r/subaru • u/Austin_hskl • 1d ago
Mechanical Help Boxer engine problems
This is more of a generic quick head count for people with the subies with boxer 2.0 boxer engines and if they have had any problems with them.
I before buying my 2017 Impreza I looked around a lot for what to expect from them and the boxers seem to be a sorta polarizing topic. Some people think they are always gonna have problems and some never run into any issues. In my case, my car has pretty much always been maintained by the one person who owned it before me and I plan on carrying the torch.
I'm wondering if anyone has carried through with all the regular maintenance and still had head gasket or oil consumption problems with theirs? Feel free to leave your take too, I'm interested.
Thanks :)
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u/Much_Newspaper4453 Master Tech 1d ago
I’ve been with Subaru since before those engines came out. The 2.0 DINA engine are pretty good engines. I had only one of them come in for an oil consumption issue since they came out and it was a brand new car (-6k miles). Like all Subaru engine, they do still leak from the timing cover and cam carriers, head gaskets are very rare. I have been getting some here and there that the 3 upper oil pan o rings get hard and begin to let oil in the coolant system, all the older chain motors are starting to do that also. The biggest issue with those engines are carbon build up on the intake valves since they are direct injection. As long as you take care of the carbon build up those engines are very solid.
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u/ntc0220 1d ago
My headgaskets went at 23k miles on my 2021 Subaru Impreza. They don't know what happened.
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u/Much_Newspaper4453 Master Tech 1d ago
Yeah unfortunately there are some bad ones out there, nothing is perfect. I bought a 25 legacy a few months ago from my dealer, on the way home there was a loud humming noise. I replaced the rear diff at 100 miles. Did my first oil change at 1000 miles and found the driver side front axel boot was torn. Figures the tech that works there gets the 1 lemon on the lot 😂
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u/ntc0220 1d ago edited 1d ago
Glad you asked! Yes me! I have a 2.0 engine.. Bought brand new a 2021 impreza, January 2021, was 23k miles and was leaking oil just before 4 years old. Needed full head gaskets replaced already, O rings, resealing of the L cam carrier and oil pan, other gaskets replaced etc.. Basically had to overhaul the entire engine already. They told me it was way worse than they thought and it was a 4 day job. Luckily it was covered but I worry about my future. I had regular maintenance on the car 2-3x a year.. regular oil changes, etc. I do not know what happened. They told me it was a freak thing. But yes major problems out the gate already. I am debating trading it before my powertrain warranty is up January 2026. I still often times smell oil and will prob have it rechecked end of the month, (had it done end of January). I dont understand these people who say it doesnt happen w new Subaru's. Maybe I am in the minority. But it happened to me. I take great care of my car and it still happened. Funny story is my 2008 legacy i traded had the head gasket issue... (I expected this at 100k miles and being older) I thought I was getting away from it by purchasing a "modern" subaru brand new that wasn't supposed to have this problem....
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u/Dadominator 1d ago
2018 crosstrek here, owned since new. Engine just blew at 135k. Always religious with servicing. Ended up replacing the engine on my own, and found the cause of the issue. Subaru uses too much rtv on their engines. Found out rtv partially blocking oil galleries, and found chunks of rtv in the oil pickup tube. Engine was starved of oil, and killed itself with no fault of my own. Engine was doomed from mile 1.
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u/bloodknife92 WRX 1d ago
2016 Levorg GT-S with an FA20 here. Runs smoothly and has plenty of power. Doesn't miss a beat!
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u/Ok-Business5033 1d ago edited 13h ago
The issue is people don't understand what is negligence, normal wear and tear, bad design or even something that's literally 100% normal, like oil consuption. They might call these things issues when that's completely the wrong way to describe them. Its actually a completely ass backwards way to describe them, often times.
Subaru has been using the same fundamental engines for practically forever. Headgasket isn't an issue on any modern Subaru. That has literally been solved for decades.
Can a modern headgasket fail? Sure. Nothing is 100% perfect every time.
Headgasket failures are also not solely tied to Subaru's quality. Headgaskets fail very often when the car is overheated- this is true for all engines. That's literally why every single car in history tells you to turn off the engine when it starts overheating.
So this idea that headgasket failure is 1) common and 2) the result of Subarus shitty engine design in the event it does fail is just completely nonsensical. Genuine, random failures are effectively non-existent.
Now that we addressed that:
Oil consumption.
Oil consumption is normal. And similar to headgasket, can be caused by user error/negligence as well.
Subaru purposely loosened the oil control rings to reduce friction- improving gas mileage.
Pair that with thinner oil and it's more common for oil to get past the rings into the combustion chamber- resulting in it being burned off.
This is 100% normal- as much as like 1qt/2,000 miles normal.
Meaning that just because your low oil level light turns on between oil changes, it doesn't mean you have an issue.
Negligence also causes oil consumption issue. The rings need to be moving freely, frequently going 10k miles between changes results in sludge building up on the parts of the engine without direct metal on metal contact- like between the rings.
Both of these issues can be caused by normal wear and tear and user error/negligence.
That's why it's important people stop spreading misinformation when they don't understand the situation.
These engines are extremely reliable- while they do have issues, like oil leaks, they're usually minor and the engines don't outright fail on their own in 99.99% of cases.
The engine will outlive 2 entire transmissions in these cars. Service your stupid transmission, against the advice of Subaru, and engine oil, and don't worry about the engine lol.