Will do. I'll start a new build thread at some point.

 

This'll make you laugh.... my Subaru main stealers quoted me over £6k JUST FOR HEAD GASKETS ALONE!!!!!! hahaha. I actually laughed down the phone at them.

Paul, if you're reading, you're under charging!

 

wtaf purely coz the engine has to come out i guess, so massive labour charge/time, that is nuts.

 

This is a dealers I have known and used for the last 12 years of ownership, where I bought my first Subaru. I know for a fact they charged another friend £1,500 for head gaskets a while back and another friend £3.5k for a full rebuild. Yet they quoted me £6k for head gaskets!!!! Laughable.

 

Must have been a bad month for car sales

 

haha. You're not kidding. They couldn't be more underwhelmed when I told them I'd bought the new one. All they said was why didn't you buy the one on our forecourt? Maybe because it was too expensive and un-forged????

 

Harsh but fair My local dealer had the same attitude when i bought mine 4yrs ago, why not buy it from us? um maybe coz you didn't seem to be bothered and only offered a 3yr warranty with no remap thrown in? Salesman to this day still gives me a dirty look as if its my fault hah.

 

You should of asked for a breakdown of the 6k, interesting where the money was going.

Got a Type20 in from a customer, he was quoted £200.00 for a leak down test & £900.00 for engine removal & strip out investigation work from a dealer.

Best one I have had in from a dealer is a Hawkeye with h/gasket failure, they removed only one head, with the engine still fitted, put it back together & it was the wrong side head gasket.

 

haha. Brilliant. Why would you want to take the head off with the engine fitted? Surely that's even more work than popping the engine out????

Well I just paid the dealer £110 for them to do a hydrocarbon test on the car, which is as easy as them putting the fluid onto some paper and watching it change colour. Presumably I paid for every member of their staff to sit around drinking coffee and watching it develop???? Madness.

 

I had been sniffing about at the Hatch 330s (not done any specific research yet on issues) but having read the last few pages of this thread i'll be staying well clear sadly. I've only had UK classics in the past which were bullet proof but reading this tells me stay well clear and don't go back to Subaru ownership.

 

 

Thanks so if it's been forged then it should be all good? My alternative wasn't French i'm not mad it was the AMG 45. More expensive to buy but a lot less to run!

 

 

OK thanks. I'd love the 330s although none near me to go and look at. I've seen one that's been forged and turbo upgrade but a long way away. I'm only used to the burble of a classic is that still present in the hatches? I've seen some about and seem very quiet?

 

I've owned 2.5 engine Subarus now for 12 years and am on my 3rd as we speak. Don't get too hung up on the failures and let it deter you from purchasing or spoil your ownership experience. Be aware of the problem and if possible put financial provisions for the repair to one side just in case. They are great engines to own trust me. Fair enough I've had 2 failures now, one in either car, but I wouldn't have purchased a 3rd car if they were not that good to such a pleasure to drive and own.

Buy it, drive it, enjoy it, fix it if it breaks.

 

Cheers I just don't like nasty surprises with cars so always try to avoid potential problems which is why I won't have BMW because of VANOS and all the horror stories etc. I'd be a lot happier buying one forged if that eliminates all the known risks. But then you have to trust the conversion has been done to a high standard. Are they any better on fuel consumption than the classics? Published figures are always a waste of time so I don't pay much attention to them. If driving sensibly is closer to 20mpg rather than 30mpg then i'll probably have to give up on it.

 

 

If you research into every car brand or performance car you'll find they have weak spots and issues prone to failure. If you thought like this you'd never own anything at all. Evos have weak gearboxes and transfer boxes and also suffer engine failures, all focus RS models are prone to engine failures and loads have given up already, etc etc. If you research everything you'll end up buying a diesel Skoda and nobody wants that. 😁

you'll never get 30mpg average from a newage or later Subaru. All mine have averaged 22mpg or around that. I don't own these cars because of their amazing fuel economy, I own them for the fun and excitement they bring. If you want to own one you need to make sure you can cover running costs, service costs, expected and unexpected repaid costs, tax and insurance. If you can't cover these you may be looking at the wrong car for you.

I hope for your sake you take the plunge, they really are great cars.

 

Thanks so not much better than the classics I had, that's a real shame. Does being forged make any difference either way?

 

My freshly forged 2.5 new shape with 335bhp is getting 26.7mpg on average now since trip reset. Mostly from daily work trips it still gets 22-23mpg.

 

I went through all that with my classics, my last being my 3rd car and purely a weekend car but my head has been turned with modern performance engines returning decent fuel economy and cheap tax bands such as the AMG 45. It's 360bhp with less than half the road tax and fuel economy of 30+mpg so can be used as a family car as well as a performance car with sensible running costs. I've never even sat in one let alone drive one so no idea if they are a great drive but the figures really appeal to me. The scoob is going to be back to the same problem I had before, a huge drain on money when with 4 children I have a lot of other things to be paying for. In the last 4 or so years fast and affordable running costs have become reality which I never thought i'd see. I just wish Subaru would catch up and do the same.

 

 

 

I've a forged 330s and get 25mpg mixed driving but mostly spirited. Not so much burble from them. If you look up youtube you'll hear a few. More of a roar than a rumble which i really miss. Of course with a single exit exhaust u get near the sound we all love , but the quad pipes look better (imo)

 

That's great thanks for replying. Have you had any issues with it mechanically or been pretty bullet proof? Been thinking about it this evening and trying to persuade myself for the performance the costs are worth it as long as it's forged.

 

its been fine since rebuild. The odd puff of smoke on start up but been told forged do that.

 

we don't find them that much less reliable than anything else within certain limits

if your wanting to push the EJ25 / EJ257 haredr then one of our CNC's Closed Deck inserts will increase reliability massively

 

 

https://www.carcomplaints.com/news/2...-lawsuit.shtml

 

Yes, my new STI is fully forged now because the original engine seized up on the dyno. They were pushing 400bhp from the original engine, so no wonder really.