L555chris

Hi everyone,
I've got a nasty problem on my hands, the big end on my 1998 UK Turbo 2000 has gone on 89,000 miles. One of the bearing shells disintegrated then went round the engine contaminating the oil which then caused damage to the heads and block. I have a warranty with WHA.

I had the engine stripped at xtreme scoobies, the warranty companies metallurgist then came round to inspect yesterday. I have learnt today that the warranty company is turning down the claim on grounds of ware and tear.

I don't agree with this, I think a fully serviced engine should last long than 89,000. The car has a full service history and was only serviced 100 miles ago!

Does anyone know what Subaru's official durability figures are? I assume they design their engines to last longer than 90k (most companies design for 150k). I hope to show the warranty company that it has failed at an unusually early stage, hence not ware and tear.

Any help anyone could give me will be greatly appreciated, as you can imagine I'm feeling a little unwell at the moment!

Many thanks

Chris Heatherington

greasemonkey

Bejeezers, not another one!

Might be a total coincidence, but there's a well known chain of events that can cause Subaru engines to suffer bearing failure shortly after an oil change.

Did you use a franchised Subaru dealer, or, to put it another way, did you make certain in advance that the garage you used made sure that oil pressure was fully re-established before the engine was fired?

Either way, unfortunately, Subaru's design MTBF is largely immaterial to your situation. It's a fact of life with these cars that if they're driven hard, they won't typically last as long as the likes of pslewis's car, and 90,000-odd miles isn't an unreasonably short innings for a car of this nature. There are many other potential causes, not least detonation (which itself can be caused by a number of factors), oil pump failure and so-on, not all of which a regular service schedule will be able to pick up.

Did Xtreme Scoobies' report on the engine identify anything notable, beyond the broken shell?

I'd have thought though that your warranty company should cover problems like this whether caused by wear and tear or not - unless you'd done something that specifically invalidated the cover.

nom

Yep, should last far more than 89k, but the "I've just had a service and it's thrown a big-end" is suprisingly common. And, as far as I know, there is still no definitive answer for it. Unsuprisingly the leading argument is that the correct practice wasn't followed during the service - typically through the oil change - which is the only grounds that I can think of that the warranty people might refuse to pay out - but of course if this were the case, the garage should pay out instead.
But I doubt that you'll get anyone to admit to it.
Not a good situation, I'm afraid...

L555chris

If I can get some kind of durability figures from Subaru which I would expect to show durability testing to 100/ 150k miles then I might have some more come back with teh warranty company, any idea where I might be able to get ahold of this?

Failing that I'll have to look at a engine rebuild / engine out of a scrapper then I think I'll cut my losses and sell.. Possibly time to take advantage of my Ford employee discount again ... gutted that my Impreza ownership experience is going to end this way.

Chris