If it were my car with a crankshaft seal leak and a timing chain, I’d monitor the situation but not take it out of service. Many of those seals leak a little bit at high mileage, but cause no problem - unless the oil level is allowed to go too low. They just very rarely leak that much.
Mine smelling of oil when I drive it in an awful way but also I think the transmission was leaking oil a lot too. I’m getting too old to get up and down under car to look at it but oil can Henry’s looked at transmission oil and filled it.
Going to get it crankshaft seal fixed but thanks for the info. I want to be oil free as much as possible as I got paranoid after gasket seal leaks when so much coolant leaked into engine.
Yeah, a head gasket leak calls for a rapid response. I had one in a 1965(?) Chevy II, back when I knew nothing about cars and my dad paid the bill.
Also in a Corolla wagon that was stolen and driven crazily one Saturday night - after I had drained the coolant. My neighbor heard the police on his radio and we went looking for it and found it. The police impounded it and I got it back after they fingerprinted it. The culprit was found and I don’t know what became of him. Probably that was one of many incidents in his miscreant life. That head gasket job I did myself, with a machine shop working on the head and valves. Good experience. Pretty easy access on the 4AC engine.
A Subaru, with two heads, and horizontally opposed, sounds physically more demanding for a home mechanic, especially this one who’s 20 years older than when he did the Corolla.
To make the head gasket problem worse, current Subaru’s don’t have a temp gage, just idiot lights, so the chance of a head gasket breach is increased.
I read somewhere you can set up the display to show oil temperature, which may be a substitute for coolant temp, but I can’t find it in the manual. Comment?
Although it spends pages telling me how to set Grandpa’s birthday date! For what possible reason? strange.
Best of luck Lee. My Subaru mech agrees that the IAC may be getting dodgy. Will investigate when I return to have my shiny new ABS module installed!
cheers, Mark
Good point Bill. I’d forgotten we’d gone beyond t-belts in most vehicles. I like the double chain in my MGB….
I presume you mean the Timing Belt!!! Belts do not last long with oil leaking onto them.
The chain would be bathed in the same motor oil at all times.
This is why chains last so much longer than Timing belts.
If a chain does make noise, it is usually the chain guides that have worn and need replacing.
Yosemite
If the only head-gasket related symptom is an external oil leak at the head gasket , I wonder if re-torqueing the head bolts might help?
I had an external oil leak on my 1984 Cavalier’s 2.0 L engine from the head gasket. I retorqued the head bolts and the leak stopped.
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I owe you one Bill Russell not only were you a great basketball player but you know your Subarus. I assumed my girlfriend’s Outback has a belt because Outbacks always did and got a lot of attention both because they broke when neglected and the expense of replacing them. The owners manual says to replace the timing belt but I missed the footnote that said that applies to a different engine. One could wonder why Subaru has to save a few pennies by writing a multi-car maintenance schedule. Ray always advised his customers to replace the water pump and cam seals at the same time because of the labor to get to the belt and then the same labor later if the water pump or seals went out. (My experience is that water pumps only last around 100K miles.) That came out to $1,800 (Ray’s figure) which could raise an eyebrow. Many an owner would happily borrow $35K to buy an Outback and not spend 5 minutes reading the maintenance schedule. They have no idea of the engine damage from a broken belt or being stranded at the side of the road. I don’t remember if the previous engines bent the valves or not.
Anyway thanks Bill for correcting me and of course this is great news that we won’t be in for an $1,800 dollar bill in a couple of years.
I’m a little confused. Our '16 has a temperature gauge and if you go into the touchscreen and press Engine Monitor you get oil temperature. It has a handy feature to eliminate windshield reminder stickers, you can set maintenance items like oil change and tire rotation to give a reminder when they’re due. Problem is, sometimes a reminder pops up and sometimes it doesn’t so it’s actually useless.
Please, a belt is not a chain and a chain is not a belt. They don’t even look similar.
Typically when a gasket leaks retorquing doesn’t fix it because of a process known as channeling. You were lucky! Usually blown head gaskets leak coolant into the oil but from I’m reading here Subarus leak oil to the outside of the engine. Good to know.
totally different from the 15, or you have a more upscale model than I do.
You can buy a valve cover and spark plug gasket set for around $20 and do the repair yourself. The valve covers sit on either side of the engine and are relatively easy to access as are the spark plug gaskets. Your low idle rpm may be due to your plugs getting oil soaked if the plug gaskets have failed. Thoroughly clean or replace the spark plugs if they have any oil on them. Make sure the new gaskets are properly seated and torque to recommended values. This should be regular maintenance for all Subaru boxers.
$2500 is nuts unless your mechanic is talking about a head gasket.
Ok thanks. I thought chain and timing Belt were the same. I’m not driving it any more and will get it fixed next month.
Thanks Peggy
I had a brand new Datsun stolen in calif, some high school kids who joy rided in it and ran it all around their i high school track. I can relate. Just going to get this crankshaft seal replaced.
Enjoy your mechanics. I’m too much of an old lady to do much any more than to change oil or spark plugs.
Thanks Peggy
Ok show me.
Thanks. I will ask my mechanic.
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Well we do have the Limited which is the highest of the trim levels. It’s discouraging that Subaru would chose to put a different dash in a lower trim level and exclude a temperature gauge. We chose the Limited because we live in high elevation Allegheny Mtns. to get heated seats and heated outside mirrors. We also wound up with leather upholstery and a sunroof.
I looked up timing chain vs timing belt on YouTube and there was a good video. Some of us need to be educated. I’m not dumb. Used to know much about vws teach or show me where to look. Excellent you tube videos on subarus. Some of us are car gals and want to know.