mickp

iTrader: (1)

I would also be interested in a price for this work. Are you able to advise Alan ?

You have PM

jaypSTi

iTrader: (1)

Spec and details of the car from Alan's graph available here-
https://www.scoobynet.com/scoobynet-...ginetuner.html
ring alan for prices

codie247

Comes to something when a forged engine or partial rebuild is the solution to the engine woes on such a new car. A nice solution, but never the less, should not be needed. At IM's cost yes not at the owners.

Lee

vulnax999

iTrader: (7)

Too true Lee!

When discussing a remap with Andy F he mentioned safe limits else one bad lot of fuel and det would eat the pistons - go get forged pistons to solve the problem!

Shame innit!


Hows your beasty??

mickp

iTrader: (1)

Completely agree Lee.

I still love the car but when the day comes to change this little episode won't be forgotten. Subaru have let us down.......no doubt about it.

urban

iTrader: (1)

We'll guys,
The more info we have the better chance we've got in getting a resolution

rob84

iTrader: (5)

Im there on the 20th October @10am, For a methanol map and to tweek this engine a touch

vulnax999

iTrader: (7)

Wheee!

Andy F just replied - RaceRomnot released yet!

Normal remap for me then............ until later!

Carlh

I wonder if the issue exists on the cosworth sti. I'd be gutted if my £50k engine popped..... suppose subaru wont be worried, with only 75 of em being in the uk, there aint going to much of a mass complaint. lol.

Subaru should listen to Toyota, they screwed up and then they go ahead putting a massive warranty against all cars they make just to get the confidence factor back. Even vauxhall are doing a 100,000 mile warranty. C'mon Subaru, you're part of a massive corporation. Do the Right Thing.

Mrfastbaz

cmon subaru listen to your customers

Alan Jeffery

The Cosworth car has a forged bottom end. Problem solved!

CaptainJohn

I don`t actually think FHI AKA Subaru are really bothered the way the Yen is at the moment , they won`t sell many new cars with the 12.5% price increase and they are still struggling to break even with a new STi up at £32K. Plus further increases in 2011 and Subaru becomes a small niche market , I think they will wait until things improve and just try and soak up the engine failures as best they can . They are just trickle feeding the UK with cars anyway for exactly these reasons and the good thing to come out of this is that second hand values are on the up as good used STis become as rare as rocking horse droppings. It will be a very interesting couple of years for the Subaru world.

Apostle

Hi all, hadn't been reading this since my earlier post ... somewhere.

I can't believe that people are still considering buying a Subaru Sti

The new cars have the same engines with the same problems

Its the same crappy hyperneutic / whatever pistons, same poor mapping for emmissions, and engines are still going pip pop bang !

With 15% approx of all Sti's stateside having failed, the percentage here can't be far off that - certainly more than 10%...

Its an absolute disgrace


As much as I love my Subaru (08 Sti Enginetuner repaired / forged rebuild) I would not buy another for the above reasons. Mine is on a 5 year payment plan so i'm tied in for the long haul.


For those that wonder what it costs to fix.... around £2200 for pistons only rebuild if everything else is reusable, bumping up to £3-4k for a decent spec. then able to easiy run 450'ish all day long. I took the opportunity to spend £500 having the heads ported and flowed by their 'head specialist' - worth it if its all apart anyway.


Alan @ Enginetuner is the guy to speak to as he quotes fully inclusive drive in - drive out prices, not hiding vat, or 'unusual' labour costs. They gave me a running commentry of the work as it progressed with a library of digital photos showing the whats, wheres, and whens during the build. Alan will help 'guide you' to get where you want to go...


Anyhow, commiserations to all those who have been burnt by the IM peeps, past, present, and future

A

codie247

Hi Neil, absolutely loving it. Engine loosening up nicely. Cornering is laugh out loud. Just grips and grips. Loving it. Just need a good run up to Evo Triangle to enjoy it properly

Lee

Powder hound

hi guys please like my group i have set up on facebook- (subaru engine failure) we are gaining support so we can take court action against the IM group and Subaru uk. thanks

Simon Green

Whilst we have seen a few failures I should point out that there are many many cars out there still running without any issues. I can think of a couple that have already done well over 60k miles and still going strong. And I know they get driven fairly hard! Just thought I should add this as there may be current owners out there worrying for no reason.

mickp

iTrader: (1)

Fair point Simon but it will be difficult for you to defend the indefensible. 10 minutes on the internet shows you how big the issue is globally.

Getting to 60k miles without blowing up doesn't impress me that much. It is an appaling situation made much worse by Subaru's failure to nip it in the bud.

I really sense this problem is going to very quickly now pick up momentum and haunt Subaru for a long long time.

dsemuk

I phoned IM Tech support before committing to buying my STi and I was told that engine failures had only occurred on a few early engines which had been thrashed (revved to the red line frequently) or oil levels had not been monitored... A new engine map had been developed to ease the problem, reducing fuelling at the top of the rev range.

