yonah wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have an 02' OBW, 2.5L 4-Cyl engine. In early february, I noticed
> that the temp gauge was redlining. I brought it in to my local
> mechanic. He found that I was low on coolant and it appeared that I
> had a coolant leak. He did some minor repairs (include some routine
> maintenance, it was around $100 us), and told me if it comes back, it
> could be the head gasket.
>
> My question to you all is this - my car has about $25K miles, and I
> bought it in august of 02' so it still has the 5/60K warranty. If it
> is indeed the head gasket problem, do you think that it will be
> covered under warranty?
>

Yes, it will be covered. I went through the same thing with my 98 OBW. The dealer repaired the HG
under warranty at 59,500 mi! They didn't even bat an eye at the mileage.

Subaru HG failures are generally internal, that is coolant starts entering the engine as opposed to
leaking out on to the ground. You never see it until one day the car overheats, or you are
meticulous and check the fluids routinely and notice that the coolant overflow needs constant
topping off.

It is a fairly simple test for the dealer to determine if coolant is getting into the oil and
heading out the tailpipe. My suggestion is to get it to a Subaru dealer and have them run the
tests. The sooner the better. Ours reared its ugly head 200 miles from home!

The HG repair takes a week or so to tear down the engine and if you red-lined the temperature gauge
they should check the heads to make sure they didn't warp.

Best Regards, and good luck.

-Scott