's no way I could. We started taking it out when the conditions were really terrible as it was much more forgiving and easier to drive. She drove it to Vancouver in an absolute blizzard where there were multiple cars in the ditch past Hope.
The thing was not maintenance free however and we did the timing belt at 160,000km and shortly after the radiator too, but I always suspected the shop broke the plastic intake on the radiator when they did the timing belt. Anyways something to watch for.
A different shop did the plugs for me shortly after we bought it and it was time for sure. As mentioned one of them is a bit tricky to get out. I did them a second time myself shortly before we took it in to get the head gaskets done.
Hers was fairly hard on brakes too, compared to the Corolla and Jetta she drove before that.
At 225,000km we noticed one cylinder head leaking and since our daughter and son in law needed an AWD we had it done and sold it to them - for less than we paid to have the whole thing done - because that's sort of a parent thing we figure.
It's not free to have done as they pull the engine, replace the head bolts/studs - forget which - mill the head because they warp and that's the problem, then also do the water pump while they're in there as it's hard to get to. The YouTube channel Car Wizard had one that he quoted $3500 to do the work and most comments said that was very reasonable. It was an '09 too by the way - Impreza with the same 2.5.
My wife decided not to get another Subaru as she wanted to try a hybrid and they didn't have one out then, so she bought a 2019 Rav4. It's perhaps not quite as good on slippery roads as the Forester, but gets much better economy. She's had zero issues with it thus far, as in none, but it's only 3 years so we'll see.
Hopefully that was useful to you or someone out there.
All the best to you all as we head into the Christmas season.
Dwayne
Last edited by BC30cal; 12/03/22. Reason: more information
My wife bought a turbo Impreza because she loved the speed. At 160k the turbo tanked and ruined the crank and heads. Finding a new longblock has been challenging. I would not categorize it as a long lasting vehicle but she had fun.
The head gasket issue was a real thing, and eventually caused problems for some owners. Subaru's reputation continued to build through the years that added up until an engineering mod fixed the problem.
From what I can see, and from my own experience, they are quickly becoming the most common car on the highway. Subaru's loyal customer fan base is really something. And good reason for it. My wife was badly injured in a snow caused car crash in 1983. From then until we bought the first Subaru, she'd stay home if 6 flakes of snow fell in the county. And this even in the years we had our Suburban. Eight months after I bought my Outback, she bought hers. Snow isn't even a consideration now when she feels like driving 90 miles to see the grandkids. The capabilities and handling of the Outback in bad conditions engenders an almost cocky sense of confidence. And with as many as are on the road, if there were serious mechanical issues, they'd be broke down everywhere. I've seen exactly one on a flatbed in the 3 years I've been driving mine.
What year did they fix the head gasket issue?
Been a while since I read the article, but IIRC they had 3 different designations of the 2.5 motor that could potentially be prone to oil pooling in the area of the haed gasket and causing issues. I think I read they were all phased out by 2011-2012 and any newer motors should have an engineering change to improve oil drainage from the area.
Note that even among the potentially problematic motor series that problems were not common enough to make these cars much less popular. These were the years that made their rep for reliability, and saw their explosion of numbers on the highway.
Note that these cars are in full production and they sell so quickly that dealers cannot keep them on the lot. It was around a year ago that the dealership where I bought mine emailed me and offered to buy it back. On my next service visit I noted 3 used Subaru's in the showroom. An Outback, a Crosstrek, and an Impreza. Not a new car on the lot anywhere. At 3 years old with now 153,000+ miles I wouldn't sell mine going into winter for what I paid new for it.
And I'm not saying that the Subaru is for everyone. I'm an industrial maintenance guy and I know that there are those out there who could screw up an anvil.
Edit; I recently saw a fork broken off of a 42,000 lb rated Taylor forklift. I'm sure that there are guys who would only use a Taylor forklift to load crates of marshmallows.
First off, my Outback is a 2019 2.5i. It is the lowest level base model. It was the last year before the mandated engine cutoff at idle. I promised 3 years ago to report if I'd had any trouble with it.