On a different call to IM Tech support I was told that if I couldnt find 98 RON fuel 95 RON was OK, I just wouldn't get best performance, the engine management system would adjust to the lower octane fuel (in the fuel filler it clearly states use 98 RON only). Luckily I live almost next door to a Shell station selling V Power. I bet if anyone uses 95 RON suffers an engine failure the warrant claim will be rejected because wrong fuel was used.

dsemuk

I phoned IM Tech support before committing to buying my STi and I was told that engine failures had only occurred on a few early engines which had been thrashed (revved to the red line frequently) or oil levels had not been monitored... A new engine map had been developed to ease the problem, reducing fuelling at the top of the rev range.

On a different call to IM Tech support I was told that if I couldnt find 98 RON fuel 95 RON was OK, I just wouldn't get best performance, the engine management system would adjust to the lower octane fuel (in the fuel filler it clearly states use 98 RON only). Luckily I live almost next door to a Shell station selling V Power. I bet if anyone uses 95 RON suffers an engine failure the warrant claim will be rejected because wrong fuel was used.

mickp

iTrader: (1)

Don't forget these links if you want the global picture.

vulnax999

iTrader: (7)

[QUOTE=dsemuk;9627126]I phoned IM Tech support before committing to buying my STi and I was told that engine failures had only occurred on a few early engines which had been thrashed (revved to the red line frequently) or oil levels had not been monitored... A new engine map had been developed to ease the problem, reducing fuelling at the top of the rev range.
QUOTE]

Reducing fuelling at the top end / at rev limit was ( one main ) reason for the piston / engine failures. This leans the engine off ( in this case slowly relatively - but still in milli seconds ) to a weak mixture just when you are full throttle / full load on the engine!

Think of oxy-acetylene cutting gear - when the extra air ( oxygen ) trigger is pressed the flame gets whiter and hoter, or try a bunsen burner and see the diffrence from rich to stoic to weak mixture!

I believe this was the rev limit strategy on early cars, where as mappers useually retard the ignition and over fuel it to bog the engine revs down!

stanmo

iTrader: (1)

I thought leaning out the air/fuel mixture at high load/revs was bad ?
Lean mix produces more heat, less fuel to cool the intake charge, etc ?

Anyone want to gamble on whether their car is an 'early' one ?

So why doesn't the WRX suffer the same issues ? Cost cutting on pistons, exhaust valves, etc, can't have been on the STI alone, surely ?

Has anyone heard of cases with the WRX-S going bang ? Or did they not sell enough ?

scooby L

STI's are more prone because they run more boost.

I thought I heard of one WRX-S loosing a piston though

Abx

iTrader: (15)

I would imagine that they could all be early ones, all imported at the same time in one huge batch and sold over the course of a couple of years, I know when I was looking in spring 09 for a hatch that there were some at the likes of motorpoint that were unregisted 08 cars, If I had one it would have been on an 09 plate and had just over a year left on the warranty so had actually been sitting in the uk for nerly 2 years!

mickp

iTrader: (1)

A bit of poll info here from the USA. Interesting reading.

Initial responses:

153 responses:

80% Without Failures 20% With Failures

Of the 32 responses with failures:

Mileage when failure occured:
0-7500 miles 32.25%
7501-15000 miles 50%
15001-22500 miles 12.5%
22501-30000 miles 0%
30001+ miles 6.25%

Piston that failed? (users could select more than one)
#2 34.375%
#3 6.25%
#4 78.125%

Was it covered under warranty?:
Yes 87.5%
No 9.375%
Unknown 3.125%

What did warranty replace?
Pistons Only 53.125%
Shortblock 15.625%
Longblock 18.75%
Not covered 9.375%
Unknown 3.125%

So we can see so far that almost 83% of all failures have occured prior to 15000 miles on the car, 80% of failures occured on piston #4, close to 90% had their repair covered under warranty and the majority of repairs consisted of just pistons being replaced.

Mrfastbaz

well mine was kaput at 12200 miles bearings shot and a new short engine replaced under warranty still running in new engine

mickp

iTrader: (1)

Does anyone have info as to how many STI Hatch cars have been sold in the UK from 2008 - 2010 ???

Dirty Bus

I have a 08 sti which has had engine failure every 11000 miles. I am sympathetic to anyone wondering what they should do when warranty is up next year. My garage is great and The 2011 saloon is great to drive , but if I drive the 2011 in the same manner as my 08 and use the same fuel ( 6000 plus revs all the time with 95 ron) is the new sti going to blow up too ?

Barty77

iTrader: (4)

I thought you could ONLY run super on an sti and std/super on a WRX?

vulnax999

iTrader: (7)

The STi's have a sticker in the furl filler flap saying Only > 98 RON furl.

Wouldn't be covered by warranty if wrong fuel used.
Subaru also blame the driver / driving style for the failures.... hitting rev limit is not a good idea especially with he rev cut philosophy ( especially on earlier Hatches ).

Ohh yeah, having no oil in the engine, that's a good one too!