2.4

hardly worth mentioning
Crashes / Fires:
0 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
65,000 miles

About These NHTSA Complaints:

The NHTSA is the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints can be spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem. See the Back button — blue bar at the very top of the page — to explore more.

Get notified about new defects, investigations, recalls & lawsuits for the 2003 Subaru Legacy:

Unsubscribe any time. We don't sell/share your email.

problem #1

Aug 012005

Legacy

  • 65,000 miles
Noticed the smell of coolant when exiting the car after driving. I investigated this and found a small coolant leak coming from the back of the left cylinder head. The car is a 2003 Subaru Legacy GT w/ the 2.5L engine. I have owned the car since new, and had the first few services performed @ the dealer purchased, and even had a trans recall repair performed there as well.the car had around 65000 mi. On it when the leak was first noticed by me not the dealership, even though it is a known issue as told by a service rep when I questioned them on it. It took several visits to get info from them on this because they "didnt want to reveal too much info" to me, the consumer.apparently if Subaru coolant additive was added before 100,000 mi. And documented @ a certified service center, Subaru would cover the bill for a new cylinder head gasket, if not then it would not be covered. My question is if the additive was so important for the head gasket to survive being run then why wasnt it added at the factory or dealer before sale, and whose job was it to tell the consumers that it needed to be added.the bill is around 1200$ and from my research and observations of vehicles w the same motor (I work in the auto body repair business) this happens to most fairly early in the engines life.I think that this needs to be addressed by Subaru the manufacturer, and result in a total recall and repair of this problem.they have already lost me as a customer, and actually the last time I tried contact w them theyre response was "we will remove you from our contact list".

- Philomath, OR, USA