'98 Subaru Forester - will I regret this? (gasket, SUV, trucks)

[LittleJazzyP]

I am looking for a vehicle, preferably a smaller SUV, and am interested in checking out a '98 Subaru Forester. The reviews I have read have been pretty much either "love it or hate it."

I know that nothing I get will be perfect at that age, but I really cannot spend more than about $2500-3,000...and 3,000 is pushing it.

Is the head gasket issue I've read about with these inevitable?

[northbound74]

It probably would be a fine car. Being that old, the head gasket may have already been replaced.
I'm not that familiar with the issue, but I think you can look down at the head gaskets and see if there's any evidence of leakage, unless the seller has thoroughly cleaned up the engine.
I bought a '97 legacy 2.2 a few years back for $1700. It had 150k miles when I bought it and now has 211k with no major issues other than a knock sensor and a tps.
I'd like to get another older Subaru to go with it. The reliability is good. They're easy to work on and parts are fairly reasonable and not too hard to come by if you live in any kind of populated area where other Subarus exist.

[LittleJazzyP]

I live in Alaska. Subarus are everywhere. I talked to a mechanic at our local dealership, and he said chances are this one has probably already had the head gasket replaced, and to ask if it was aftermarket, which is actually better. Waiting for the seller to call me back.

I do like what I have read about the way the Forester handles: more like a car than a truck. For a driver who cut her teeth on sports cars, that is a good thing. Most trucks I've driven have a little too much play in the steering for my taste.

He called me back right after I posted, and has no idea if it's original or not, and also has no records. Not good. :/

[sunsprit]

Head gasket failures of this era in the 4-cam 2.5 liter engine were an internal failure, not an external failure item. The fire ring area of the head gasket sealing at the cylinder would blow through, so it would pressurize the cooling system, blocking coolant flow through the cylinder head/block and would blow the coolant out the radiator cap. As the coolant level goes down, the cooling at the head and block doesn't happen and the heads overheat/warp/crack. An additional failure area was the thin wall of the cylinder in the block, which would crack.

If the gasket failure was caught at the time when it started and repaired, it was possible that the subsequent damage had not yet taken place and the head could be resurfaced and reinstalled with an updated head gasket. Subie and the aftermarket both went through several iterations of head gaskets before a sandwich style gasket was designed that minimized the failure problem. But the maximum amount that can be removed off a subie head is .002", so there isn't much tolerance for warping on these. Most dealers wouldn't even mess around with trying to save a head, they'd replace a head on any subie engine that had the gasket failure and signs of overheating ... a pricey repair, especially if it was one of the early style replacement gaskets which didn't always hold up for the long term.

So, if the symptoms of overheating or overpressurization are present now, then the head gasket(s) are close to or have failed. However, if there is no sign of cooling system distress, the odds are that the head gaskets have been replaced by now with the good ones and the engines will typically run 100,000 miles on these. What you don't know is how long ago they may have been replaced.

That's the risk at this point. It's highly unlikely that the car has made it this long without the head gaskets being replaced, but what you won't know is the remaining service life potential of your purchase.

It's a pricey job to replace the gaskets if you can't do it yourself. The failure rate on the original head gaskets was almost 100%. If you can't afford to take the risk of this problem not being fixed, then better to look for a car that has service records so you have a better idea of what you are buying.