Not a bad idea.
Maybe shop really dislikes working on Subaruās?
When valve issues might lead to piston damage.
And annoyed customer.
Subaruās having boxer engines doesnāt help either.
I donāt like to disparage other shops, but I tend to think they may be BSing you a bit with the special tools comment and maybe theyāre afraid of it for whatever reason.
For what itās worth (cup of coffee maybeā¦) before I retired from this stuff I held Subaru Master Tech status and have no idea what special tools they are referring to. Any competent mechanic with a half decent set of basic tools can get through a Subaru head gasket or valve job with no problem.
To me anyway, Subaru head gaskets and valve jobs fall under Mechanics 101. Again and for what itās worth, before I retired I owned my own valve servicing equipment and have personally repaired a number of Subaru heads due to issues like this. Most shops simply sublet valve repair out to any automotive machine shop as it generally faster and cheaper. Around here a full valve job 16 valves X 5 dollars each comes to 80 bucks + the cost of valves and seats if needed. Far sight cheaper than going on 4 grand.
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I appreciate your input. I hope to hear from the repair shop in the next couple of days. I so hope youāre right.
Thanks for the reminder about hydraulic lifters. You are reminding me that I also did not want hydraulic lifters when they first came out. When the lifter was bad, it was really bad. And, adjustment of the mechanical clearances was usually a straightforward job. And, even today, my 1996 Miata has a noisy hydraulic lifter at startup, which quickly recovers. My favorite vehicle for mechanical adjustments was my 1960 BMW R65. Talk about easy!
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Regarding those BMW bike valve adjustments I ran into an oddity on those years ago. I bought one of the first R1000s to enter the states. At 600 miles it get a free valve adjustment oil change, trans oil change, etc. I got the bike back and could still hear lifter rattle at highway speeds even with cotton in my ears. So I take it back and the service manager tells me they are correct as he was present when the job was performed but admits that I should not hear them at speed. They will adjust them again; for a hefty fee.
Adios.
So the following weekend I adjusted them myself and the same thing. Rattle.
Following weekend I nudged lash a bit tighter by narrowing it by .002 inches Same thing.
Following weekend I sat on a stool and stared for several hours while trying to figure out what was wrong and then it hit me. Rocker arm sideplay and hte effect of the pushrods being on side and gravity affecting the rocker arm.
I checked the rockers as they say and the feeler gauge showed perfect. But noisy.
I hooked a small finger under the rocker, raised up that tiny bit to the rocker arm pad and the valve lash almost doubled in looseness.When running that rocke will have a tendency to ride up high so the lash was fine while the engine was inert but doubled while running.
So lash was checked and adjusted on all valves with a small finger holding the rocker up and that lifter rattle went away forever. I did drop by the BMW dealer and told the SM of the procedure but he was totally clueless of it all.
I know this started as a Subaru question. However, I think that somebody should have corrected me when I wrote 1960 BMW R65. There was no such thing. I had a 1965 BMW R60/2.
Quote seems high. Any problem like this can be repaired of course. For a car in otherwise good shape the decision must be based on repair cost vs new car cost. Expense vs current car value not relevant. Suggest to obtain another diagnosis and estimate.
I know Iām late to the party and havenāt read all the responses, still Iām not sure repair cost vs, value is the most important consideration. Also comparing repair cost to a new car is apples to oranges. Repairing a car with 100K on it may well allow it to make it to 200K with little more. For a new car to compare, you would have to rack up 100K on it. Iām sure I have put more money into repairs than what my work cars were worth but it all comes out in the overall cost per mile.
I have to disagree. The repair estimate is $5300, with a 90 day guarantee, or $4500 with no guarantee. I would rather take that $5300 and put it on a new or newer car, instead of fixing my eight year old car. It is possible, donāt forget, that this doesnāt mean other things arenāt going to happen after this repair. I donāt want to get to the point where I have to keep repairing the car because I have so much sunk into it. I got the car back home and Iām still considering options. Thanks for the reply.
5300 gets you what? A replacement motor? With a 90 day warranty? And 4500 is NO warranty?
Iām not sure what you are getting for 5300
Neither of these estimates would be acceptable to me. Especially if the ārepairā is a used engine from a junkyard, which could very well have hidden problems which will surface after more than 90 days of use.
If you canāt find a shop which is willing to repair your engine at a reasonable cost, which I would define as $3000 or lessāwith a 12-month/12,000 mile warranty on their workāthen Iād get rid of it and buy something else. No way would I spend thousands of dollars on repair work which isnāt even guaranteed to last for a year. That would be insane.
If you do decide to get rid of the Subaru, donāt sell it to a junkyard. Offer it on Craigslist as a āmechanic specialā for $1500 obo, and you can probably get at least $1000 for it. Someone who can DIY can certainly fix this for less than $1000 in parts and materials.
Thanks for the help bcohen2010. The other problem I didnāt mention was I donāt have $5300 to fix it without hardship somewhere else.
1st thread asks why fix it? What do I do with car? You canāt afford to fix it. Save money to fix it someday? Junk it? 2 possible options.
Well the plot thickens when you add that you donāt have the money to fix it anyway. So that rules out buying another car regardless, unless itās a junker just to get by. So in that case it is focusing on what is possible like reducing the cost of the repair by checking other shops or doing the work yourself. No easy answers and you do what you have to do to get by regardless of the economic viability.
Being a one car family looks like the best option right now. Someone told me Toyota was running a special lease on the Corolla, $99 month. The catch is, you have to put down $6,991 !!! That comes out to $293 a month over the lease period. Quite a jump from $99.
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$293 a month is a reasonably modest payment to drive a new car.
But you wonāt own any part of the car after paying that.
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