From a sellers point of view I wouldnt let anyone do that to my car unless I was doing the driving..! Whats to say you drove it like a hooligan and after an hour decide you wanted to 'think about it'.. Man i'd be pi55ed!! :-)

 

If this has been overheated this many times, 2.5's don't respond well to it, its longterm life has seriously been shortened.

It might be worth pulling off the L/H head breather pipe & see if its got excessive white gunk in it, compare it to the R/H side, if so it could well have the usual cracked head, from under the valve spring platform up into the water gallery, very common on 09 & 2010 cars.

 

So many seem to be suffering because of this Cadbury's 2.5 engine.

Makes for painful reading.

 

Ha, fair point. But he knew I'd driven 200 miles to go see it, so I think it was quite obvious that I was genuinely interested. Or maybe I've just got a trustworthy face

 

I think he gets the point now if you all saying he should get his money back etc etc

Sounds like he is sticking with it anyway

So OP how have you got on with it today? You taken it for a sniff test?

 

Referring to your earlier comment about the water pump playing up, They don't often go wrong, However what you do find is if there is combustion gasses being forced into the cooling system it will quickly air lock and we all know Subaru engine's and air lock do not get on so you end up with the coolant being forced out of the cooling system and nothing being left in the engine for the pump to move around.

Sniffer test is your best bet and go from there if you wish to pursue it.

 

The symptoms and scenario sounds the same as the time I took a blind punt on an eBay 206 GTi. About 15 miles into the journey home it started getting very hot and the temperature gauge was fluctuating between quite hot and very hot. It could be left at idle for hours and the temp would remain normal, but any load on the engine sent the temperature rocketing.

It turned out to be the head gasket.

It was a private ebay sale without a test drive and the car cost me £550. I told the seller but didn't demand a refund and sold it again on ebay, all faults disclosed, to someone for £400. Lesson learnt. I only lost £150 but it was the dishonesty of the c@#t who sold it to me that really wound me up.

Point is, I kept saying to myself "it might be the water pump" or "it might be a faulty rad cap" or "an air lock". But it was the same symptoms as yours.

You should coax it back to the seller and ask, politely, for your money back as I imagine you paid a fair amount more than I did for my 206. Seeing you face to face might shame him info reimbursing you.

 

Yep the engine is a lemon sadly. Feel for the OP, but fear he's been done up like a kipper. Will almost definitely be the head gaskets and will cost a lot to fix properly!

 

Mate...I am with you...your car is not ****ed...despite what the pessimistic doomsayers are saying...so it might need head gaskets and even if it needed an entire engine...you can pick em up for ok money. I am prob different than most on here...I personally prefer to only buy cars with problems...problems makes them cheaper because I fix them. If you aren't mechanically minded then this is foolhardy and can bite you in the bum.

Doesn't sound like head gaskets though so could possibly be water pump. As long as you got the motor cheap enough you'll be sound. Just beware shady mechanics that have Racing or Performance in their title cos that normally means bend over, assume the position cos you are going to get screwed :-)

 

...and for every horror story of "I bought blah blah and thought it would be an easy fix and it turned out the engine had been substituted for a Rizla Packet" LOL Well on the brighter side...I went to buy an E36 328i Sport BMW that owner said was overheating and was either water pump or head gasket failure...well that turned out to be a £30 plastic impeller water pump at fault. I buy tons of cars without test driving...sometimes I will buy them over the phone and just go and drive them back....I am not fussed. How bad can it be

 

I've also bought a GT-Four Celica that just needed a new battery :-)...a Starlet Turbo that needed a manifold stud, a Rover 420 GSI Turbo that had a broken fitting on the boost controller.

These were all spares/repair cars that owners had sold me on the basis that the faults were unknown and possibly quite significant. I find as a buyer and seller of cars over the years that the biggest enemy I have encountered wasn't shady people selling the cars more the shady mechanics wanting to 'fix' them. Avoid Sheppard Racing if you live anywhere near Colchester as they are big time clowns

 

 

 

Think the op needs. To listern to the high respected posters on here who have the experience
Not doom and gloom merchants but people that know subaru inside out and most of the top people on scoobynet have posted allready

Op must have got it cheap so hopefully has funds for a full rebuilt £5 k to make it a decent car


I would take it back with a couple of mates as security but maybe the seller has mates also so tricky and horrible situation for op to be in


5/6 pager easy this thread

 

The problem with the EJ25 is just like the K-series, anything that causes to overheat especially after a spirited drive which the op has done will pop the head gasket- it's the first thing to fail if an overheating/air lock situation occurs, so even if the water pump had failed, it will have taken the head gaskets along with it.

It's not like a m52 engine, I've had one cook from air locks (sucking air through thewater pump shaft) to the point it's burst the radiator from the pressure in a catastrophic style...gasket survived.

Point being some makes of engines can handle it. The EJ25 and even the EJ20s (open deck versions) do not. It's been shown time and time again.

