For $10k you can buy a fresh import GTB wagon in manual.
Flick your one off and buy one of those.
curlcrown,
Jan 14, 7:26pm
It seems to me that the oil leak must be so minor you shouldn't even think about it. You only know about it because the mechanic told you about it so it is not causing any problems or you would have discovered it yourself. Almost all cars that age you could find a "minor oil leak" if you looked for one. Just keep using it as long as you can if you like it.
kazbanz,
Jan 15, 1:04am
Im just wondering if they have got it right. In your shoes I'd be keen to give the engine a really good clean up just to be certain its not just oil travel from the rocker cover or cam seal.--Not saying they are wrong but I have see it before with other subbies.
gunna-1,
Jan 15, 1:12am
How much do the gaskets cost on there own, you could invest in an engine crane.
franc123,
Jan 15, 3:32am
Tick.
shakespeare6,
Jan 15, 6:06am
Externals oil weep from the head gasket pretty common as is the water jacket to firing ring failure. Pretty rare to get oil and coolant mix on a failed head gasket. The issues is caused by the open deck block design and the corroding gasket around the water jackets. I used to buy up the odd tidy failed sub with head gasket issues, fix then sell on. $600 for complete upper gasket set - with steel head gasket upgrade. $90 heads planed. $140 head bolt set. While I had the motor out I would do the oil separator plate $50
All the rest is time If you not doing in the cam belt it’s not a huge cost for parts. It didn’t take me that long to yank the motor bit more work putting it back. The GTB,s with twin turbos were a little more work but I could not see how you could get to 4K If you add a cam belt kit water pump etc plus complete radiator that’s only about $1500 of parts
ronaldo8,
Jan 15, 6:10am
Spot on
shakespeare6,
Jan 15, 6:22am
There is a pic of a failed 1995 legacy head gasket. If you look at the water jacket against the firing ring you can see the corrosion against the ring. This rig ran fine but it would chug coolant and ran slightly warm- fans on all the time but never over heated. I picked this one up way up north and drove it back to Rotorua no problems the owner had driven it for a year or so but just had to keep topping up the coolant
I love this car, it is a 1993 Legacy RS JDM model imported from japan in 1997, the sequential twin turbo engine makes 183kw/243hp. I have done some nice mods to it including a $1,000 Clarion 10 speaker stereo, lowered on 17" alloys, nicer headlights taken from the facelift model etc. If it is safe to drive for a couple of years then I might save up and fix the head gasket, maybe get it done next year, I'll see if I can find a cheaper quote.
meow_mix,
Jan 24, 12:27am
Earlier Subarus like the Leone from the 1980s were known to be very durable cars that could do half a million kms easily, my Legacy has done 230,000kms and now has a blown head gasket, pretty shitty really.
These Legacys were top shelf cars, the twin turbo models were only sold new in Japan, and a handful in NZ, nowhere else in the world. The NZ-new ones cost over $80,000 back in the mid 1990s. They were stunning cars in their day.
I don't know what to do, it's a bit unrealistic that I will ever have a spare $4,500, is the car worth fixing? I'll probably just drive it till it dies. I might replace it with a newer Legacy, maybe a 2006-2007 4th gen facelift, should be able to find one cheap on Trade Me in a couple of years.
tygertung,
Jan 24, 12:34am
You could ring around some more garages to get more quotes. Perhaps even a Subaru specialist, they could be faster.
alowishes,
Jan 24, 1:01am
Saw on a car type program on tv where people wanting a 250hp Subaru motor for a project were being charged US $21,500.!
saki,
Jan 24, 1:38am
I would leave it and get on with life, regular fluid checks will be fine. My old Forester had just over 200000 Km when I bought it and was leaking oil then, in a short time I got it to over 300000km and the leaking never got worse, stopped in traffick on a still day and i could see the smoke pouring out of the hood scoop, obviously leaking on to the exhaust, didnt need to top the oil up very often between oil changes at about 8000km, one drop of oil made a good amount of smoke, so just drive dont worry about getting quotes you are getting paranoid about a problem that isnt to big.
lookoutas,
Jan 24, 7:38am
Should I admit to this? If it's the rocker gasket leaking - get a handful of 10mm - 3/8" copper washers and remove the bottom cover bolts. Slip a washer onto each bolt and tighten them back up. Don't ring their necks, just nip them up. No more leaks. For a while anyway. Time flys, probably did mine 4 years ago.
_peas,
Sep 24, 3:19am
Does it count if the second half of these km were in a paddock with no doors and some questionable "aero vents". these things rusted faster than you could blink.
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