I have an intermittent head gasket failure on a 2005 Legacy GT Wagon. Sometimes it heats up, sometimes it doesn't--it never gets into the red on the temp gauge, but is right under it when it heats up. Shop that I trust was able to replicate the problem (after 3 tries).
128,000 miles. Estimate is $3026, and that's without any machining. If machining is necessary, they said it would be approximately $200.
I really like the car. It's reasonably quick, pulls up the mountains without any hiccups, and had excellent snow performance when equipped with snow tires. Plus, it doesn't have any of the nanny safety [censored] that's on new cars.
Fix or no fix? One hears things--e.g., "once you have a HG fixed, the car is never the same...", etc. Obviously this repair approaches, if not exceeds the value of the car. But, if I can spend $3K and get another 80-100K miles out of it, I'd be happy.
Thoughts? Any experience with 2005 Legacy GT head gasket failures and repair? Shop says the turbo models fail far less frequently than the NA models (estimated 1 in 10).
128,000 miles. Estimate is $3026, and that's without any machining. If machining is necessary, they said it would be approximately $200.
I really like the car. It's reasonably quick, pulls up the mountains without any hiccups, and had excellent snow performance when equipped with snow tires. Plus, it doesn't have any of the nanny safety [censored] that's on new cars.
Fix or no fix? One hears things--e.g., "once you have a HG fixed, the car is never the same...", etc. Obviously this repair approaches, if not exceeds the value of the car. But, if I can spend $3K and get another 80-100K miles out of it, I'd be happy.
Thoughts? Any experience with 2005 Legacy GT head gasket failures and repair? Shop says the turbo models fail far less frequently than the NA models (estimated 1 in 10).