It is easy to tell if you have a head gasket problem. If you see oil under your car (under the engine), or if you have to add oil constantly to your engine then it is probably the head gasket. Also, you can probably look under your car and have a look at the engine to see if oil comes through the gasket.
Subarus handle great because of low center of gravity, this is due to the boxer engine location which sits very low in the frame. Due to the boxer engine taking up a lot of space, and its location between the frame beams; it is very labour intensive to replace a Subaru head gasket. To change the head gasket the engine has to be disconnected and lifted to get access to the cylinder heads. The gasket is not expensive, it’s the labour to remove the engine and then re-install it. Same goes for spark plugs, for a normal car it takes about 15 minutes to change them, for Subarus the engine has to come out.
I would make darn sure before replacing the head gasket that it actually needs replacing, you don’t want to spend $2,500 and find out your AC still doesn’t work. Some Subarus require a head gasket change around 100,000kms and this is a common problem. Other cars require head gasket changes as well, but since the engine is very accessible it requires very minimal labour and nobody talks about them. Subarus are a different breed.
The gasket becomes hard over time due to vibration and engine heat, and it is no longer rubbery but brittle and oil starts to seep through. Hope this helps.
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