Forester 2.5 XT woes

[durbster]

After a year of thoroughly enjoyable ownership my Forester 2.5 XT went pop last week. I fear a rather large bill is on the way.

While sitting in traffic, the radiator started steaming. The AA suspected a head gasket failure although I'm not sure whether they think it was a cause or consequence. I wasn't there and haven't seen the car so don't know much more than that.

A local garage have it but have been struggling to find a replacement radiator. An aftermarket one is due in today but the mechanic didn't sound too confident it would fit when I spoke to him earlier.

Question 1: I understand the 2.5 engine is from the WRX Impreza so is it the same radiator too? There are rather a lot more of them around so I thought I might be easier to track one down via that route.

Question 2: Assuming the worst case and the head gasket has failed, I'm expecting up to a £1,500 bill in total. Does that sound realistic? Much more than that and I'll have to weigh up whether it's worth it.

Question 3: I do trust the garage but always like to have a plan B so are there any Subaru specialists in or around Nottingham? I had a look when I first bought the car but the nearest I could find was Melton Mowbray which would be a pain to get to.

Ta.

[Russ T Bolt]

durbster said:

After a year of thoroughly enjoyable ownership my Forester 2.5 XT went pop last week. I fear a rather large bill is on the way.

While sitting in traffic, the radiator started steaming. The AA suspected a head gasket failure although I'm not sure whether they think it was a cause or consequence. I wasn't there and haven't seen the car so don't know much more than that.

A local garage have it but have been struggling to find a replacement radiator. An aftermarket one is due in today but the mechanic didn't sound too confident it would fit when I spoke to him earlier.

Question 1: I understand the 2.5 engine is from the WRX Impreza so is it the same radiator too? There are rather a lot more of them around so I thought I might be easier to track one down via that route.

Question 2: Assuming the worst case and the head gasket has failed, I'm expecting up to a £1,500 bill in total. Does that sound realistic? Much more than that and I'll have to weigh up whether it's worth it.

Question 3: I do trust the garage but always like to have a plan B so are there any Subaru specialists in or around Nottingham? I had a look when I first bought the car but the nearest I could find was Melton Mowbray which would be a pain to get to.

Ta.

I had a similar problem, the Subaru dealer who I bought it from new and had always maintained it diagnosed a head gasket based on one they had just repaired.

Cost for them to fix was up to £6k depending on what they found once they got the engine out. From memory the bill for the one they had repaired was around £5k.

[durbster]

Even acknowledging that's with main dealer pricing, blimey. I reckon the car's worth about £3.5 - 4k if in working order, so I couldn't justify that sort of cost just to keep it on the road. I wasn't even intending to keep it much longer either.

[lemmingjames]

Buy a replacement engine and straight swap?

[durbster]

Yeah I thought about that and have been looking at replacement engines but they're not easy to track down.

Anyway, good news from the garage this morning. They've fitted a new radiator and tested for gasket leaks and it all looks good, so we might have had a lucky escape. For the first time ever I'm almost hoping they have been out for a hoon in it just so I know it's OK

Thanks for the replies though. Any advice on things to look out for over the next few weeks?

[jamesh764]

I found the expensive way that some OEM radiators for the Forester have a gearbox oil cooler built in to the bottom of them, and the aftermarket ones don't.

I didn't cap off the gearbox oil pipes when I changed the radiator because I thought they were now just redundant coolant pipes. As a result all the gearbox oil came out and the transmission is ruined.

[durbster]

Ah that's very interesting. They did say the aftermarket ones were different so have changed the piping. No mention of an oil cooler though so I'll investigate that.

[BenWRXSEi]

Before you panic, I had a similar problem with my last (2002) Impreza. At the top of the radiator where the coolant hose attaches is a black plastic section (my 2005 2.5 WRX also has this, so your FXT may too). This was a weak point and over time (and many heat cycles) it developed a small crack which would open slightly when hot, expelling steam.

Took me a while to find it, but when I did I got my local indy to replace the radiator which wasn't too expensive. It had about 120k on it then, and 4 years later I believe it's still on the road.

EDIT: sorry, read too fast and missed that you've now replaced the rad. Have a look at the old one if you can and see if it has cracked where I described

[durbster]

Aye, will do. Thanks.

I haven't actually seen the car since it happened but I'll pick it up in the morning and see what's what.

[v8250]

OP, post this thread here as you may get lots of extra help

http://www.subaruforester.org/vbulletin/f75/

[ohtari]

My WRX radiator blew at 90k miles, I thought a head gasket had gone. A new radiator (£90 from ebay) and £20 of coolant and it was fixed.

Much nicer than the £3k estimated bill to do the head gaskets and bottom end bearings!!!

[DJFish]

I've got an '06 2.5xt on 75k.
Today the temperature went straight into the red and after topping off the coolant it looked like this (that's one of many air bubbles btw)


I presume that's Head gasket soup?

Edited by DJFish on Saturday 1st October 16:38

[vxr2010]

unfortunately probably yes , a common mileage for them to fail as mine just has , it's better to get a full rebuild as when hg goes the bottom end tends to fail with in a year or so of hg going which happened to me and i paid double in the end instead of doing it first time

[DJFish]

theres a chance it's just a rusted through coolant pipe, fingers crossed!

[v8250]

DJFish said:

theres a chance it's just a rusted through coolant pipe, fingers crossed!

Saw your post on sf.org. This is a common problem. Order new pipe, hoses and clips from ICP asap.

[vxr2010]

are you talking the cross over coolant pipe between the front of the sump and the engine , if yes then both of mine i changed as heat from the exhaust burns paint off and they rust the internal bit normally seems ok it's the external rust is the worse , it could also be rust from engine getting hot , any symptoms ? , i think you mentioned bubbles if they are all the time sorry but still likely to be hg loosing coolant or is it over flowing in non pressurised expansion tank ?

[DJFish]

Pipe has been ordered, bubbles only when hot, coolant is pi55ing out of a hole in the pipe so I'm presuming that's where the air is getting in.
I'm remaining optimistic......