urban

iTrader: (1)

At least you bought it with a 'warranty'.
At least its a dealer you got it from, rather than a trader.
You'd like to think a Mercedes dealer would be able to handle that shower I.M/Subaru UK

APIDavid

iTrader: (4)

Sorry to hear all that JB. If you run into trouble with the seller or IM feel free to give me a call. As you will have seen earlier we have several solutions for this and can make it safe and worry free for rather less than a potential dealer cost.

Call for a chat with no obligation at any time.

David APi

01926 614333

urban

iTrader: (1)

One would imagine JB isn't banking on paying several grand to rebuild it himself.
I just hope he gets looked after by the Merc dealer.

APIDavid

iTrader: (4)

I agree entirely. BUT where is the point in getting it repaired in the standard Subaru form when it is likely to do the same thing again ? It needs the upgrade of pistons and a set of 11mm studs to keep the heads on. If the dealer will [ or can ] fit those it'd be worth paying the extra to have it right.

No one wants to spend money unnecessarily, but equally no one wants to keep repairing a car with all the disruption and unpleasantness that goes with dealing with a continuously faulty product.

I have seen some dealer "rebuilds" There is little care taken and very little cleaning and prepping of the parts. We spend as much time cleaning, even new parts, as we do building the damn things.

David

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

If it was me I would be showing this thread and these sort of posts to the Merc dealer in this instance. This car has now had two engines go pop and as you rightly say it could just happen again.

The real answer is to get an API rebuild on the warranty ... fat chance of that though I guess!

APIDavid

iTrader: (4)

The real answer is to get an API rebuild on the warranty

I like your idea best

Alan Jeffery

We've rebuilt two recently where the dealer has just taken it on the chin and decided to get us to do the job properly. The result is happy customers and no more worries about the car having to go back again, as we will happily warranty the engine.

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Seriously though gentlemen this is the real answer. I would be livid if I bought a car, had the main delaer rebuild the engine because of failure only to have it go again due to shoddy workmanship, poor quality parts etc. when it could have been done properly by people like you.

It's not good enough and therefore needs handing over to people who can obviously do what needs to be done.

Like I say in this instance I would be lobbying the Merc dealer hard with lots of 'evidence' like this thread.

JBUK

Thanks everyone. Unfortunately the 3 month warranty had just expired so all I'm left with is trying to claim under the sale of good act from the retailer. I'm not sure how they can refuse to repair the vehicle once I get the report back and it does not blame me, but whether or not they will agree to do it properly with forged pistons etc I dont know, certainly worth asking but have little hope.

Alan Jeffery

Compromising is usually the best way forward in that circumstance, it's better than paying it all, and you can have the result that suits everybody.

abre

JBUK
As I understood it, a replacement short block should carry its own warranty if fitted by a Subaru dealer, and as such if the car is still within the 3 year warranty period, still have a Subaru warranty on the replacement parts/short block. This would be irrespective of you purchasing it from a Merc dealer. Did you ask the Subaru dealer about its warranty status or have I just missed that in the detail.
Andrew

JBUK

It's warranry ended Jan 2013 I'm afraid. The engine was replaced under warranty at 26000 miles, which is what the Subaru garage told the mercedes garage, they did not tell me directly and have not offered to repair it under warranty. I would of thought a replacement engine which was fitted under warranty just 8 months (8000 miles ago) should automatically carry another fresh warranty.

chopperman

That's exactly what happened in my case. Piston #4 broke and the dealer i bought the car from paid a local dealer to fix it. I told them to sub it out and get it forged and was will to pay the extra for parts. They ignored me and threw one new piston in. 300 miles later and still running in #2 piston failed. I contacted the dealer i bought the car from and gave them my opinion and the option that would make me a happy customer. They took it on the chin and got it fixed properly. I gave them 3 names who i insisted should do the work You API and Paul Finch. They went with Paul and my car has been perfect ever since.
To back up what API have said about quality of dealer work and cleaning. Paul contacted me when he had my engine apart informing me i had a damaged camshaft. This was due to the main dealer not keeping things clean and dirt being trapped between the bearing cap and cam.

My advice to the gent with the 330 is, get the dealer covering the vehicle to price up the repair from one of the above engine builders . Even if to cut costs they remove and re-fit the engine and just send the long motor to be built.

chopperman

You maybe covered under your consumer rights from the selling dealer rather than the subaru warranty?

abre

That was my understanding from what my dealer told me when mine was suspected of having had ringland failure 4 months ago... it hadn't and so the warranty issue never got fully investigated by me. But I clearly recall the dealer saying that the new short engine would carry a warranty of its own, now this could have been the usual BS but it may well be worth a few calls to the original dealer and IM to clarify the Subaru position. After all dealer fit parts have a 3 year warranty don't they...
Hope you get it sorted, I'd be wanting someones dangly bits in a vice for this!
Andrew

