There I was on other parts of the Web site, feeling all smug, and revelling in the fact that I had bought a car that has cleaned up in the recent JD Power reliability surveys. What do I find on the oily bits part of the site ??, talk of piston slap and worn engines, and not just the odd case or two. More worrying it seems to be prevalent in MY '98, like the one I've bought.

Seriously is this a common problem, I thought these things were bullet proof.

 

They <B>are</B> reliable if you look after them (warm up/cool down properly, don't side step the clutch, don't do lots of hard take offs from the lights on full boost....etc.etc) but do have some known weaknesses.

The stuff like clutches and piston slap/knocking are fairly quickly/easily and amicably settled under warranty by IM.

Look after it and it will look after you

Matt.

 

Is this piston slap only confined to the UK cars of 97/98 or do some of the imports and other years also suffer from it ?

 

I think that in general they are very reliable and many of the problems you see on this BBS are associated with modifications.

I've owned a scoob turbo since Aug 95 (MY95 and current MY98). The MY95 was totally fault free during the 3 years I had it. The MY98 has been reliable in that its never broken down and always started every morning first time BUT it has recently had a piston replaced (to cure piston slap) and the clutch and flywheel replaced (clutch judder). Neither of these problems made any difference to the performance and drivability of the car and I only had these fixed because of the warranty. Apart from this, the MY98 has been virtually faultless.

D.