KHB

I have an MY00 with 13K on the clock ( Mobil 1 Oil )and have noticed a knocking noise when I first start her up in the morning. I also get some juddering on the clutch.Once warmed up both problems disappear.

Is this normal or should I be visiting the garage?

Thanks

KHB

Richard Gledhill

I get this too (MY00 with 18.5k miles). Not sure whether to take it in or not - a fellow owner with a MY98 took his in, and they ended up swapping piston #3. Apparently it's a slightly different size to the others, and this makes it knock a bit when cold, but fine when warm.

Let me know if you take it in to get checked!

Richard

scoobyboy

YOU HAVE GOT PISTON SLAP WHICH IS THE KNOCKING USALLY ON PISTONS 2 OR 4 I HAVE NEVER CHANGED A NO.3 AND YOU WILL NEED A NEW CLUTCH AND FLYWHEEL TO CURE THE JUDDERING. THE ONLY PROB IS IM WILL ONLY CHANGE A CLUTCH ON WARRANTY IF IT HAS DONE LESS THEN 10,000 MLS BUT HEY U MIGHT B LUCKY
BUT CERTAINLY VISIT YOUR LOCAL DEALER

[This message has been edited by scoobyboy (edited 03 March 2001).]

Simon

Is it a rattling or a knocking that you are experiancing?

Piston slap is a knocking noise that can be heard from cold, and is at its worst at between 1500 and 2000RPM. If it is really bad then the faulty piston (usually the one under the turbo, refered to as #4) will be replaced under warranty. I do not beleive piston slap is a common problem on the MY99/00 engines like it is on the MY97 and more so the MY98, so it could easily be a something a lot less serious. Your dealer should be able to diagnose it.

As for the clutch judder, this is a very common problem, and if you can't get a warranty fix, it can usually be cured, all be it temporary, by a few 'full bore' starts .

Simon

Ps. Scoobyboy, do us all a favour, and turn Caps Lock off!


[This message has been edited by Simon (edited 03 March 2001).]

scoobyboy

oh yeah sorry bout that!

AndyMc

Simon

The cylinder under the turbo is no 3.
Number four is the rear piston on the other side.This is where I'm having a new piston fitted when my dealer finally pulls his finger out.I've been waiting since before Christmas.

Andy

Simon

Andy,

Are you sure? I too am having piston number 4 replaced (on 26th March) due to piston slap, but I understood this to be the piston that sits under the turbo. I'll check with my dealer the next time I am in, it seems that maybe different dealers refer to them in different ways. Does anybody know how the workshop manuals number the cylinders?

Simon

Otis

My MY00 has started doing this aswell!! Despite an engine rebuild late last year to find what turned out to be a servo related problem, I have now found it to be rattly first thing in the morning. Now I've had piston slap on an MY98 and I am not sure it is that. It comes from under the turbo and is more camshaft sounding than piston slap. I have thought it could be the early stages of slap but not sure. The thing is that when they took my engine to bits 8000 miles ago they were staggered at the fact there was vitually zero evidence of wear, the independent specialist we called in even said that I should push a bit harder to get it run in!!! So could slap really manifest itself in 8000 miles?

I've reported it and they are waiting for Ken Davison from the IM technical dept to dig himself out of Scotland and come and have a listen.

Otis.

Edited to add that they have had the car in to check the tappets and found that no adjustments were needed.

[This message has been edited by Otis (edited 05 March 2001).]

pat

Simon,

The No. 4 cylinder is the closest to the passenger in a UK right hand drive car. The workshop manual also states this, but the biggest clue is that the block has a "4" printed above that cylinder No. 2 is in front of 4, with 3 opposite 4 (under turbo) and 1 infront of 3....

Piston slap usually affects No.4, perhaps related to the fact that the vometric efficiency of No. 4 is less than the others, which makes it run rich.... No. 2 runs lean, No. 3 runs hot... so I stuff more fuel in 2, less in 4 and hope that the water injection will keep 3 cool, LOL

Cheers,

Pat.

dela

anyone know if piston slap is a common Jap import problem, as well as UK cars.
I've got a MY97 STi, and its rattley when cold, and in the low rev range.

Glad its got a warranty!

KHB

Symptoms of piston slap?

Thanks for all of the responses, please find further info below.

