Subaru's sensitive to coolant?

[Newscutter]

I will post this a couple places --

I had a complete loss of coolant (unbeknownst to me) one fine day. Apparently the coolant had been leaking out slowly--- I recall just a few weeks prior I saw the level was low so I topped it off with normal Prestone. The leak worsened suddenly at some point and with wife and kids in the car on a really busy urban highway I nursed it as best I could (heat full on) to a safe stopping place. We "hopped" it home with breaks to cool down (not far). Over the next month I regularly had to top off the coolant every 3 days or so as the level visibly dropped-- but with no smoking, no puddles, no drivability issues. Finally one night I caught a faint mist coming from the driver's side head, as seen in a combination of headlight reflections and floodlights in my driveway. A trip to the dealer confirmed the gasket was leaking. Further work showed that both heads were warped and both would need machining, new gaskets.

So -- pretty standard story. Here's the tidbit that was new to me-- and maybe it's just dealer service department BS and maybe it isn't. The tech told me that there is a thicker viscousity coolant spec'd for the Subarus-- that the factory coolant isn't nearly as watery as normal coolant/water blends. He also referred to a "conditioner" that was added with each change/yearly in addition to the coolant being different as well. Their experience was that NOT all Subarus would have headgasket failures, but ALL Subarus that they have seen that HAD failures ALL were not using the factory coolant/conditioner. Additionally, most of those had RECENTLY had coolant changes (within weeks) to non-spec'd coolant (mine was the large amount I added a few weeks before the overheating episode).

Take that for what it is worth. For the costs, I'd recommend going back to the dealer (or getting Subaru coolant/conditioner) whenever you're due.

MCS

BTW-- I forget what the bill was--- it was somewhere around $1500-2000, but dealer knocked off a big portion as a courtesy. I think in the end it was $500-800ish, but I also had all the belts changed, etc. while they were in the neighborhood.

[bulwnkl]

See my reply to your inappropriate cross-post in the Technical section. I'm sorry your HG failed.

[medtec]

My wife has a 2000 Outback. At about 105,000 I noticed a small puddle forming under the driver's side head, sure enough it had a very small leak at the head and block. I added the tiny bottle of Subaru coolant conditioner and within 1,000 or so miles the leak stopped. The Outback now has 151,00 and has not lost any coolant and the head and block are dry on the outside. I can't say why and my thoughts were it was just another thing dealers wanted to sell, but at about $2 i figured why not? I'm glad I did. However the leak was barely noticable to start with. but I did add it to my Baja. Good luck...