 

True to a degree...However I can only speak from my own experiences and I have yet to break an EJ20 engine and I've had some right old high mileage ones in the past (current Wagon daily driver 186000 miles and counting)...But then I do change up at around 5800 to 6000 rpm even in spirited driving mode as nothing to be gained from banging off the limiter. I do hear bad stuff about the 2.5s same as I used to about EJ20s when everyone was banging on about the bullet proof nature of the fabled closed deck blocks but there's always going to be people with horror stories and bad experiences...didn't stop me buying an EJ257 block for my Prodrive Bug though he he he I am not a Rally Driver, I don't do track days...and my car(s) only ever indulge in light road sport... never had one fail on me yet. I blew a top hose at 140 mph in a 620 Ti Rover but slowed down and pulled in sharpish...replaced top hose with one I had in boot...problem solved. I don't doubt there are some bad cases out there but knowing the reliability of my Subarus vs stuff that was reputed to be bastions of reliability over the years I am sure there are at least 10 good stories to every bad. As consumers we often need to attribute blame to mechanical fault, bad build quality but never our own lack of mechanical sympathy

 

It will if you take it to any garage with Racing or Performance in their name that knows you are a **** with more money than sense LOL

Other than that...just a pair of head gaskets on a car mate...no big deal

 

Another 2.5 owner in constant denial on how $hit the 2.5 is...Its an engine with documented problems, its not make believe. The only people who are in denial are owners and Subaru themselves.

 

Did Subaru ever sort the issues out properly for the new models?

 

Well considering they dont accept there is a fault, whats to sort out??

I'd say no

 

I think you would do well to read up a bit more on the 2.5 failures and stop handing out poor advice. Head gaskets on an EJ series engine usually entails a crank up rebuild for reasons that have been discussed many times in many other threads. You may possibly be right but history seems to suggest otherwise. You just can't shrug it off as 'just a pair of head gaskets on a car mate' and the OP would be really lucky to get away with just changing the gaskets.
You don't seem to know what you're talking about, whereas this guy...
....really does.

 

 

Thread doesn't deserve any replies or advice ,
Op can just tighten the head bolts down and jobs a good un

Tbh I would of expected a update by now for such a minor fault

 

True with what your saying mate, it can't get that bad really

On mine I had a sound which sounded like the bottom end had gone, loss of power and tap tap tap, turned out to be the manifold gasket

Bet if I had took it to a random garage they would have said it was dead!

Found that one myself but Glad i have DLM around the corner as that is one guy who just fixes with honesty!

 

I stand by the fact that it is no big deal...trouble is these days...people have to lay blame somewhere. I sold a blobeye gearbox to one such person on ebay who took it to a garage that had the car 13 days (for a 5 hour job) only to tell him the gearbox doesn't fit. Buyer accused me of cyber crime LOL because he incorrectly believed what the garage told him...ignoring the fact that it was his own impatience, stupidity, ignorance and basic underhand way of going about things that had caused him this trouble...he didn't have the wrong gearbox...he used the wrong garage...but like I say...I can only speak from my own personal experience...and more often than not and assuming the car is driven within the manufacturers guidelines...it is rarely the mechanical bits that are the root problem...normally the human at the controls has a lot to do with it.

 

It's booked in at Monkey Racing for a full rebuild...crank grind and balance with added goldy looking fandangos and whatever else it takes for shady mechanics to get £3-5000 out of the public these days. There's one born every minute and a fool and his money are easily parted...a lot of garages rely on those old adages

 

Reground Subaru cranks FTW!

 

Tidy......it's off to RCM then

 

What??? Are they bad too? It is a minefield out there I know for the unsuspecting but I am ok on the spanners myself and if anything is beyond my skills or equipment, I have a couple of friends in the trade. However for those that don't have the know how or have friends in the trade they will feel a certain level of comfort and reassurance in the fact they have just been separated from enough of their hard earned cash to ensure a good and of course necessary job was done. 10 years back on one of my GT-Fours that I'd bought which turned over fine but didn't start... Sheppard Racing in Colchester diagnosed a failed turbo ??? (I didn't know a failed turbo would prevent it starting but I didn't know as much back then lol) so they removed my turbo and insisted I buy a brand new one through them of course for £1200. I said I would buy one off eBay...they said they wouldn't fit it so I said I was coming to pick the car up, The w*nkers took £450 off me and left my turbo and various other bits they'd stripped off in the boot because they said the car would be unsafe if they put the turbo back on. Cut the long story short...a little independent garage was recommended to me who for £70 !!! put it all back together, put more petrol in it and replaced the battery with one I had spare. The car started pretty much immediately and there was absolutely eff all wrong with the turbo. Car ran an absolute dream. This sort of behaviour happens all too frequently...

The reliability issues of the 2.5 engine...we need to be clear...are we talking EJ255 or EJ257 as some of the 255s are semi closed deck block anyway just like the EJ257s....or are we just hating the 2.5 engine per se. Anyway...I have a semi closed deck 2.5 STI EJ257 from a 2006 Hawkeye going in my Prodrive...It might melt...couldn't care...I'll just buy another or if it is as unreliable as people say, I'll go back to an EJ207 instead. I fail to see the big difference between the 207 and 257 though physically apart from the circumfrence of the cylinders and pistons. The 257 to my mind appears to be derived from or an evolution of the EJ207 lump...However if we are talking non semi closed deck EJ255 engines then I would say it is entirely possible they are below par as one only has to look at the quality of casting on non STI EJ205 and 255s compared to STI EJ207s and 257s

Here is some lighthearted tongue and cheek baiting for the 2.5 haters What engines are in the CS400??? 2.5s no? OK it has a lot of stuff swapped out for Cosworth internals (pistons, rods amongst others) but I'm sure the block is made by Subaru yes ? LOL

 

He he he