Reasonable price for a head gasket swap?

I have a 99 Legacy Outback with the head gasket blowing prone 2.5.
I think I may need to get a new head gasket in the very near future. The Mechanic I typically take my vehicle quoted me $3000-3200 for the job.

That seems super steep, can anyone verify that for me based on experience?
Secondarily, Any recommendations on where to take it otherwise?

Backstory:
This is my wife's car. She was driving on the freeway and noticed the heat go out. Due to some miracle, rather than continue driving, she noticed the temp gauge was pegged and got off the freeway.
My father-in-law convinced her to add some coolant and try drive it home. (which would have been ~10 miles) She made it to the next freeway exit and had to pull off.

Upon taking it to the shop, having the air bled out and coolant filled everything seems normal and the temps are fine. The mechanic's theory is the coolant has been slowly being consumed and it just got low. The head gasket being the culprit.

 

Indeed it does sound like h/gs, the gaskets are only 33.40 each, then you'll need intake, exhaust, and valve cover gaskets, shouldn't be more then a couple hundred in parts.

$1074 in labor here @ tonka subaru

 

So basically you are saying you can repair this at the dealer for half of the cost? My mechanic is just giving a major shaft by telling me that price?

 

thats what it looks like to me man

 

you can always check with dave wray automotive in Buffalo, MN.

 

maybe he does not want to do the job so he priced it high so you will go somewhere else or it is really worth him doing.

I would suggest tonka subaru or dave wrays in buffalo.

 

That's a load off of my mind.
Thanks for the advice and the time guys.
I wasn't really thrilled about dropping that kind of cash or buying a new car instead.

 

Just an FYI I have had two subi's in the shop for head gaskets and the block turned out to be bad.

 

I was wondering if dealers can also change Head Gaskets on the jdm motors, exp: EJ20g?

 

DOHCs are pretty durable in comparison to the sohc

 

this i dont know.

 

I had a '99 Outback, and the HG went bad at ~80K. I think I paid somewhere in the $1500 range for that replacement.

Of note, the HG went sour again this winter at ~140K. I'm sorta wondering if the first leak caused some minor block damage leading the replacement HG to fail again. Not sure if you could get 60K out of a warped block (seems unlikely), but it also seems wrong that the head gaskets should require replacement almost as often as a timing belt! There was a bunch of other minor stuff wrong with the car (broken AC compressor, malfunctioning tach/speedo, out-of-life struts, moderate body damage, etc.) so I just ended up donating the thing to Newgate (http://www.newgateschool.org/) and taking a small tax write-off.

Hope you have better luck if you get this thing fixed. I must say that other than the recurrent and expensive HG problem, that Outback was great at hauling the family around.

 

i dont know exactly when it was updated but they dont sell the old gasket anymore for the 2.5 dohc. its an updated version, ive never seen them blow the new updated gasket, unless the heads were warped

 

my mechanic is going to look into doing it for you. hes a real good guy and charges reasonably cheap (it might be a little bit better deal for me seeing as hes my dads cousin) but hes a good guy and i get all my work done by him. if you would like me to ill get you the quote tomorrow.

 

That would be fantastic, let me know. Otherwise I'll likely take it out to Minnetonka on friday.

Thanks!

 

Your off by a little there Erik, Labor rate = $117.50/hr X 17hrs labor = $1997.50 in labor. Can be cheaper though if your valves don't need adjustment. Won't know that until the engine gets torn out, and taken apart.

 

thats what courtney quoted me dude

 

She must have been thinking SOHC 2.5L, that would be correct for that.

 

Where do you get 17 hours? Alldata has it a 10.2

 

For a DOHC 2.5L???

 

Yes 99 Outback 2.5 DOHC. That is straight book time

 

Hmmm, I was going by what we have been doing it for since I started here (over 4 years). Normally go for 15.5hrs, but if you need the valves re-shimmed then it's an extra 1.5hrs.

Maybe our times need an update.

 

At my shop we sell single cam jobs at 11 hours and dual cam ones at 14

 

That seems plenty fair.

 

Alldata is full of crap! It says 2.2l are 15... some hours, and they are the easiest to do.

 

On the 2.5ls you have to pull the motor to get the heads off. On the 2.2ls you "can" get the head off without pulling the motor but it isnt fun. this is partially why the 2.5ls are harder to do.

+1 for tonka suby or David Wray Automotive.

 

That's my point, sometimes I'd like to know how Alldata gets their labor times.

 

Don't know where you get your info but you do not have to pull the motor to do the heads.

 

You think Alldata is bad you should see mitchel

 

no ****, ive seen rotor replacements 4 hours each:eek4:

 

On what kind of car? Was it a honda? or Toyota truck?

 

SOHC we do them every day with the motor in the car, when i did them on my 2.2 i did them in my car.

 

So I talked with my original mechanic after getting all the info from you kind folks here.

He says included in the $3200 would be valves, machining the head, timing chain, water pump and plugs in addition to the head gasket. He was saying all this work NEEDS to be done. (with the exception of the water pump and timing since I had those done a year ago)

Do I really need all this work done to get another 60-75k mi out of this engine?

 

How many miles on the motor?

The head doesn't need to be machined unless the flatness is over, IIRC, .002". Clean the surface with carb cleaner or acetone and it good to go. I've held 28psi on mine.


Valves may or may not need to be adjusted. Hard to say untill you're in there.


If the timing belt was replaced a year ago, you should be fineon that. They need to be changed every 60k. Water pump depends on how old it is. I've had them last 200k, and have seen them go bad at 100k.

 

most likely not needed! that is a **** ton of crap that usually is fine

 

Ok. timing and water pump have about 10k on them. The engine has 117k.

AWDimprezaL, I'm hoping whomever I deal with at Minnetonka Subaru is as reasonable as yourself. Thanks.

 

talk to courtney, she is a straight shooter

 

Well, when I called I got Don. I wasn't sure if I should be demanding Courtney so I just went with Don... I'll have her in Friday ~7:30AM.

 

You can talk to Phil. He will take care of you too.

 

Who??

 

I don't want to hijack this thread, but I have a '98 Outback Limited we bought new. It has about 95k miles now but no sign of the HG's going. I'm guessing it may be advisable to change the gaskets preventively to safeguard from warping of heads or damage to the block. What do you guys think? I'll do the work myself, but I don't have that much extra time, so if it's not needed, then I'll just hold off for a bit. Any thoughts?

 

You guys are talking about Courtney Truck Service right? Phil works the front counter.

 

Just keep an eye out for oil residue in the coolant reservoir, or overheating.

 

No, Courtney Schiltz. She is a service adviser here at Morries.

 

On my other car that Eric now owns, I had the head gaskets done by a friend of my family for around 800 bucks if I recall correctly. $3000 is a severe rip off. Don't do that. I would suggest while they are doing that to make sure your timing belt and clutch are all in good standing, because they generally take the engine mostly out anyways for all of those things.