Just doing this on behalf of a customer who is sitting here unable to speak.

This filter is still fitted on a car that has just had a full service including cam belt at a Subaru ' specialist ' in Birmingham. Clutch and full service £860.00 inc VAT.

The car is here because on the way home from the service, the engine started popping and banging ' like it had anti - lag '

Next morning on the way to work it went bang properly.

He may name and shame the garage, I will not.

Take a look at the filter - it is a green panel filter just in case you aren't sure.

 

Disgraceful. I do hope they will be picking up this poor fella's bill!

Ns04

 

What age was the car David, and how many miles had it done before that service?

 

The car is [ it is still here and will be for a little while ] a UK Impreza turbo 98 R facelift.

Total miles 88,000

Since the service 30, maybe.

David

 

Bloodyhell, that`s terrible..

 

I meant 'before' the sevice which cost £900.

 

My car has done close to 30k on the air filter and it looks clean. That one looks like its done 88k..............

 

The only air filter I have seen like that is on my Land Rover after a brief encounter with a 4ft deep muddy pond....Pond 1, LR 0

Either that car has been wading through standing water and soaked the filter in muddy water OR it hasn't been checked for a very very very long time.

It wouldn't be who serviced last that worrried me, but who serviced it before that, and the time before that too. Because a filter doesn't go like that in the space of 12months of driving, unless the driver has been mud plugging.

And if the filter has been left unchecked for so long, then we can guess how nice and sludgy the oil will be....

 

Like shark says, it looks like it would have been in a bad condition at previous services.
.....Or it was fished out of the bin at this latest effort.

nick

 

Precisely. Yes, the garage didn't change the filter, but maybe they just couldn't get the airbox off due to all the mud in the engine bay! That car has been in the drink at some point.

 

Looks like it has been a door mat at some time.

If the car had been driven through a deep flood etc the engine would have been locked instantly, but was presumably driving ok before routine service?

Nasty, but it will immerge from API ok in the end!

 

Yup, and the owner will lose a nice few pounds on top of that £900 service. Ouch!
Think that car was on its last legs if that air filter is anything to go by.

 

Have you ever had any engines that you've worked go bang so quickly David?

 

Doesn't always happen....seeing it regulary offroading with water above and into the air intake. But once water hits the filter the water struggles to get past it it. Lack of air and water mist usally results in stalling the engine, but if it was momentary (i.e a quick splash though a puddle) the engine may continue to run.

A nasty side effect is sometimes, the engine in desperation to suck air from somewhere (air is always easier to suck than water - epecially past an air filter), it sucks air from the crankcase breather, now in the case of PCV systems, the intake for the crankcase is by the airfilter, now if the car is still wading through water...that ends up drawing water into the crankcase...mayonaise anyone??

Obviously some of my experience is from Land Rover V8s...which have a clever anti-hydrolock cut-out system...its called a belt driven fan and a front mounted distributor

Now, if the owner was a bit naive to the potential problems of going through deep water, he may never bother checking the filter....so the car could have been like that for quite some time. Obviously this doesn't let the last garage that serviced off the hook, as they obviously neglected to check it.

 

Good point.
The only time I've seen first hand a car hitting a flood water pool the engine died a death.
Took the plugs out and it actually ran for a while but wasn't the same after (Rover K series engine)

 

I am happy to admit we are human. We serviced a car with a new APi engine last year at its 1000 mile service. Jon W from London. He left us after the service with the car running as sweet as a sweet thing. 5 junctions down the motor it is reduced to moon rocks and bits. Major big end failure - again.
WHY ? Haven't got a clue.

What did we do? Unfortunately l had no recovery vehicle that day, it was already miles away with a car on the way to us, so he had to join the AA at the roadside and got recovered back to us.

I refunded him immediately for the service we had just done. Paid his train fare home and we repaired the engine back to new condition free of charge of course. He collected it again a short while later and started the running in process all over again.

It is not so much the fact that the engine failed in my opinion. It is how you deal with it when the sh*t does hit the fan.

Jon subsequently bought a different car from me and we did a load of work on it for him. He is still a customer.

We have had about 30 engine failures under guarantee within well over 1100 engines built in 6 years. We literally do anywhere between 15 - 20 per month most months of the year. Do the maths.

Some of those failures were very dubious as to whether the engine had been abused by the current driver. We give a warranty that is worthwhile and whilst l might have ' had a word ' with the driver/owner - 95% of the time there was absolutely no charge.

But, we would not do services like the one that Dave P has received. That filter is disgraceful, he remembers fitting it or inspecting it or something like that fairly frequently. He is a building site worker so it is most likely that the accumulated dust is from where his car is parked and the environment he works in.

David APi

 

Name and shame. Its the only way to stop these cowboys. Places like this only give repitable garages a bad name. Name them...

 

As far as im concerned there isn't a proper subaru specialist in Birmingham!

 

Specialist or not, every car has an air filter. This is just dodgy workmanship. Name????

 

It's not somethinmg I am going to do. Dave P might, but I suspect that he will prefer to deal with more personally.

David.

 

Little confused here. If that filter was in the car before the service, why wasn't the engine popping and banging before? If it was ok before, there must be some other reason for the engines demise? Cambelt change - Hmmm!
JohnD

 

I do understand why you do not want to go there Dave, but someone should. Do you not agree?

 

The dispute will be the supplier and the customer?

 

Good point JohnD. One I don't have an answer for. The engine blew comprehensively and as we see so many, we generally don't bother with a factual on why. Although my engineers will always point out a mistimed set of cams on incoming engines. No such comment on this car.

The owner is adamant it was going OK before the work done by them. Not well, but OK, so we can probably surmise that the air flow was restricted and it was running rather rich.

David

 

I suspect that David P will want to try and get recompence before naming and shaming....howeever that Filter is phenominally dirty, and unless he's ben offroading I suspect (dirty) water ingress at some point, especially given the recent weather in the area.

Simon

 

Just a thought but the garage may have know it was a long life filter and therefore didn't check it because they weren't going to replace it. If it was an OE paper one I could understand of course. K&N's come with an airbox sticker which says "stop, do not change filter" or some such words.

Was the filter the reason the car blew? It's very dirty/clogged but there's still an unclogged area on it to breath through.

F