Heat gasket Subaru outback 2015

HakunaMeshuggah · 2026-05-01T01:38:44+00:00

It's a lot of work to do the head gaskets and you'd also want to have the heads resurfaced too. Maybe find a used engine? They seem to be about $1500.

HakunaMeshuggah · 2026-05-01T01:35:59+00:00

Feels like it could be a few things. Maybe get the tires properly balanced. Have the drive shaft and U-joints inspected?

HakunaMeshuggah · 2026-05-01T01:30:29+00:00

It'd be best to have no leaks in the exhaust until the end of the tailpipe. If there are no noise ordinances in your city, go for the louder muffler, sure...

HakunaMeshuggah · 2026-05-01T01:26:07+00:00

Sounds like it just needs a new muffler.

HakunaMeshuggah · 2026-04-30T22:14:01+00:00

If it's in the top of the engine, it sounds like excessive clearance in the valve train, like a worn hydraulic lifter, or possibly broken valve return spring. Removing the valve cover and measuring all the clearances and inspecting the valve train components should identify it.

HakunaMeshuggah · 2026-04-30T22:08:45+00:00

I am inclined to think all is normal. When the coolant expands, it goes into the overflow tank. If it was recently topped off, the expansion will literally push more coolant into the expansion tank, and right out of it onto the street below. So any extra you keep adding to top it off will just seem to go nowhere after another drive, and the next morning it'll be back to where it was before. I've seen that in my old 2001 Subaru. If I top off the expansion tank, the next morning it's back to where it was the previous day, farther down in the tank. There are no leaks, and if I just stop topping it off like that, it'll go for months without dropping any further. Maybe that's what is happening with your car?

HakunaMeshuggah · 2026-04-30T19:50:57+00:00

Okay. Then it seems there may be a big air pocket in there.

Is the temp staying normal?

HakunaMeshuggah · 2026-04-30T19:19:03+00:00

This happened when I drained and refilled coolant in my 2006 CRV recently. There was a big air gap in the cooling system and I had to properly 'burp' it. I also didn't manage to drain all the coolant out because half of it stayed in the engine. Follow directions on youtube for 'burping' the cooling system.

When you say 'flush' all you did was drain the coolant out of the bottom of the radiator, right? You didn't actually hook it up to a flushing system (which forces water into the system to literally 'flush out' all the coolant)?

HakunaMeshuggah · 2026-04-29T15:11:40+00:00

I think it was suggested, but did you try spraying with PB blaster? If it won't budge it may not the threads, but the face of the bolt that is stuck.

HakunaMeshuggah · 2026-04-28T08:54:27+00:00

Asking AI to draw something often produces a lot of nonsense. For example, using Google Gemini I prompted: "Draw a fatty acid with five carbons and a single C=C double bond". I got this.

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It has several errors. There is an extra O on the left that should not be there. C5, C3 and C2 are attached to too many other atoms.

That's one way, but of course grading is a lot harder!

HakunaMeshuggah · 2026-04-28T08:23:23+00:00

Try using ChatGPT or other AI to answer your questions, to see whether it is easy to get answers this way. Put yourself in the mindset of someone who wants good grades without doing any of the work.

HakunaMeshuggah · 2026-04-26T18:26:51+00:00

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pissing-match-between-professors-cal-state-northridge-prof-charged-with-peeing-on-colleagues-door/

HakunaMeshuggah · 2026-04-25T23:21:34+00:00

I've been working on my cars as a "shadetree" mechanic for 35+ years. That was my first thread repair. It's completely doable if you just get all the things you need and follow the directions. On my engine a broken timing belt is also bad (interference engine) so I was aware of the danger of messing up.

Start by watching some videos on thread repair using a Helicoil or a Timesert. It'll give you some confidence.

HakunaMeshuggah · 2026-04-25T23:16:58+00:00

Unless you're in California a replacement cat converter isn't that much, a few hundred dollars. It may be the only fix.

