matt_h76

Hi

Which years/reg did the Impreza suffer piston slap? I have heard it was all reg's in 97 and 98. And did the import WRX suffer piston slap in the same years /reg?

Many thanks for any info.

Matt

StickyMicky

import 96 car with slap here, although it is a MY97 model car with the facelft

Jewels-Terzo

Some of the Terzo range of 98 did

Jewels

kazlo

don't quote me but afaik the 98's are the ones that are mainly affected , and i have read that they should have been sorted under warranty , ask in search i'm sure you will find some info there......kazlo

SCD Simon

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, MY98's (dunno about prev MY's) not the MY99/00 as they had the phase 2 engine

matt_h76

So Japanese imports suffered as well? How would I be able to tell if it is actually a car made in 1999, i.e manufactured in 1999 and also the register year (this I assume is what is on the number plate) as I know these sometimes differ?

What is the main difference between the phase 2 engine and phase 1? Is it stronger?

One thing I was told is that WRX (not STI) imports have forged pistons where as the UK basic turbo model does not (unless it is an STI). Is this true as I was only under the assumption that STI models had forged pistons?

wrxsc00by

hi can someone explain what piston slap is please? cheers guys!

davedipster

piston skirts slapping on the cylinder bore. Mostly on start-up when cold.

lukey1

my old my97 uk turbo facelift model was a bit slappy but only when cold

Red Rocket 11166

MY96 UK TURBO. DID

richie rich

my missis is a bit slappy when cold, and more of a slapper when hot.

flat4_ire

i have my first scooby arriving next month (98 sti type r v4), just wonderin there, what exactly will piston slap sound like so i know what to look out for

matt_h76

If piston slap is discovered is it an easy thing to be sorted out by a garage or is it very expensive? I assume if you buy an import car or any car from a trader it should have a warranty on it by law for a certain period. Should this warranty fix the piston slap - even if piston slap is discovered after the warranty has expired? Because I would have assumed piston slap would exist from when the car is sold even if it's not discovered or recognised until a bit later?
If I buy a car with a year's warranty and the engine goes pop would the engine have to be replaced under warranty - or are all warranties very different? I would have assumed they should cover every mechanical part - as long as I haven't modified it etc. Does anyone have bad horror stories of anything going wrong after buying a WRX - did the warranty cover it all? Under a warranty does the car normally have to be fixed by a certain garage or can it be repaired at a garage of my choice?

M444GY

iTrader: (72)

my 98 me thinks . mine does it from cold .

James Neill

iTrader: (1)

MY98 is the one that seems to get the most piston slap mentions. My car does it when cold. The general consensus on here seems to be that if it goes when warmed up (ie, after 5 minutes) then it's nothing to worry about. Some people have had it for 90k+ miles with no issues. I think Subaru did replace the (short) engine under warranty if it was really bad. Personally, I'm not worrying about it.

StickyMicky

im not really worried about mine

dont think its got any worse in the last 30k miles scince i have had it ?
sitting on 90k now

not doing to bad considering how hard its driven

Tim W

iTrader: (1)

My original engine (My98 phase 1.5) suffered from from pisdton slap it's entire life, 90k+miles, it was so pronounced that at 60k miles Merv at Power Engineering didn't want to run it on the rolling road for fear of it letting go...eventually I convinced him that it would be fine and the car went on to produce 344 brake and 308 lb/ft or torque (with a couple of supporting mods...)

I then ran the car at this level and even higher towards the end for 30k more miles doing several track and drag days and it never missed a beat. The engine has now come out because I decided that I'd been pushing my luck at the level of tune and it was time to move on to the next level of tune.

TBH unless the car is using a lot of oil and/or there is a compression problem I shouldn't worry about slap too much.

Oh and the cars affected seem to be all those fitted with the phase 1.5 engine with cast pistons ie MY97/98 UK models and WRX's. It was only a clearance issue on one piston (IIRC No. 3) where the engine was built with a very tight clearance for the piston skirt, Subaru expecting the bore to expand faster than it did, the skirt of the piston then got crushed and went slightly oval allowing it to slap against the wall of the bore more than normal.