Car dies on the highway.. engine possibly trashed??

[FrankenFretter***]

Sounds like no compression. Bad news, it sounds like. If the rest of the car is in decent shape, a rebuilt engine is probably the least expensive solution.

[poodlesrule]

This Subaru engine line has had headgasket problems, and mine had its gaskets changed under 'semi-warranty" a few years ago.
Timing belt was changed a few months ago (by same shop) and car ran fine.

Funny thing how the breakdown was way quiet, like when you run out of gas or electrics cut out.

Mech. thinks crank may have broken(!), and does not *seem* eager to open her up... .
Car will need other things soon, like CV joints/axles, has some New-England winters rust. I had it for almost 11 years.

[aeolian]

Sorry to hear about your car problem. Let me know when you eventually decide what to do.

I have a 2004 Legacy. This was preceded by a 1997 Legacy. The 1997 Legacy was rear ended and pushed into the car in front of me and totaled. I was stopped with about 10 cars in front of me waiting at a red light; the guy who plowed into me claimed he did not realize traffic was stopped.

The 2004 Legacy has around 55,000 miles on it, but the Subaru shop has told me that the head gaskets are leaking and it is $1500 to fix them. When I asked them how come it is so expensive they told me that it is because it is very labor intensive to pull apart two engine heads and fix the problem. I have been putting the problem off now for about 3 months, I don't know that I should put it off any longer, but $1500 is a lot of money. From what I remember of the 1997 I think the old Legacy is more trouble-free than my current one.

[Eric***]

The 2004 Legacy has around 55,000 miles on it, but the Subaru shop has told me that the head gaskets are leaking and it is $1500 to fix them. When I asked them how come it is so expensive they told me that it is because it is very labor intensive to pull apart two engine heads and fix the problem. I have been putting the problem off now for about 3 months, I don't know that I should put it off any longer, but $1500 is a lot of money. From what I remember of the 1997 I think the old Legacy is more trouble-free than my current one.

I have a 1997 Outback on which I had to have the head gaskets replaced. It was actually more than $1500, so I don't think that's a bad price. I put it off as long as I could, actually buying a '93 Saturn to avoid getting the work done, but after the Saturn was stolen I just swallowed hard and brought the Subie in for work.

As PR mentioned, you might want to check about the head gaskets online. I was under the impression that the problem was solved by the time the 2004 models were released, but I'm not the best source of info on that, since it was never that relevant to me. What I found when my head gaskets were going was that when on the highway the temp would be normal, but as soon as I pulled off and the car was idling, the temperature shot through the roof. It has something to do with how they're failing -- I read it once, but I forget what the details are right now.

Good luck with whatever course of action you decide to pursue.

[marnold***]

The 2004 Legacy has around 55,000 miles on it, but the Subaru shop has told me that the head gaskets are leaking and it is $1500 to fix them. When I asked them how come it is so expensive they told me that it is because it is very labor intensive to pull apart two engine heads and fix the problem. I have been putting the problem off now for about 3 months, I don't know that I should put it off any longer, but $1500 is a lot of money. From what I remember of the 1997 I think the old Legacy is more trouble-free than my current one.

My former car had the head gaskets go at around 110K miles. This was quite a few years ago. It cost me around $1,100 to get it fixed. It is very labor intensive because I saw all the stuff he had to take off to just get to the gaskets. The heads themselves may also have to be machined because they can be damaged by the failed gasket. The longer you wait, the worse it will get. Eventually you'll get coolant in your oil which will turn it into a lovely meringue. After that the engine itself will seize up. The good news is that after the fix, the car is still going at over 260K miles.

It's really easy to test if your head gaskets are failing. There is a device that you can put some coolant from your radiator in. It can detect if there are traces of exhaust in it. If there are, the gaskets are failing. In my case it was winter when the gaskets failed. Enough exhaust got into the cooling system that it was keeping the thermostat from tripping until the car was at the point of overheating. I also had no heat, which is bad news in Wisconsin in January.