My STI is well on the road to recovery now, with a re-ground crank, a new set of shells and a new con rod all on their way.

I think it is only fair that I put a few things to rest

I have talked to a lot of people about what has happened to my car and more importantly what may have caused the big end failure. The truth is, there are a large number of theories and ideas out there on this subject, some may be factual some highly speculative and others purely guess work. The truth is I simply don’t know the full answer in this case. The only real fact that has emerged as far as I can see is that an awful lot of both UK spec and Import engines both standard and modified have had the same failure. This problem allegedly is common in Japan. I think perhaps the issue is to do with the fundamental design of the engine and perhaps should be an issue with Subaru rather than anything else.

I will not linger on the subject of ECU upgrades, re-maps etc as this is a mine field but I would make a logical point. The reality is if you increase the output of an engine from standard you will put additional load on components in that engine and you should accept that the possible down side of a shorter engine life as part of the equation.

I certainly have accepted this and after nearly 25,000 miles over 2 years running a Power Engineering Phase 1 remap on an engine which was 15000kms old when I got it I would certainly NOT blame them for what has happened now.

I have enjoyed the enhanced power and responsive nature of the car with very few problems for 2 years and still have no regrets as to my decision to use Power Engineering for the modifications etc. I would go further and recommend them for parts and servicing etc.

Finally I would just like to say thanks to Pete at Scoobysport for the parts, Firefox for your advice and offer of help as well as Mervyn at Power Engineering who despite my initial knee jerk reaction offered a sympathetic ear and help to sort out any problems

 

Funny That.. I'm the same position. Was it #3 bearing that went on yours.

I also agree that these failures are not caused by different ECUs rather the poor design of the Subaru bottom end. I have seen Subarus over here that have had the same failure and they are non turbo cars.

Richard

 

Hi Richard,

Sounds very worrying.

Scoobycar60 thanks for sharing the info with us. Sorry to hear about the problem, but happy to read it's getting sorted out. Good luck with it all and hopefully it wont occur again.

WREXY.

 

Any idea how much it's going to end up costing to fix?

Anybody know of a good way to stop this happening in the first place????....

Matt

 

Well....

Mine went bang too! £2000 later it's all back together again.

FYI No mods, full service history and well looked after. I am positive that it is down to a design fault too.

 

I just posted a question regarding this in drivetrain under the thread engine blow up, but I'll post it here as well.

Does the big end bearing go all of a sudden or is there a particular noise, say at idle, maybe days, weeks, or months before it happens?

WREXY.

 

Thanks for that Andy. So what sounds like it could be piston slap, could turn out to be big ends. How scary. Well take note, I say
and any funny noises should not be left unchecked, but even if there is a noise and you check it, seems like the repair will be for the same thing anyway, new piston or big ends. What I'm trying to say is there doesn't seem to really be any precautions one can take.

WREXY.

 

As the problem mainifests itself as a big end bearing failure, surely this can only be down to a lubricating oil supply problem.

I would be thinking of fitting an oil cooler as my first step.
Greg

 

Sounds like a logical mod there Greg!

WREXY.

 

A colleague at work has just had this problem occur. His car is a '98 model year with PPP.

For him, the problem initially gave all the symptoms of piston slap on the number 3 cylinder. He then began to suffer poor starting, with the car seeming to be only running on 3 cylinders at times.

Eventually, the car got the point where it was almost impossible to start.

The dealer has the car for investigation on several occasions, and simply put it down to piston slap. When the car finally gave up the ghost, they did a more in depth investigation, and found the real problem.

Luckily for him, it was all sorted out under warranty.

Andy.