Why do Subaru dealers put in coolant conditioner?

[Jeepster_nut]

For those with newer Subarus, how come there is a Subaru branded coolant conditioner (stop leak)? Are there problems with the boxer engines? I have been hashing over and over about buying an '07 Forester and unloading my Civic and Jeep. But I don't want to get into head gasket issues with a Subaru, even though they are really great vehicles and have excellent reliability ratings. Any input??

 

[SubieHo]

I have 91 Cherokee with the 4.0L with 197K miles on the original engine and transmission -- both are still flawless. I also have a 99 Forester with the second generation SOHC 2.5 L engine, which was plagued by external headgasket leaks, for which the coolant conditioner is recommended at every coolant change. I have 111K miles on this car with no engine problems to this point; however, these early foresters suffered from premature rear wheeel bearing failures -- two sets in the rear within the first 70K miles! This problem was corrected by replacing the #@$%! ball bearings with roller bearings.

1998 Foresters and 1997-1999 Legacies/Outbacks were equipped with the first generation DOHC 2.5 L engines, which were prone to the more disastrous internal headgasket leaks.

You can check out this link for futher reading:

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=51554

Apparently, the new redesigned headgaskets are better, I haven't heard of any failures in the newer cars.

 

[michaelc80]

There are currently no head gasket issues with the newer boxer engines that I'm aware of. There were some issues in the late 1990's with headgasket problems, but those have since been corrected.

The owners manual for my 05 Outback Sport says nothing about adding conditioner when changing the coolant (I changed mine a few weeks ago at about 30,000 miles).

I've had my Subie for 20 months now, and have been very pleased with it. I especially like seeing the scangauge show 35+ MPG trip average on the highway with an all wheel drive car.

 

[rjundi]

I believe Subaru paid for a lot of motors with head gasket leaks pre 2002 vintage. The problem is rare now and I the coolant conditioner is likely just added insurance. They dumped it in my 2004 WRX with 2.0L at its 30k dealer service.

 

[Eddie]

GM & Ford do it at the factory and recomend it at every coolant change.

 

[FD777]

Here's another thread on the topic.

As mentioned, it seems like everything was fixed in ~2002. However, the conditioner is still "required" probably for safe measure.