WhiteSTi3

I have an STi-V3 with approx 65000 miles on it, & I had my Engine rebuilt 3 months ago, as my big ends had gone. The Whole engine was rebuilt & was as sweet as a nut. 2500 miles had past & a knocking was apparant on cold startup, but dissapeared when warm. This was solved by the 3000 mile oil change. But 2 weeks after the change a loud noise was heard from the engine on the motorway, so dipped the clutch, pulled in & the same has happened again. I got the car recovered to the same repairer as it was still under warranty only to find that there is nothing they can do as it is out of oil. It was later confirmed that the oil has gone through the turbo & as the Turbo was not covered by their warranty there is nothing they can do. My questions really are these. Is it possible that the turbo may well have caused the 1st engine failure, so the faulty turbo was then just bolted back onto the engine & has simply failed again. & the other is a question of what you would do?? I have a mint car with a Very recent £2000 rebuild, but now dead again car needing another £2000 rebuild plus Turbo. would you cut your losses??. Scrap the Car??. Could this all happen again 5000 miles down the road again!?. Any imput/advice is greatly revieved.

jongould-work

i would say to them that they have not rebuilt the engine correctly as they never diagnosed the turbo. Check with your local trading standards office, they will give the best advise...

thats like a doctor sowing a diseaed limb back on...

WhiteSTi3

I have spoken to them & they said just that. I have also spoken to the RAC legal dept & the Vehicle Inspection Dept. They ALSO say that as the engine has had the same failure which the car was originally sent in for it is a breach of skilled/diagnostic engineering (or something like that anyway). I have been advised that they should have definately thoroughly tested the turbo before refitting & that a Healthy turbo would not have blown in 5000 miles (especially as 4000 of them were running in miles). The thing is, I am annoyed because I followed everything to the letter in running in & a bit more for my own self satisfaction & after 4000 miles I started to open it up for the 1st time & then it went bang. So I have lost all confidence in the car. I dont want things to get nasty or legal really. but at the end of the day I have a car needing 2 engine rebuilds in 3 months, due to no fault of my own. I myself am just fed up, because I was going to Croatia with my family & 5 friends & I was driving over there. I have now had to cancel the holiday & lost my deposit on the apartments & Ferry etc, but my Dad has gone mad because he lent me most of the money to get the car back on the road!. Still, I will wait & see if anyone else posts their opinions.

Thanks Alot for the Reply

nom

Dunno about the legal stuff, but if that all sorts itself out, the car should be reliable if it's set up right. Which it isn't as it's an sti in Europe. So, KnockLink is a must, along with NF or other octane booster to hand if you get a dodgy batch of fuel on top of the Optimax + booster it already should get...
As for the turbo, once that's sorted - if it was the problem - it shoul go ok!
On the other hand, you may not want to bother with all that malarky, so getting the car mapped to UK fuel is a good thing.
Or you could just give up, although I'm not convinced that would be a good option...

hypoluxa

Am I right in thinking the garage concerned told you to run it in for 3000mls and then change the oil?

WhiteSTi3

The Garage said to change the oil at 1000 miles as it was a cheap oil used, so I put in some good oil at 1000 & then it was done again at 3000. I was going to change it again at 6000 but..........never got the chance. It is a real shame because I am INCREDIBLY fussy about my car & like things to be perfect, so after spending sooo much time gently breaking the engine in expecting it to be perfect...it is VERY dissapointing. :-(

Mark A

iTrader: (1)

Sorry to hear about your engine troubles, makes me nervous to drive mine with any conviction. Seems like alot of engines are letting at the present ? Hot weather.
Who rebuilt the engine and have they had much experience with Subarus ?

Mark A

Andy.F

For the turbo to 'use' all the oil in the sump in 2000 miles I'm sure you would see/smell the oil being burned.
You say the oil change cured the cold start knock. Was the sump empty at the 3000 mile oil change ?

