Had the worst day yet of ownership.

turned the car over in peterborough (quite a way from home),car was rocking and shaking violently..
pulled out of a city car park low speed- car didnt sound right.
called local subaru dealer (I will name on dealer forum) who agreed to
take a look..
limped there off boost and slowly..

"hm doesnt look/sound good"
"maybe coil packs/HTleads.."
toild him it had a recent new MAF sensor, and had had trouble with boost etc recently..
was told he was chock full and couldnt even get me on the select due to only having ONE technician ..
He sent me on my way.. I drove gently a bit further and the engine was rougher and rougher.. so I stopped... made a call to pick some brains and it turns out the car was running on 3 cylinders!!! (which p20spd thankfully pointed out over the phone.)

huge thanks to P20spd for some top advice and help and to TSL for squeezing me in a very short notice....
I had to get flatbed'd back to TSL from peterborough as I dare not turn it over for fear of making it worse.. DAMN that Subaru service manager !!!!!GRRRRRRRRRR FFS!!!!!!!

its now in bits at TSL, being probed for the cause..

F0Oking cheesed off and quite upset at the thought of a dead engine..
see my poorly beastie here in its glory here- www.scoobyfanatic.co.uk

gutted is not the word.

further investigation should help determine what the hell happened.
feeling so.. so.. arggghhh ...


Mods- sorry; I *had* to vent... majorly naffed off..

[Edited by chrome - 8/21/2003 9:37:46 PM]

 

Sorry to hear this mate

Hope its not as bad as it sounds......

 

f00k mate

sorry to hear about this, hope it all gets sorted soon

Give me a bell tomorrow and let me know what happens

 

Comiserations dude.
At least if there's no loud clangings your crank is probably okay and stuff.

Damn. Please keep us posted. This could be monster rebuild time.

 

Sorry once again brad, i hope to god its not as bad initial thoughts were. Last i heard there were a couple of problems that could have caused it.

As for the thanks, no need, its what friends are for, just amazed a subaru dealer let you drive the car away!!

It sounded very bad when you walked to the back of the car!

Please update ASAP

Steven

 

Sounds just like the coil pack...I had a similar thing...booting up a motorway slip road trying to overtake a Focus, hit the limiter and left it there a little bit too long, next thing I know engine has lost loads of power. Pull in to hard shoulder and realise it's running on 3 cylinders. When ticking over it was shaking violently. I thought I'd blown the engine - but it was just the coil pack (about £140 from main dealer).

Calm down, don't worry!!!

 

Chrome

Nice one Steven though - can't believe that dealer [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img] What a muppet

 

Turboteeth, it aint the coil pack sadly.

I know that for sure

Steven

 

A phone call or a letter to Subaru UK would not go a miss on this one, I don't think they would be impressed in what the dealer said, I've done it in the past and it worked wonders, hope the car is ok.
Cheers
Colin

 

Know how you feel mate

Subaru dealer told me.. I quote

One new engine later

Same with gearbox .... One new gearbox later

 

Rather surprising that, cos that's my local dealer (if it is the one I'm thinking of) and they're normally excellent. I'll drop it in to conversation when I'm in there at the weekend

 

Jeezz, I hop it all turns out ok!!

I had a similar scenario some years back with a MK4 Fiesta Zetec. The car had been serviced but the oil filter for some rason had been punctured hence the car through driving ran dry whilst the car was pissing oil out of the filter.

Any way I had it AA flat bedded to my nearest dealer Gowrings of Newbury and had the car looked over and the service manager there told me it was nothing to worry about and they did an oil + Filter change on the car!!

Anyway I had not been convinced because when the car turned over it sounded a little tappetty.

So I drove from the garage on my 15 or so mile journey back to Basingstoke during which time the All Aluminium block (Yamaha Zetec) began a process of melting down internally and by the time i'd limped the car home it would do only 60 in top gear!!!

Car was taken back to Gowrings and I remembered that at the time I should maybe get something in writing from the service manager. Anyway low and behold I get the dealer manager stating that the service manager would never make such a floored diagnosis + leave me with a potential £2000 bill for a new ***** 1.4 Zetec block!!!

Anyway F3ck them - I had the car take back to mine and a pal and I fitted a low mileage block from a reputable engine centre in Brum (total cost about £500)

So cut my losses and put the whole lot down to experience!!