As of yesterday I have 152,540 miles on it with not a mechanical wrench touching it for any drive train or mechanical repair. At 100K miles I had the transmission serviced and fluids replaced. Last Friday I had the original pads and rotors changed out. I went with all 4 wheels, but could have likely driven with the original rear brakes for another 6 months or year.
2 months or so ago, I did notice that my drivers side DRL was flickering.When I had it in for an oil change I asked them to look at it and replace it. The service rep came back a few minutes later and explained that the DRL was an LED that required the entire headlamp assembly to be replaced. I told him OK, replace it. He then explained that the LED was new to the line from model year 2018, and that they had never seen one fail. And for that reason didn't have one in stock. He went on to say that the headlamp assembly cost $494. My eyebrows went up a notch.
Long story short, I left that day having had a word with the service manager, and telling him that I'd drive it forever without paying $500+ for the DRL. Let the thing fail. Fast forward 2 weeks and the service manager called me at home to set up an appointment to replace the headlamp assembly. He had prevailed with Subaru and they picked up the total cost. Which came to $777 and change.
My driving experience with it has been phenomenal. It is simply the best driving thing on the road in [bleep] winter weather. And I hear and see a lot about the offroad capability of the Outback. I wanna say that my true offroad experience is minimal with it, but I have put many miles on it on unimproved north woods fire lanes. I only had it for 8 weeks when I took off cross country on 75 miles of Oklahoma oil patch 2 tracks, fording streams and driving around obstructions.
I routinely get 30 mpg with 87 octane regular. I drive the thing like I stole it, but I do keep up with it's maintenance. I wanna say it's more reliable than most things out there. And i wanna say that it's done more off road type of stuff than 80% of 4WD trucks and more than 95% of jeep wranglers
John, Glad your Outback is treating you well. Bought the wife a 2020 Ascent after doing a good bit of research. My biggest concern was/is the CVT "transmission". So far it's been flawless but I'm still nervous about it. Does your '19 Outback have the CVT?
ttpoz
in silvam ne ligna feras (don't carry logs into the forest)
All the Subaru’s in Texas have Beto O’Rourke bumper stickers!!!
Last Subaru I saw was just a few days ago. In front of me, it had two bumper stickers;
- Billionaires Should Not Exist - Bernie Sanders (right below it)
Some hippie commie guy, or them, or they, or it, driving.
No joke.
Too bad you can’t run those Fuggers off the road. Ought to be a bounty on them. 😡
"Allways speak the truth and you will never have to remember what you said before..." Sam Houston Texans, "We say Grace, We Say Mam, If You Don't Like it, We Don't Give a Damn!"
We’ve had 3 Legacy sedans, 1 Outback and 1 Impreza (for our son). They have all been good for dealing with the highway traffic conditions (18 wheeler trailers whipsawing into our lane of traffic) and winter weather we experience here, and they are cost effective. My wife and I don’t run them as long as many of you, and we usually trade them off after about 8 years with about 80,000 miles on them, and we don’t have to write a very large check for another one.
Our latest one is a 2017 sedan that had the CVT go out in 2-1/2 years with 27,500 miles on it. The shift would move and the engine would run but the car would not move. The dealership changed a wiring harness and that didn’t fix it. The service advisor called HQ and they said they knew the issue and were sending out a rebuilt CVT. It was replaced under warranty and, shortly thereafter, we got a notice that Subaru was extending the warranties on the CVTs to 10 years/100,000 miles. In October of 2021 the shift lock assembly was replaced because the lock was not releasing and it took multiple tries to get the key to turn in the ignition. The service advisor said that she wished they would just do a recall on it but that Subaru does a lot of warranty extensions to avoid doing recalls. Although the car technically was out of warranty, it was replaced under warranty. Shortly thereafter we got a letter saying they extended the warranty to 8 years/unlimited mileage. A couple of day ago we got a warranty extension to 15 years/unlimited mileage on the electronic parking brake connector lock tab. When we decide to get another car, we are going to investigate other brands now that AWD is more common in lower priced sedans than when we first started buying Subarus.
