Echo

Sorry if the following is slightly rambling but I am hoping that the top bods on Scoobynet can offer advice:

I'm running an MY02 WRX which is a month under 2 years old but I've racked up 73k! My driving is mostly motorway and so far have only had 2 sets of pads and tyres so you can tell I'm more in the granny end of the spectrum - not thrashing it etc.

Anyway, I've had a thread running on here about high oil consumption. At around 35-40,000 miles I had an incident with huge black smoke coming out of the exhaust (still ran fine though) so got towed by Subaru assist to my garage. I'd only recently had a de-cat downpipe put in by the main agent garage. They couldn't find anything wrong and I was still getting smoke and high oil consumption from this point.

My garage said that they may change the turbo under warranty but didn't in the end. I kept complaining that the car was drinking oil (5-6 litres in 10k miles) and just got scratched heads, nothing done. They said it was probably 'over fuelling'.

Anyway, just before the 60k service I made a point of asking that they follow this up as I was about to exit warranty. Nothing (done) found. After the service I went back complaining abut the oil consumption so they reluctantly took a look for an hour, said they couldn't find anything and gave me an £80+ bill for the trouble.

So, at 70k I decided enough was enough and moved to another garage. Ah. A different attitude and interest in the problem. They did the 70k service and after 3k miles (that's not long for me) had gone through one and a half litres of oil had a look and basically suggested that my piston rings may have gone, something like that anyway. Cost to fix anywhere from £1,200 upwards. They suggested that as I'd been sticking with the service routine and I'd been complaining etc that I have a good case for at least a contribution to fix the problem.

As my downpipe is de-cat it may be better to put it back to standard to help in this case (you understand why) and anyway, the downpipe has a big hole in it so it needs changing tomorrow.

My question is, do I stand a chance with a claim as in effect the main agent knew about my problem well in warranty, I'd even been recovered by Subaru assist, and done nothing? Or is my claim with the garage?

Will the downpipe make any difference with a potential claim and if so, should I get the down pipe cat put back on tomorrow instead of the replacement decat pipe?

I don't want a big scene with the garage, I just want my problem fixing. They've turned this in to a time to change cars routine and to be honest, with these problems I had with my first new car I dunno if I want another. I mean, my last car but one (Mazda) did 200,000 miles and still drove great.

So far the range of possible fixes are a new turbo (could be the seals) to a new engine (or rebuild). So I could be in for up to 2,500 (rebuild quote from a reputable company).

I've never expected to have zero hassles over the life of ownership with my mileage but this potential 2,500 has freaked me out. If I'd done 120+ I'd half understand it but I've been with this problem for ages during warranty and feel stiched up.

Anyway, if I can't get Subaru to help I have 2 options.

1. Sell the car before it explodes (p/x - not to a s/n member!)
2. Sell the missis car just to get mine fixed.

Option 1 - With my miles it's only worth 8-9k as is. Gulp. Buy a bl@@dy Skoda vRS. I really worry about covering my mileage in a Scoob now.

Option 2 - My car fixed but when will it blow up next? I've kind of lost my confidence.

Any ideas please. I'm very depressed about this - but that solves nothing - I need to figure what to do. Also, with another sprog due in 2 months I have to think about costs sadly.



Mike

tweenierob

Sorry for the quick answer...

Get eth catted pipe back on, last thing you want is for them to knock you back after finding the fault (turbo oil seal for sure by the way) the DP may have contributed by allowing the turbo to spin up faster. Not normally a prob but not unheard of either.

Now.. U can self diagnose if you like. when you take the downpipe off to change it there is likely to be oily deposits inside, now take your front lambda sensor out. If the front lambda sensor is oily too it is 99% engine related, if it is brown it is your turbo oil seal.

Rob

TARManiAC

If I get this right you had the problems long before putting on the aftermarket downpipe and Subaru didn´t want to stop your engine drinking oil
which is a very unusual Subaru problem. So the oil problem has nothing to do with the non OE downpipe.

Go back to OE downpipe and force them to fix the problem under warranty.
Good luck.

Echo

The main agent persuaded me to put their downpipe decat on and did the job!

I'll ask them to check the lambda sensor before replacing the downpipe - if it's brown, put another decat pipe on (and go to API for a turbo), otherwise if black put the cat back?


Edited to add: Recently I've been getting the cel flashing on higher revs (overtaking etc) which clears after a bit. That consistent with a hole in the downpipe or more trouble to come? Apparently have had some misfires.

Also, oily deposits around the breather tubes too if that helps diagnose the problem!

Thanks for the help everyone

Echo

Hmm. Apparently it's unlikely to be the turbo so cat back on and waiting to see where this goes. Making progress, garage being very helpful.

BTW, it's so much quieter with the d/p back on (still c/s decat) but oddly the power, if anything, seems stronger. Very odd!

:-)

Mike