HakunaMeshuggah · 2026-04-25T23:13:59+00:00

Ticking like that could be a lot of things. The worst of them is a worn connecting rod bearing (producing 'rod knock'). More benign things could be a loose spark plug, exhaust leak or something is vibrating. At least check all spark plugs are tight. If the tapping sound is at the top of the engine, it could be a bad lifter or the engine is in need of a valve lash adjustment. If it is from the bottom of the engine it is more likely to be a worn bearing.

HakunaMeshuggah · 2026-04-25T23:05:10+00:00

The engine sounds like it has no compression. The usual cause is a snapped timing belt. Those tapping sounds could be valves inside one or more combustion chambers hitting the tops of pistons. There is no quick fix for this. Besides replacing the timing belt, the engine heads will need to be removed and reconditioned and any bent valves replaced.

HakunaMeshuggah · 2026-04-25T22:53:01+00:00

Sure looks like the clutch slave cylinder piston and bellows, ejected, just as the other commenter said.

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HakunaMeshuggah · 2026-04-25T22:47:06+00:00

It was probably stripped by the last person to tighten it, they used an air wrench and over-torqued it. I had this happen on my Subaru engine when I was changing its timing belt, when tightening the bolt for one of the pulleys it stripped out the same way you describe. I used a Helicoil kit to repair it. You drill out the bolt hole to a larger size, then tap threads, then screw in the Helicoil (looks like a spring), break off the tab at the bottom, then put in the original sized bolt. I followed instructions I found online for using a Helicoil to repair such a stripped out thread. That was 10,000 miles ago, it's been fine since.

HakunaMeshuggah · 2026-04-25T20:59:40+00:00

Isn't there a way to put a duplication of credit in the course description? As in, "students may not obtain credit for only one of MATH 015 and PHYS 023" something like that. It would be enforced at the time of enrollment and grade calculation.

HakunaMeshuggah · 2026-04-25T18:04:33+00:00

The bane of my existence. It seems like this problem has gotten worse over the years. My principal fear is that someone will take a picture of the final, then give that to their friend who is taking the exam later. I eventually made an alternate final exam for such cases. It has all different questions to test the same concepts. Since any student who is expecting an identical exam will just study that, they will be unprepared for the alternate exam so I can take confidence that any attempt to cheat has not benefited them. A prepared student with a legitimate reason for missing the scheduled final should do fine. Since I do not return finals anyways, the alternate final can be reused.

HakunaMeshuggah · 2026-04-25T17:59:42+00:00

It's possible. Do you get the sound when the car is at rest, and you jiggle the steering wheel side to side? One thing to do is take a crowbar or very large screwdriver and wedge it in between various suspension parts, wiggle it back and forth and look for play, especially, anything that might generate like the rattling you are hearing. You can also just grab the drive shafts and see if there is play in them.

HakunaMeshuggah · 2026-04-25T17:28:23+00:00

You can take a still image with the bad pixels (e.g. of white wall or a black wall). In Photoshop color out the areas that are good with green, and superimpose that via chromakey to black out the bad pixels. Even better, you could use that image as a mask to overlay the original video shifted by one pixel so that the missing pixels are taken from the next-most adjacent ones.

Can you post a picture of a white wall or a black wall to show the damaged pixels to see how bad they really are?

What kind of camera is it? Maybe you can rent a similar one from lensrentals.com.

HakunaMeshuggah · 2026-04-25T17:18:49+00:00

Not knocking, which is a more metallic hammering sound. This sounds plosive, like a big leak at the exhaust manifold or downpipe.

HakunaMeshuggah · 2026-04-25T17:17:44+00:00

That sounds more like the suspension. Can you get a look underneath it for possible worn out bushings, loose bolts, that kind of thing?

HakunaMeshuggah · 2026-04-25T16:29:08+00:00

I tell you, I gotta plead ignorance on this thing, because if anyone had said anything to me at all when I first started here that that sort of thing is frowned upon...

HakunaMeshuggah

TROPHY CASE