Buying Subaru Forester with bad engine - question

[pacem]

Originally Posted By: skyactiv

The right fender is dented as is the right rear passenger door. Even if the body was perfect, that car is only worth what a salvage yard would pay for it. How would you like to do all the work getting it running to find out that the car drives, but the AWD is worthless because a previous owner ruined the center diff mixing tires on it who knows how long ago?

Interesting point you make that reinforces all of the above.

 

[rshaw125]

Originally Posted By: pacem

It wasn't a head, it was a burnt valve, something more serious. The owner told me he was quoted 2500 for the job or such. You know, Wash DC auto repair rates.

OK so what was the name of the valve that was burnt?

 

[pacem]

I did not inquire any further. It does not matter, I am turning it down.

 

[eljefino]

That would be good for someone from up north to buy for $500. Then transfer all the good parts from a rusted out subaru of the same era.

 

[Donald]

Too high. Other things could be wrong the owner is aware of or not aware of. $500. Our 2015 Forester is a great car. But not an expensive car even brand new.

 

[Huie83]

That's a $400-500 car. I've owned and worked on 3 Subaru of that vintage. 2 head gasket jobs and one full engine. If you have a engine, do the head gaskets on it and swap it in. If you need to pay someone to do the HG's and swap it'll be around $2k to do it right. Honestly, after owning 3 of that vintage, unless it's just a fun project car, find something else. All 3 I have owned have been money pits around that age.

 

[Chris142]

Whats scrap value? $125-$175? Thats all its worth imo.

 

[Buick8]

why do you want a Subaru Forester? Why do you want one 17 years old? I learned a long time ago: there is a reason junkyards exist; and. NO, they are NOT worth fixing... Good luck.

 

[meep]

good call to turn it down. put your effort into bringing something with more soul back to life.

 

[pacem]

Originally Posted By: Buick8

why do you want a Subaru Forester? Why do you want one 17 years old? I learned a long time ago: there is a reason junkyards exist; and. NO, they are NOT worth fixing... Good luck.

I have a good 2.5L engine laying around and thought I would save some coin by getting a car that needs an engine. However everything that I see is questionable, close to 200K miles and with much other stuff going bad. My 2.5L Subaru engine will fit up to 2002 Outback, Forester, Impreza. I need to find one with low miles, blown engine and great condition and not expensive. This dude had seriously unrealistic expectations out of his parts car.

 

[mk378]

Originally Posted By: rooflessVW

If you're not doing the work yourself it doesn't make any fiscal sense.

Yes exactly. You said you could buy the same model in decent running condition for $3500. Sell your engine and other parts of the wrecked car for $500 toward that. So then it would be $3000 out of your pocket for some other car that you know works, versus $1400 and an unknown amount spent on parts and mechanics for this one. That only leaves $1600 for parts and mechanics before you're losing money.

 

[JTK]

Pac- This Forester looks extremely clean based on your pics. It would likely sell for $1000 in my area as is for a DIYer. I have a family member who's bought inop Subarus like this and rebuilt them himself. He could have an EJ253 engine out and on a bench in 45min. Paying someone to do all the work is a tough call. You'll probably have $4000+ into it to get everything functioning and hopefully keep the CEL off.

 

[pacem]

It's definitely not worth $4000... The other thing is, the car is in parts. Based on my experience, mechanics generally don't like to mess with someone's else's stuff. I.e. you take out the engine, you own the problem. they want an unmolested car. because then once they put it together and it doesn't work, they don't know if it's something they did, or something you did. I like to take things apart myself to have a good idea how to put them back together. If I were a mechanic I would not mess with it either so the customer does not blame me for something they broke. the owner - once the guy removed all the stuff by himself, got overwhelmed by the problem, could not fix it and essentially made it unsaleable other than for parts. the top part of the engine in in the trunk along with other stuff. He is not a pro so who knows what he did.

 

[rshaw125]

Never did find out what this special valve was that was burnt.

 

[Silverado12]

Good call on turning that project down, Pacem. FWIW my latest project was a 1998 Mustang GT, and I ended up with $2,500 in it. It turned out really well, but if you're not doing the mechanical work yourself it's not worth getting; just too expensive. I also made a gazillion trips to the junkyard, parts store, ebay, etc. to get the car finished, but I'm real picky. It's always more work than it appears and thank God parts were cheap.

 

[pacem]

If you include your own time, which has to be worth something. Scanned Ebay and CL, there are boatloads of cars in the $3500-4000 range that are in better shape and newer with lower mileage than this disaster would end up as.

 

[nthach]

A friend had a Forester of that generation and it was plagued by electrical gremlins(this was made when Nissan offloaded Subaru to GM, and I saw a lot of Delphi Packard wiring under the hood) and two BHGs. If you're willing to put the work in yourself on the weekends, I can see it as a project car - if you can get the shell for cheap.

 

[pacem]

wow. Looks like I narrowly avoid a disaster.