One of the other ones (the Outback, IIRC), had the O2 sensor go out twice. Once it cost $400 and the second time it happened Subaru treated it as a warranty claim. I think this was a known bug by the time we needed the second one. I don’t remember anything about the 1998 sedan.
Our son ran his 2011 Impreza like he stole it. He made multiple cross-country trips. He started needing to add oil every 1500 miles after it turned 100,000. He sold it to a friend at about 105,000 miles when we handed down a 2012 Legacy with 50,000 miles on it. The Impreza is still going strong 3 years later. Our son is at about 105,000 on the hand-me-down Legacy. His two cars have only had routine maintenance and brake pads and a couple of rotors (his fault). They live outside in some pretty tough weather.
There are a lot of Subarus on the road around here, and nobody can draw any assumptions about one’s political leanings or association preferences unless someone advertises them with bumper stickers.
"Don't believe everything you see on the Internet" - Abraham Lincoln
Don't y'all buy those rattie-ass Subaru's (ain't no good) . My 2018 Outback only has 30,000 miles without problems & get upper 30's miles per gallon on the open road. MY SON-IN-LAW run the piss out of his 2017 Outback with sorry maintance ,I guess he has had the oil changed once or twice 70,000 miles. Well he had a muffler problem.but he has a cabin up 9 miles of rutted & rough !! DON'T BUY UM !!!!
First off, my Outback is a 2019 2.5i. It is the lowest level base model. It was the last year before the mandated engine cutoff at idle. I promised 3 years ago to report if I'd had any trouble with it.
As of yesterday I have 152,540 miles on it with not a mechanical wrench touching it for any drive train or mechanical repair. At 100K miles I had the transmission serviced and fluids replaced. Last Friday I had the original pads and rotors changed out. I went with all 4 wheels, but could have likely driven with the original rear brakes for another 6 months or year.
2 months or so ago, I did notice that my drivers side DRL was flickering.When I had it in for an oil change I asked them to look at it and replace it. The service rep came back a few minutes later and explained that the DRL was an LED that required the entire headlamp assembly to be replaced. I told him OK, replace it. He then explained that the LED was new to the line from model year 2018, and that they had never seen one fail. And for that reason didn't have one in stock. He went on to say that the headlamp assembly cost $494. My eyebrows went up a notch.
Long story short, I left that day having had a word with the service manager, and telling him that I'd drive it forever without paying $500+ for the DRL. Let the thing fail. Fast forward 2 weeks and the service manager called me at home to set up an appointment to replace the headlamp assembly. He had prevailed with Subaru and they picked up the total cost. Which came to $777 and change.
My driving experience with it has been phenomenal. It is simply the best driving thing on the road in [bleep] winter weather. And I hear and see a lot about the offroad capability of the Outback. I wanna say that my true offroad experience is minimal with it, but I have put many miles on it on unimproved north woods fire lanes. I only had it for 8 weeks when I took off cross country on 75 miles of Oklahoma oil patch 2 tracks, fording streams and driving around obstructions.
I routinely get 30 mpg with 87 octane regular. I drive the thing like I stole it, but I do keep up with it's maintenance. I wanna say it's more reliable than most things out there. And i wanna say that it's done more off road type of stuff than 80% of 4WD trucks and more than 95% of jeep wranglers
John, Glad your Outback is treating you well. Bought the wife a 2020 Ascent after doing a good bit of research. My biggest concern was/is the CVT "transmission". So far it's been flawless but I'm still nervous about it. Does your '19 Outback have the CVT?
Wife has been driving a 2014 Outback we bought new. In the 167,000 miles she has driven that car it has only needed brake pads once, a battery once and a idler pulley replaced. It has been the single most reliable car I have ever owned. I am religious on maintenance so it has been babied in that department. Just replaced it with a new 2023 Outback. 2014 will be going to our youngest daughter once she turns 16. I can't say enough good things about our experience with our Subaru Outback. Put a set of studs on them and they are second to none in my opinion in the snow.
![[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]](https://i.imgur.com/ew04Q7W.jpg)
