ardinos

So, I have very light mods. A gutted up and down pipe and an access ECU. Nothing major, just enough to spice the car up a little, I didn't want to go nuts since the car sees plenty of miles and I need reliability more than speed. Never on a track, no drag racing. Always 93 octane, always synthetic oil, changed usually in 6000 miles or less. I'm the only one to ever own the car and it has 66,000 miles on it.

I'm driving to upstate NY at about 10:00 PM to visit my parents with my brother in the car. We run into an audi... edited for street racing references (Before people flame me, yeah keep it on the track I know. If you've ever driven late at night in upstate NY there are wide open long straight highways with virutally no cars, it's really not that dangerous.)

50 miles down the road we run into a volkswagon GTI... (took car up to triple-digit speeds) edited for street racing references I stop at a gas station and when I fill the car back up and start it, I hear a ticking sound. I had thrown the timing belt before one tooth and it was rubbing against a cover making the noise. I figured crap, that's what it is, I'll have to get it fixed in the morning. As we drive, (mind you I'm in the middle of god forsaken no where, I grew up in Upstate NY, I'm not bashing it, just telling the truth,) the car starts to tick slightly louder and louder, I'm like oh crap. Finally the check engine light comes on and the car dies.

Diagnosis by the dealer is, the number four rod bearing went and sent metal through the head and turbo destroying it.

Has anyone had this happen to them before? What caused it? Am I really looking at a turbo, head and motor or can at least the head be fixed. (The block is toast for certain.)
Last but not least, has anyone had any luck getting subaru to fix a motor under warranty after the 60,000 mile powertrain warranty is up? Particularly in my case where there were very light mods?

jdepould

iTrader: (2)

they probably wouldn't cover it under 60k and claim abuse, I'd say there's zero chance of coverage, best case scenario you make friends w/ the dealer and they don't charge you full price as a goodwill gesture, IMHO anyways.

ardinos

I certainly hope Subaru fixes it under warranty. If the rod broke, that's abuse. A failed bearing should only happen due to oil starvation or manufacturer defect. I change the oil religiously and have receipts to prove it, (I actually had to fax them to the dealer.)

That being said I was wondering if there was anything about going fast in a straight line that had caused anyone else to have the same problem. I've driven plenty of cars just as quickly in far worse conditions, (100+ degrees for instance,) and never had a problem.

I had a turbo miata that went 120k miles the last 50k miles with 100 extra hp and we tore it apart for new internals so we could make more boost. The guts looked almost new. It's still running strong 10k miles later.

Lurk

iTrader: (10)

Oh well, looks like now its time for a Ver. 7 or Ver. 8 engine swap.

jdepould

iTrader: (2)

the problem is his warranty expired

sigma pi

iTrader: (6)

groupe s has spec c motors cheap right now

hockeygod

Ive had my engine blow up. I was driving, heard the same noise but by the time i got the car to the nearest parking lot the blew up. I had 3k on it. The problem was the main power pulley tensioner was defective and the belt slipped and came off causing 15 bent valves. Subaru covered it but were still reluctant. Hope this helps!

MonkeyAB

iTrader: (1)

^^^ I hope that helps too...



but if not, buy one of those engines from Gruppe-s. They got a new shipment in just this week.

ardinos

Thanks for the suggestions. I was supposed to hear from SOA about the warranty yesterday, supposedly the guy never showed up at the dealer and I'll hear today.

In order to run one of engines from Gruppe S, don't I need a new ECU since the 2002 wrx doesn't have a way to control the AVCS? Also, would that then mean a new wiring harness? I'm already going to have to spend a bundle and I'd prefer to not have to have the entire car re-wired.

RussB

iTrader: (2)

there are so many things wrong with this...

1. you admitted to modding the car. SOA provides a warranty for a stock wrx. yours has mods that are proven to increase power.

2. sounds like you were beating the isht out of the car that night. so what if you've never been to a drag strip or race track. it is possible to abuse a car just as badly on the open road.

