Saga of the Subaru
Huzzah! I have new head gaskets. Yes, plural. I have a ’98 Subaru Outback that has a 2.5L “Boxer” engine. The boxer engine is flat, with opposing cylinders, two to the east and two to the west as you’re looking under the hood. That means it has two heads. And that, my friends, means it requires two head gaskets. It’s a lovely engine when it works properly.
However, if one ever needs to replace the head gasket, say, because of the well-documented Boxer 2.5L phase I engine internal head gasket leak (Google Subaru head gasket and you’ll find out exactly what I’m talking about), it’s double the fun.
But wait, there’s more, as if that already wasn’t more than any sane human being would want to know about my car.
After three and a half days and >$2,000 paid, the car wouldn’t start at the garage. I had to go back into the office, stifle my hysterical giggling (I laugh when I’m stressed, it’s one of my mutant talents) and explain to the service writer that the car wouldn’t start.
It turned out to be a loose screw and took maybe fifteen minutes to find and fix. Well, specifically, it was the bolt holding the main block ground wire.
If the ground wire doesn’t have a good connection to the block, the starter can’t get spark to the coil and the engine will sit there waiting until maybe you taser its metallic behind.
After the bolt was fixed, Subie and I went to the store, got a latte, waited in the construction zone traffic and went home, all without the temperature gauge even considering doing anything warmish.
So. At last I’ve recovered the “worrying about the car” coping beans and I can get back to Open Mike Night at the Bebop and figure out what happens to Glitch and Travertine.
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