Guess the morale is to get all garage staff to put their diagnosis in writting!! Because lets face it if its the correct diagnosis to the best of their knowledge, then they would have no problem in doing this. I bet we'd all be suprised how many would decline putting things in writting due to the implications it could bring and just proving to the rest of us to be more cautious and less trusting

Anyway good, luck + hope she's back on the road soon

 

update:

..the cam timing was stuffed (jumped a few teeth on several cams), but because I had crawled the car a short way then stopped.. any major damage was averted!!

Glenn/Becky reset the timing, and replaced the chomped belt (which was replaced in MAY ffs)and put in a GREEN DOT revised 99> tensioner and turned it over and all was well!! further compression testing proved that everythings is back to normal... YAY!!
took it for a "test" with glenn and it was put on select also.. all was A ok

massive thanks to graham and his team for their help.

TSL did a fab job squeezing my car in at super short notice, and once again they hit the nail on the head and sorted it out

back on the road and smiling again
Lucky escape methinks.. phew

[Edited by chrome - 10/13/2003 12:34:41 PM]

 

**** me mate am I glad to read that!

What muppets did the cam belt for you? Sounds far too scary!

 

no comment at this time.

-------------------------
but yes I am SO happy it hadnt knackered the engine.. only just mind you..

thanks for the concern everyone

Dont worry Nick she lives to fight another day- going for her UFC title bout at the end of Oct then she will be really tasty

 

Classic!!!!... glad to be of service.. I love these bank holiday breakdown happy endings!

Would have loved the rebuild tho mate

cheers

trouser

 

hehe couldnt wait too long tho

altho might have had some internals uprated

tbh-...just thankful normal service is resumed! - (had to leave get back to work- wasnt being rude mate.. will put on the 'pimp strip' later in the week if I get time..

 

no worries m8.. thought you probably had to nip off!

l8r

 

Are the valves / pistons in clearance if you drop the belt and they end up out of sync? SOuunds like yours was slightly out but worst case scenario like valves fully open and piston at Top Dead Centre (is that the right term for a pancake ) will they clash?

 

You have spent too long with that Tart at TSL... Far too long...

I think he's rubbing off on you. Ooo err.

 

I thought a little quid pro was in order..

great service, and the technicians put up with me fretting and stressing as they worked on it..

bacon well and truly saved.

 

nick- you're scaring me :P

when do the mods start on your 03 ???

Daz Tiday has done his car - no need for warrant y now

 

Glad the car was sorted with no major damage






I wouldn't, however, bother with naming the dealer concerned, as unlike a small(ish ) specialist, they work to tighter schedules & may not have had had the time/manpower to do the job then & there. I use the un-named dealer in question & have always found them to be very good and helpful. Therefore, I think it would be unfair & counter-productive in this instance. But of course it'd've been great if they could have.

 

Should have the obligatory backbox in a couple of weeks... Then we'll just have to see

 

Just seen this thread..
Chrome i was up TSL today, and they told me the trouble that you was having

I was going to say hello, but didnt know if you was there, and due to the fact that you was probably pulling your hair out i decided against it lol..
Glad you got it sorted out in the end...

 

he does nt have any.

Bad, enjoy the weekend now

Lucky, very lucky IMO

Steven

 

PPPPPHHHHHHEEEEEEEWWWWWWWW !!!!!!!

Really happy for you mate, that its not as bad as first thought

I can imagine someone walking into TSL tho, and seeing Chrome, and thinking jeez it must be really bad, all his hair as fell out LOL

 

I think it's 'kin unlucky that a cam belt should have troubles within a few months of being replaced... it'd say it isn't unluckly, it's something else, but I'm keeping out of this, as I'd likely say something inappropriate

 

ScoobyDiva- yeah thats was me with the DBM.. nice car you got there I was stood next to Paul when you were leaving..

havent been in the best of moods of late.. altho the good news today helped lift it a little.. and sonic/p20 is right- pretty much bald.. I shave whats left on my "swede" so it blends in

Sonic- cheeky bugger

Nick- you know the score.

btw, I also met "kevin Stanton" and "POC" today - said hello to Kevin and a brief chat altho it looked like Paul was a bit busy to stop and chat and I had to get back to work.. hope you got your discs sorted mate.. did you get back on at Donny today after all??

[Edited by chrome - 8/22/2003 6:27:30 PM]

 

PTMW- thought about and it would do no good I suppose...I was furious yesterday and tore strips off the guy on the phone..
been a very stressful time of late and my patience isnt the best anyway..

I just hope that graham in pboro doesnt send anyone els with this problem on their merry way thinking everything is ok ...
Didnt realise you were that far south puff..

took you fer' a northerner