To replace, rebuild, or junk an engine?
Asked by fivesubarus Jun 27, 2018 at 03:16 PM about the 2010 Subaru Outback 2.5i
Question type: Maintenance & Repair
I found info on your blog about Subaru's gasket head issues. Our Sub is
2010, and out of nowhere, in 15 minutes, the car went from flashing oil light
to rattling to smoking out of the hood to death, at about 40mph. This is the
first time in 5 Subarus that we feel it is a manufacturer's responsibility.
Basically, that light came on, then the whole dash lit up, then 5 minutes of
rattling, and a smoking death on a slight incline. Our mechanic says the
head gasket blew, sucked out the antifreeze, and the oil shot up through the
air filter. Do you know if we can expect Subaru to kick in some bucks ?
Repair by our mechanic means $3500 (soup to nuts) using an engine that
has 87K miles on it (our dead one has 170K). Reasonable ? Or sell it and
buy a different brand? PS Any idea if the new tariffs/trade war likely to
increase the cost of Subaru ? Thanks for any help you can offer.
12 Answers
I doubt Subaru will help you with a 11 year old, high mile car. If you kept driving it with a flashing oil light you have a lot of the blame for the engine damage.
If you trust your mechanic the $3,500 to get it back on the road might be the way to go. The car is worth little to nothing as is but you might get $5,000 or more running.
Most Subaru's are built in the US now.
TheSubaruGuruBoston answered 6 years ago
2010 production used the newer, thicker HGs, so I suspect that you ran out of either oil or coolant and overheated the motor, which can be the death knell. Going rate for a nice 2006-2011 SOHC motor is in the upper teens, +$500 to drop in. Add a few hundred if its gaskets are wet if a 2006-2009. Perhaps you have an early production 2010 that had the older gaskets. Again, $2.5k is a more realistic, fair number.
fivesubarus answered 6 years ago
Even a motor with 87,000 miles on it? We won't have a history - do junkyards do any kind of test to know how good a motor is, or does the mechanic have to trust the junkyard? And is a new motor better than having the dealer rebuild (at exorbitant cost)?
I agree with the above. This really does not sound like a HG issue. Once the engine was fried the head gaskets would probably be bad due to warped heads. The first cause was likely over heating or lack of oil.
Guru9DM2BH answered 3 years ago
Exact same issue with my 2012 Outback, was just quoted 5-8 grand for new motor, is it worth it?
fivesubarus answered 3 years ago
Talk about a blast from the past, we forgot about this. We went through with the engine rebuild at $7K. The Sub is still running fine 2 years later, so the longer it lasts us the better we'll feel about shelling out all those bucks. Better than 4 years of new car payments? The jury is still out.
Thanks for the update. Glad it worked out for you. Spending a lot of money on a rebuild can be worth it if you keep the car long enough.
TheSubaruGuruBoston answered 3 years ago
Keep your fingers crossed re the highish failure rate of original CVTs. If you stall often and simply need a valve body ($700+$200labor) that may be worth it, but if it gets really noisy (and is decidedly NOT wheel bearings!) it's probably not worth chasing a used tranny ($1.5k+$600 labor). Good luck. Ern
Nootherids answered 3 years ago
@OP.. if you don’t mind me asking, why did you go with rebuilding a 170k mile engine for twice the cost of replacing it with an 87k mile engine? Half the mileage and half the cost. I ask because we just got an Outback with 200k miles. Still runs well but we know there are issues to be fixed. We’re debating fixing the issues, rebuilding completely already, or replacing with a rebuilt or used engine. Any option will be more than $2k. I just don’t know what’s the better option. And TBH...I’ve watched enough videos of “the previous mechanic was wrong” that I have a hard time trusting a random mechanic to actually diagnose properly rather than just go with the simplest and more expensive option. Or just start with random solutions without actually diagnosing. Like replacing an entire engine when the actual problem was a small fuse.
Noot: What year? WHAT "issues"? Pro-actively changing HGs on a 2010-2012, when the OE were already updated to the new 3-ply gaskets is NOT a good idea un less they're leaking or percolating (as would be the case 2000-2009). 2013-2014 DOHC chain-driven 2.5i are best left alone, keeping fingers crossed the CVT holds up. More facts needed to advise....