Andy

WhiteSTi3

Hi m8, I prefer not to name any names on here at the moment. The garage is very experienced in subaru's & rebuild several a week, hence why I went there. I cannot express my happiness & dissapointment in just 3 months, when the car died I was gutted, then when the engine was rebuilt, it looked & felt fantastic!. (It was an excellent service & job which in a way makes this all harder to swallow because i Really didn't expect any problems) I was so pleased the engine was so smooth, I ran it in for 4000 miles & started to take the engine upto about 6000rpm from about 4500 miles.......until.... now I am even more gutted than the 1st time!.

WhiteSTi3

When the oil was changed in the garage, it was emptied into a big cylinder, so the oil wasn't measured.....there didn't seem to be any need it was a 2500 mile old engine!. No oil light indication was given & no smoke was visable, so there was no real reason to think about that amount of oil being lost. I have been told by a couple of independant subaru specialist, that if the leak was gradual then smoke isnt always visable, only really if the turbo blows in one big bang. That isnt what happened, as the oil had been lost over a period of just over 2 weeks. I appreciate what your saying, it is just that I wouldn't have expected any major fault with the Turbo just after a complete engine rebuild. I would have thought it would have been checked to be in perfect condition to be refitted to a car that had come in with a big end failure.

Bob Rawle

The oil pressure warning light is set ridiculously low at 2/3 psi only, by the time that came on (if it ever did) then the big ends would have been long gone, a car with two big ends failed still generates a couple of bar (28 psi) pressure. Its possible for the turbo to leak oil into the compressor which gets misted intomthe engine, it would be not noticeable, when the engines stripped a good check is to look at the heads, especially the back of the valves, if that has been happening then there will be a heavy burnt carbon encrustation on the back of the valve heads.

After any engine incident its essential that the turbo is chacked, cleaned and rebalanced, in many cases it suffers and can then be the cause of further engine problems as has been seen.

bob

WhiteSTi3

Many Thanks for your reply Bob, I have heard that the turbo can suffer after an engine failure from a few sources now. Is B.R. Developments an engineering firm?

nom

BR Developments has the blurb
'Tuning' I believe is the word... the serious end, rather than piddling around with things that go 'woosh'

Pete Croney

WhiteSTi3

Did you manage to get hold of David?

WhiteSTi3

Yes Thank Pete!

Cheers

WhiteSTi3

Can anyone give me an idea on how much the car is worth in this condition??

StickyMicky

how often did u check your oil levels?

WhiteSTi3

I normally check my oil & other fluids every 2-3 weeks. I have checked with quite a few of Subaru specialists (including Subaru themselves) & the normal is at least every month. Obviously if there was reason to check it sooner I would have done, but there wasn't

I have recieved an awful lot of email support now from this post & from other Engineers that rebuild engines, so I am just trying to decide what the best thing to do is.

Thanks alot for all your support out there...you know who you are!

Andy.F

Beware of ambulance chasers !

submannz

I would make sure that they replace the oil pump regardless, because these can fail after rebuilds as they pick up crap when the engine dies. Which is what I imagine happened in this instance based on what I understand you were saying.

[Edited by submannz - 6/18/2003 1:26:05 AM]

WhiteSTi3

Hehe, I haven't a clue what an ambulance chaser is!!

The oil pump was not changed either when the engine was rebuilt, I thought it was a case of they worked or they didn't????

Gidney&Knowlesy

Always recommend changing an oil pump.........

Andy.F

So the turbo wasn't checked and the oil pump wasn't changed after a major engine blow up and this company rebuilds lots of scoobys !! Perhaps this explains why so many fail and then refail.

LeoneTurbo

I rebuild engines my self, and before re-using it, I always disassemble the oil pump, clean thoroughly, and when in doubt I replace it with a new one. Make sure to use a new oil pan aswell, as debris can get caught between the baffle plates, very hard to clean 100%.

On a 2000 pound engine rebuild, 175 pounds for a new oil pump and oil pan won't do any harm!!!!!!!!!!!

Good luck,

Marnix

Bob Rawle

Another thing is that the Modine should also always be replaced with a new one (oil cooler to the uninitiated) as this usually ends up full of debris which is them pumped back into the new engine.

bob

David_Wallis

I would look to buy a second hand engine rather than loose money on the car..

David