3. your warranty is expired. even if the mods did not cause the failure, you are still not covered by any sort of warranty.

ardinos

Russ,

Interesting analysis, beating the **** out of my car.

Yes I modded it, but per the writing in the warranty, that has to be the cause, or the most likely cause of the damage to deny a warranty. If I put in a boost gauge that doesn't void the warranty. If my mods caused knock etc, that voids the warranty.

If on the other hand the oil pump died or there was a flaw from the beginning, that's not my fault, my mods didn't cause that.

Yes it's past the warranty, however it's not very far past it. 6,000 miles. If I had 60,001 miles no claim? No SOA said they'd cover it, they said it gets gray the further out past 60,000 miles you go. 90,000 miles no way, less than 61,000 miles, you bet, everything else in between. . .

As to beating the **** out of the car, yes I was going fast, however drag racing from a stop light is far more stress on an engine, driving really fast in a banked oval on a track can push the oil to one side, starve it and destroy it, that's hard on an engine. If driving fast were that hard on an engine, why does any car in Germany last for any amount of time on the autobahn? I had one gear change, 3rd to 4th for most of what I drove. I made it to 5th once. I wouldn't really call that beating the **** out of it. No hard launches, a cold night so a pretty efficient intercooler. (I have a temp gauge just past the intercooler, it didn't go that high as it was cold as hell and I had the intercooler sprayer on.)

I'd go so far as to say that driving 90mph out west in the desert for 3 hours is far worse than the perhaps two minutes at the outside I spent between 90 and 135. Why aren't cars all over the west barfing their guts on the road?

ardinos

Well the warranty claim was denied. I was told that even if I'd had 59k miles I would have been denied, that having a gutted cat was enough. (They also then proceeded to list the 225 instead of 205 width tires as a potential problem, the air intake etc.) Basically if it's a non subaru part in the drivetrain and something in the drivetrain fails, you're dead in the water. I was told by the dealer that they just had a new STI with 8k come in for a broken transmission, and based on the fact the car had an non-subaru exhaust, they denied the claim.

This was Mathews subaru in vestal NY. I was told by SOA that the dealer really helps them decide if they're going to cover a car, I was told by the dealer it was SOA that decides, I was then told by SOA that the regional district operations manager would make that decision in conjunction with input form the dealer. I first tried to establish whether or not the car would have been covered if it had had only 59k miles on it. They eventually said "probably not but we can't officially say." I just never seemed to get a straight answer out of them.

Anyways I understand that with my car at 66k miles they were under no obligation to cover the car. What really dissappoints me is that of the 4 times I have had to deal with the dealer service department, I've had three bad experiences. I had the fuel rail fixed twice since after the first time it broke again 12k miles later and the dealer broke off hoses in the intake track each time they fixed it, then fixed the broken hoses with epoxy which later came off and required me to get a special clamp and some silicon sealant to fix. This last time I lost 3 days since they told me, we have to wait for someone from SOA to show up and look at the car, then in the end the guy didn't show up thursday, not friday and on monday they finally just called SOA and with a few phone calls they were then able to tell me, "no warranty". Just tell me that up front so I don't lose time.

I love the STI but based on service, I don't think I could buy another subaru and that sucks.

Anyways now I have to fix this car and drive it till I get my money back out of it. I figure I'll build it for 400hp, give it 300hp and drive it till it's really dead.

Anyone have any experience with the cobb tuning engine blocks?

Also the head had light scoring on the cams and in the valve journals, buy a new head or take it to a machine shop to see what they can do?

doughboy

iTrader: (3)

why not fix it, bring it back to stock, drive it for awhile to make sure things are in spec, and then sell it to get another car? i'm not crying or complaining, but it's stuff like this that people are getting out of the subaru brand. there are diehard subaru enthusiasts who would readily come in to defend the brand, but i think the number of WRX's for sale is a testament to "all the little things" that could go wrong with our cars.

if you're not comfortable with your car, i suggest you sell it. again, i'm just going by what's logical to me.

ardinos

You know, the repair and dump it option is sounding nice. A G35 is a beautiful car and I hear they have some great options for power.