I'm thinking of buying a P1 but a little unsure about there engine reliability, does anyone know if there as bad as the jap import R's/RA's.

 

If you buy one which hasn't gone bang yet then the chances are it will be fine.

When the cars were first released I think there were some problems with the initial mapping on a few cars, where one of the cylinders ran lean and hence melted the piston in that cyinder. Think the problem was found pretty early on in each relevant car's life time and engines were replaced or rebuilt under warranty.

If you get one and it's standard, then as long as you run optimax in it, it shouldn't cause any more prblems than anything else. If an induction kit has been fitted - then you need to ensure it's had a remap otherwise you get the same lean problem. Also I would recommend a specialist for servicing rather than a scoob dealer as mst P1s are modified and the dalers don;t really know what to do with them - or in one particular instance when I took mine there when I first owned it, they put 60 miles on it claiming they were running in the new oil!!!!!)

Have a search on here as I think I posted a reply to someone a while ago with my views on the P1 (for what they're worth!). I love mine, and have become too attached to do the sensible thing - which would probably be to go for an import STIV (you get DCCD and two pot rear brakes) and spend the saving on mods. However P1 benefits from it's individual spoiler and bumper/lip and is pretty light...

 

Try www.p1woc.co.uk for loads of info.

The P1 uses the same engine as the STI 5, the map is slightly different to allow for a little bit more knock correction but thats as far as it goes.

 

Don't know if anyone else has experienced this but I know of 3 P1's that have knocked cranks out, very recently, I believe Subaru keep at least 6 P1 short engines in stock at any one time

 

Any more info on the cars in question?

i.e. What mileage
How close to an oil change was this
What mods/boost
What oil and fuel

A lot of probs come from high boost levels on the car combined with overheating and too thin an oil. If you remap to prevent running too lean and use a decent oil and a high octane fuel would have thought this would give some peace of mind????

 

One of them was a standard car driving home from the dealer who had just serviced it!

 

There were quite a few threasds on either the P1 web owbers club or on here (about a year ago or so) regarding engine failures after oil changes - All at dealerships!

The view back then was that due to the boxer engine layout, when the oil is changed the new oil doesn't initially flow to all parts of the engine - hence the failure. A lotof poeple were suggesting the need for "dry cranking" where you take out a spark plug and then turn the engine over a few times to circulate the oil properly, without passing any real load through the engine - but I'm not that sure that people really bother with this (?)

I put it down to a combination of cheap and poor quality oil and an incredibly poor standard of knowledge and service from the main dealers. I am not aware of anyone having had this sort of a problem from one of the respected Scoob tuners (all incidents I know of - and there were indeed a few - came from just after an oil service performed by a main dealership) - and this is another reason why I avoid main dealers like the plague.

Decent oil like Silkolene, plus competent (and also cheaper!) tuner like RCM/Scoonyclinic/TSL/Grahame Good etc combined wih a remap and I would have thought you'd be in no worse a position than any other scoob.

(Am tempting fate now as mine is in for an oil service at one of the above mentioned tuners!!!! )

 

Just ensure the MAF sensor is changed every 40,000 miles in addition to normal service intervals and everything will be okay.

All the failures I've heard of have been MAF related and nothing to do with incorrect ECU mapping!

Wobbly.

 

If PS Lewis sees this he'll hit the roof

Could we have this thread closed pre-emptively?

 

Unfortunately,there is no telling,they are basicaly the same so in effect just as bad (if you think the JDM ones are bad that is )

No matter what anyone says you can never tell how much life a scoob engine has left in it ( at least there is no economical way of telling ),even if you follow what the wise subaru specialists sugest,and all normal rules that apply(re servicing etc) to other cars you may have owned arent necessarily true for the subaru.

There are too many factors surrounding engine failure with these cars to be able to just go by servicing records ,condition,mileage and what the owner tells you etc,so best to do as much research as possible before committing to buying one and then keep a few grand spare incase it does go pop....IMO ofcourse

 

Aye. My advice is don't worry about it - it'll happen someday. Live with it. Meanwhile, budget 1500 for a 2.5 short motor and hammer the living bejesus outta tha car Seriously, if you do what i used to do and cringe every time it boosts, every time you take it above 5k, every time the sun shines, every time Curry's have a sale......... What's the point???

 

Mine went at 62k, Powerstation stated that this failure is due to some manufacturing defect and NOT MAF failure, and they had rebuilt 6 P1s in the past month!!

I had mine rebuild using a new sti 9 shortblock.

For sale if your interested.