TOPIC: Our 2008 Subaru Outback - DEAD!

Gail and I were down in Beacon NY late last week for funeral services for her 87 year old mom who died a week ago this past Friday. If that wasn't upsetting enough, we're on our way home after lunch last Friday and just get on route 84 to cross the Hudson and get on the Thruway home and her Subaru starts acting funny. Long story short, we pulled off the highway at the next exit, and now have a dead car with a spun rod bearing sitting at Mid Hudson Subaru down in Wappingers Falls. This is a car we bought brand spankin new, and is just a bit less than 8,000 miles out of warranty. Man, it never rains it pours...

Frank

Frank thats awful! Sorry to hear that.

Thanks Jesse. We're still reeling from a terrible week.

Frank

Dam Frank thats not good. But heres one good thing. Those motors can be changed in half a day. You only have 6 bolt that come off from under neath and then everything unbolts from the top. Good use motors for those are easy to come by. Boy that is unusal for those motors to go bad under 200.000 mile. I have a 79 and changed the motor at just over 200,000 because most of the seals were leaking.If you check you can get the motors from Japan with just 50.000 mile on them and that just broke in. They can run cars over that over there.
You a good mackanik so do it your self
Mike aka the pirate

Frank, sorry to here about the bad news. As for the car I have never heard of one of them spinning a rod bearing. I asked the guys over at the shop and they said it would most likely be cheaper to replace with good used one than rebuilding. I know they are easy to pull. Just find one thats running and go for it.Good luck, Skip.

frank, sue and i send our condolences. about the car, is it possible that towing the boat may have caused the motor problem?

frank,please give gale our condolences,we are thinking of you both.john and lorraine

Thanks guys. I really wasn't going to announce that Gail's mom had died, but this last week has just been terrible for us. My mom died in 1980, and my mother-in-law took me right under her wing as one of her own. She was a wonderful woman, very bright, articulate, artistic, and great to us, our kids, and grandchild. I couldn't have asked for a better mother-in-law. And Gail, being the oldest girl in the family, had a very close relationship with her. She was getting on in years, and had problems, but it all came pretty fast the week before last, and she died the last Friday in January. We will miss her terribly.

As for the Subaru, it looks like, all things considered, we will buy a new Subaru short block, have it installed and go from there. We had quotes on used motors, and for the difference in price between that and new, it just makes sense to go new.

As for towing the boat causing a problem - first of all, the Subaru rarely towed the boat, usually it's my truck. The Subaru has more towing capacity than my truck, maybe 27000#s vs the GMC's 2300#s. I doubt towing had anything to do with it.

Frank

Sincere condolence you you and Gail, Frank. Sorry to hear about the bummer with the car as well. I really hope you have gotten all the bad luck out of the way now, maybe the rest of the year will be trouble free.

Frank,
I am very sorry for your loss in both cases. I feel for you buddy. i hope the rest of the year is filled with joy and good things for you.

Bob

Now I get a call from Subaru that one of the heads is junk (3 cracks in it) and needs to be replaced.

Man o man, what a drag this car has been. Worked great till just after the warranty expired, never a problem, then the motor implodes. I'll be lucky (?) to get out of this for 6 grand by the time it's done and over. On Friday it will be two weeks since it blew up, still no car.

Never owned a Subaru before. Never gonna own one again once we sell this lemon.

Frank

So now we're up to over 6700 bucks for this piece of ..., and won't be ready till MAYBE next Tuesday.

Frank

Ended up costing $6,498 and change, so just under 6500 bucks. Subaru of America had offered to pay us 500 bucks, so eventually the whole thing will have been just under 6 grand. Bah. At least we have the car back, with a one year warranty (no mileage limitation).

Frank

Very sorry to hear that Frank. Personally, sounds like time for another car to me, IMHO.

Bob

Soon as we pay this off Bob, gonna look at an AWD 2013 (or 2014) Ford Escape with the turbo 4 cylinder. Gets great gas mileage AND tows 3500#s!

Frank

Sounds good buddy!

Bob

Hate to say it Frank but a good used motor and you changing it you would have saved one hell of a lot of bucks. Like I said those motor are one of the easyist to put and put back in. You can pull one and put in one in half a day.
Sorry to see it cost you so much.
Mike aka the pirate

I couldn't swap a motor anymore even if I wanted to Mike. I'm sorry it cost so much too, but we're lucky we could afford it.

Frank