JBUK

Does not give me much confidence It was another Subaru dealer in Sheffield who did the engine replacement under warranty apparently. The whole thing seems a bit suspicious to me since the Subaru garage have been unwiling to specify a cause of the problem, they did not tell me of the past engine replacement too. Another thing is when i took my car to Subaru initially they phoned me and said the problems were because of a bodged engine replacement! it was only when mercedes contacted them they learnt the engine replacement was done by a subaru dealer. They deny saying this now. My car is also missing 1 exhaust heat shield and 1 is damaged. So far I've been unsuceesfull in trying to get them to fix this, apparently it's a minor component and they are refusing.

selhurstscooby

JBUK, I have just had my 2010 STI short block replaced afer 18k under Subaru warranty, the new parts come with a 3 year 36k warranty.
This information about your car should be fairy easy for a dealership to confirm, you just need to twist a few arms to get them to take responsability for the repair and get it completed.
Good luck with that, my repair only took 3 months at a main dealer but they havn't heard the last from me...

selhurstscooby

Can I also recomend that where possible, you keep a record of all conversations and Emails in a diary with dates & times, it makes tracking the whole process much simpler!

thenewgalaxy

What a nightmare.

Should have built these engines properly to begin with.

A forged 2.5 is a glorious and worry-free thing.

Get in touch with Alan or David if you don't get anywhere but to be honest I cannot see how someone is not responsible for fixing this by law.

JBUK

Thanks that gives me a lot of hope this will be resolved for me. Think I will wait for the independent report then at least I have some proof of what has failed to approach them with. Hopefully I can use all the past problems for reference and get whoever does the repair to do it properly like suggested. I would certainly pay extra for it to have a decent and reliable motor. I will be selling the car otherwise My only concern is I'm relying primarily on the sale of goods act, so the retailer has to first repair it not the manufacturer. It's a weird one for sure. I think the retailer I bought the car from has to deal with subaru to rectify this if the car turns out to have a common fault, or would hope so. I've been quite dilligent at keeping all correspondence and receipts, I even have a receipt for oil I bought to top up before the problems started My car completely is standard as far as I know. Can someone give an indication of the price difference between subaru (£5600) and someone else doing it with forged pistons?

JBUK

Thanks. My thoughts exactly. I do love the scooby so would love to get it sorted properly. Except the 24mpg or less I get from it

chopperman

Probably at least £1500-£2000 cheaper than that, providing other parts are not damaged within the engine.

kev m

JBUK,
I am sorry to hear about the problems you are having, I had simular problems with my 330S at 18 months old. I have to say that after a lengthy battle with Subaru UK & IM and with the help of the Dealer my car war repaired witha short motor, like many I thought this new short motor would have another 3 years warranty only to be informed that because Subaru UK/IM had payed for it my warranty would still runout once the car became 3 years old. Had I paid for the new short motor myself it would have come with a 3 year warranty that would continue even after the original 3 year warranty expired (Short engine only)
I still belive that the Prodrive map is to blame for the issues on the 330S & PPP cars.
If you are planning on keeping the car get it forged & remapped, i did the opposite and sold mine once the warranty expired.

Hope you get some good news with getting it sorted at someone elses expense.

urban

iTrader: (1)

Yet another customer that will never be near the marque again.

Well done Subaru UK, you're doing a fantastic job - I hope you're reading all of this!

chopperman

That's it in a nut shell. This is the only permanent fix !

joz8968

iTrader: (13)

No, THIS is in a nutshell etc etc...

kev m

urban,
Your not wrong there, I was a loyal customer over 17 years and 5 brand new Impreza's. the only way you'll see me owning another Subaru will be a Classic- Blob eye with a 2 litre engine and at that age it will be free of the Subaru UK/IM CRAP service

salsa-king

That will be Europa in Sheffield, also a Merc dealer as well as Subaru.

I've just had my 5th Year service on my 330s with them last Saturday... and been there since 2011 for servicing and ever had a problem.

Have you given them a ring to see what they did?

urban

iTrader: (1)

Problem is some cars are worse than others.
I bet that you're not terribly hard on the car either.

Alan Jeffery

I might have mentioned this before, and it's little consolation, but Subaru are by no means the worst offender with this sort of issue. Nissan stick out a mile as being most likely to ignore engine worries.
We've seen several instances of big end bolts coming loose on Navaras resulting in major blow ups. They all chew through turbos as well. We had a 350Z, 2006 model that was recovered to us as a pile of bits with 8000 miles on the clock and a damaged crank and rod. It was stripped by the dealer who sold the customer the car when it was new. They refused to cover the warranty on the basis that it had run out of oil. It wasn't even due a first service. The customer had already put in two litres of oil, not realising that wasn't right! According to Nissan, 800 miles per litre of oil is acceptable oil consumption..
Funnily enough, I don't see that one plastered up in any showrooms.
They wanted £13,000 for a new engine, we fixed it all for £7000.
The internet showed up hundreds of instances like the above all over the world.
We had to have new pistons made as you couldn't buy them at the time, they lost a box of parts as well. It's been all fine since and doesn't use oil.
Having been in this line of work for a while, I could bore you for hours with the things that weren't right with one car or another. The good news is that Imprezas are very worth fixing, as opposed to some I've seen that should have gone direct to the scrapyard from the production line!