my 05 rs needs work... humph

[Viago]

So my baby that's been super reliable and I've gone everywhere with needs some tlc

My mechanic tells me $2k

It needs/has

Headgasket leak

Front rear breaks

Rear u joints

Tirod

And set of tires

Doesn't seem like much but my car has almost 170k and it's headers wer replaced once before I got it 60k ago.

I'm contemplating on selling or fixing. Cost vs new?

I think it's a Lil high for repair costs but I'm not mechanically inclined

 

[drvsdwz]

headgasket is the brunt of the cost. parts alone for that job are damn near 2-300 if i remember the last one i priced out. come see me at advanced auto in bangor today or tomorrow afternoon, ask for Justin and I'll give you a parts cost on the hook up.

 

[IBratmanI]

Just make sure you use either subaru, or six star for the head gaskets themselves. It's around $1000 just for the head gasket job. And that's a good price. Most shops charge more than that.

 

[drvsdwz]

the felpro gaskets we sell for the subarus are a multi layer steel. he won't have to worry about leaks again.

 

[IBratmanI]

the felpro gaskets we sell for the subarus are a multi layer steel. he won't have to worry about leaks again.

I know a few subaru mechanics that won't use those because of them failing. Search on ultimatesubaru.org as well. It's a big no no to use anything but subaru or six star on the 2.5's.

 

[drvsdwz]

Did they get the cheap old design ones? Or the new MLS ones?

 

[IBratmanI]

Did they get the cheap old design ones? Or the new MLS ones?

I know one garage in particular that still uses the mls felpro head gaskets, and even recently had issues. But for some reason they still insist on having their tech, use them. The same tech, has his own shop, and only uses six star mls gaskets, and has had no issues, aside from not using an oem thermostat, which caused overheating issues. He actually says that when he torques them down, they don't even feel the same.

 

[Chris]

To be safe I always use the sti headgaskets. They're a bit pricey, around $40 each, but in the long run the extra cost of those over a cheaper brand is nothing. Personally I'd rather spend an extra few bucks on a headgasket job and not have to do it again... I just went through that. I use cheap crappy headgaskets on my outback and they blew in 3k miles. Which pissed me off something wicked because it meant I had to take the engine back out and do it all over again. If I'd spend the extra cash the first time I wouldn't have wasted an entire afternoon screwing around. Just my few cents.

Most shops won't replace driveshaft u-joints because they're sort of a pain in the ass, they'll just swap a new driveshaft in there. However, I think it's Rockford drivelines who makes replacement joints. It requires a bit of dremeling and messing around, but the job isn't terrible. I replaced a couple on my GL and it wasn't a bad job.

 

[05RSKID]

I have a drive shaft if you need one and that's not a bad price if 2k includes tires.  Also if your in the Bangor area I could help with the headgasket job to help save some money.  Have all the tools and a garage. I have done a bunch of them between work, my car and friends cars and haven't had any problems. If you go cheap you can get the headgasket parts for around 300 (as mentioned above) but to go all Subaru your looking closer to 500.  I usually get my head gaskets, tensioner and water pump from Subaru and after market for the rest.  At my work we go all Subaru.  We have had bad luck once with advance parts(sorry Justin) and had the tensioner let go and took out the heads, and then less then a 1000 miles later the car needed a new motor because the customer came back with a bad knock.

 

[i-wagon]

Just the hg parts for my 07 were 5-700 from what I remember. That's sti hg, timing belt, tensioner, water pump, thermostat, gaskets, spark plugs, manifold gaskets, the works. Then another 1300 labor, plus a clutch kit. The price you stated isn't bad at all if tires are included, but I also recommend the sti gaskets. Rs Dan had good reasoning when he recommended them to me, I'd looked in to it and found testimonials backing up his opinion too

Edit: everything but my fluids and plugs came from the dealer, hence high pricing