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Comments
Car engines are so complicated that it's impressive to me they usually work as well as they do for many years and for over 100,000 miles, even when neglected. But then they fail...
I'm guessing/hoping that the part that failed on this one was improved for the version of this engine we have in our two 2025 Subarus. Although our engines in many ways are similar to this one, there were major revisions and I hope improvements starting in the 2020 version of this engine. In fact Subaru in a press release said of the 2020 version of this engine: "Meanwhile, the standard naturally aspirated 2.5-liter BOXER, with direct injection and nearly 90 percent of its parts new, delivers 182 horsepower at 5,800 rpm and 176 lb-ft of torque at 4,400 rpm."
Nearly 90% of the parts new seems perplexing to me. But we can imagine that part failures, like the one found in this engine teardown, which we can guess Subaru was tracking too, meant that certain parts were improved or upgraded. But maybe other parts were built too well and were lasting too long, and perhaps were "value-engineered" to take costs out? Who knows. But since Subaru is now considered among the most reliable of cars, up there with Toyota, I'm hoping they are leaning into that and overbuilding their engines. Especially after their debacle c. 15 years ago with head gaskets it seems like Subaru would probably go out of their way to make their engines durable.
https://media.subaru.com/pressrelease/1445/1/2020-subaru-outback-press-kit&searchresult
Overall, I'd say it is pretty typical for a car with around 150-200K miles and very minimal maintenance. That timing belt! Wow; cannot believe it is even in one piece. I think one could basically fully refresh it with about $1,500 in parts and maybe 20-30 hours of work. The interior actually looks pretty good, so that's a huge plus. My biggest concern would be the condition of the transmission fluid. Even with a flush, there could be permanent damage there. I'd be monitoring it closely; maybe even cut open the filter (these 4EATs use an external filter that is the same as the engine oil filter... a GREAT idea!) to see what sorts of particles might be flushing through the system.
If one were to fix it and clean it well, it would be a real nice car.