The noise I was experiencing was a sort of knocking noise from deep within the engine. Similar to a diesel engine but not as loud. This sound seemed to be coming from the RHS of the engine (nearside.) I have recently taken the car on a long run and filled up with different petrol and the sound now appears to have gone. Could the noise have been duff petrol or something similar?

Thanks again

Karl



[This message has been edited by KHB (edited 05 March 2001).]

Butty

iTrader: (2)

I get a noise on a MY97 that I always thought was a noisy injector.
Is this similar to the noise from piston slap?

scoobyboy

butty
injector noise is a very fast clicking sound while piston slap does sound a bit like diesel knock.

Simon

Thanks Pat, that clears that up, I'll let my dealer know .

Out of interest, where did you get the workshop manuals from? and how much are they?

Thanks

Simon

YorkshireSimon

Thought this may help...

I also have a MY00. Reported to my dealer at the 22,500 service that I had an engine knock when cold which seemed to go away when warmed up. They could not identify the problem at that time so they advised leaving it with them for a few days on the 30,000 service. They were under the impression that it was piston slap but I had to put up with it for a few more months. When it went in for 30k service, after two days they were still no closer to identifying the problem after confirming that it was not piston slap.

In the end, they found it to be a problem with the cam belt/timing tensioner region and as such replaced the cam belt and tensioners, and some other bits that can't remember.

Strange thing is that this, although sounding like piston slap not just to me but also the dealer, it was cam related. Usually these two very different problems would have fairly unique sounds. Either way, the problem was rectified and had no problems since. Oh, currently on 34k miles (Boy, I hope the resale value on these cars is as good as they say they are!!)

Thought this may help!!!

Regards

Simon

PS. If in my case you do a lot of miles and use the scoob for business use, when you're getting close to the dreaded 45k service and the dealer offers to replace the parts they did on mine, who's going to complain. I would have probably settled for the 2-3 minute engine knock when cold to avoid paying through the nose for a cam belt change.

ScoobyMik

For the past few weeks my UK Impreza '97 has started sounding like a diesel (thuk-thuk-thuk) first thing in the mornings for about the first 10 minutes of a journey at low revs. The noise sounds like it's coming from the drivers side of the car. Is this piston slap?

The garage where I bought the car have told me that they are going to get in touch with Subaru UK because they are apparently exchanging a piston for free as a good will
gesture on certain cases.

I'll keep you posted...

Sorry, forgot to say that my car is no longer under the 3 year waranty but it is under 60,000 miles

[This message has been edited by ScoobyMik (edited 09 March 2001).]

Howie

Do you remeber John Felstead's mammoth report about piston slap on his Sport. Eventually he talked the dealers round (Monks Heath I recall) into changing the complete engine (well short engine anyway).
To cut along story short, once the new engine was installed the noise was still there. It turned out to be a rattly cambelt tensioner!

So if the dealer can misdiagnose piston slap what chance do we have

btw my sti3 is quite rattley on cold start, and a bit "diesel" like, more likely to be noisey lash adjusters than PS.

Another strange noise that is audible from about 1000-2000 rpm on my car (sounds more like a flapping nosie than a deep knocking sound) is the solenoid for the turbo wastegate.

cheers and good luck
Howie

[This message has been edited by Howie (edited 19 March 2001).]

Greg115

Dont despair about your clutch. I had mine replaced under warranty at 23000 miles because of clutch judderwhen cold. No hassle at all.Flywheel too, and they fixed an oil leak they found behind the flywheel.
Greg

NH

I 'had' a MY98 UK car in the family which suffered from piston slap on No.4 cylinder. It gradually got worse until we took it in to our local dealer (Fraser Anderson - Stirling) who agreed to change the engine under warranty. They fitted a new short engine. 5000 miles later we noticed the same problem - this time it turned out to be on No's. 1&3 cylinder. Subaru Uk were going to send their technical expert out to have a look becasue they had never experienced such problems on such a low mileage engine. It was serviced and maintained religiously.

This merely added to other problems experienced with the car - namely clutch juddering after about 10k and the waste gate solenoid problem occurring regularly.

In short, can somebody tell me what MY cars are 'safe' to buy. In other words, what MY cars do not suffer from piston slap?? If they all do then why don't Subaru do something about it??!!??

Thanks,
Neil