Just been told that the bottom end of the engine is a common fault on New Age Impreza. Im told the connection rod snaps,

Any one else had this problem?

Guess you know my engine is F*****D.

Thanks guys

 

to the ownership
My big end bearings went no notice, no nothing. £3500 worth of work so im hoping it is now sorted till I decide to get rid an get a new one

 

So its not just me,

Thanks for your reply,

What scoob you got?

Cant even get mine in to subaru to repair, they dont seem interested

About three weeks with no car now!

 

Seems to be more common with WRX's than STI's.

They channel oil differently with the STI being better and the WRX having a weakness of keeping oil where it should around the 5500rpm mark.

 

it is a known problem and can be dealt with if you know what your doing, speak to Harvey Smith who is in Darlington iirc, he will be able to help you out

harveysmith1@btopenworld.com

 

Hi AlexT,

I was very supprised with Turbo going and engine,

Car is an 03 STi and has only done 44k

 

That is a little unusual as the STI bottom is fairly robust.

If you've not owned the car from new then it can be down to how previous owners treated the car. It may not have been run in initially although modern engines are more tolerant of this. The fact the turbo has also died could be again due to previous owners not letting the car run for a short while after a hard drive or driving hard from cold. Service history is all well and good but it doesn't tell you how the owner used the car inbetween.

If however you have owned from new then out of the small % of components that will prematurely fail due to the law of averages, yours has unfortunately fallen in that category.

I assume Warrenty ran out at 36k or did you get extended?

 

Hi AlexT

Had the car when it was about 9mths old,

Car is always warmed up before driving and is left to stand running before switch off,

I have no idea what went wrong, Just my luck i suppose. Warranty expired about 8 mths ago!!

Told warranty is 3 year or 60k (Which ever comes first) in this case the 3 years came first.

 

Sounds like a bit of bad luck or it wasn't treated too well before hand.

 

A WRX with PPP, Owned it for about 17000 miles an Ive looked after it but not sure about previous owner. I still have an ongoing thing with the warrenty but cant/wont say to much. Im gonna change oil every 5000 it was changed this morning by St Ledger in doncaster who did the engine work for me as well and I cant praise them enough
Its killed me doing 4000rpm for first thousand miles but gonna take it easy for a couple more thousand miles more no redlines for a while

 

is this a differnce with the crank ?

 

thought the bottom end were exactly the same just with different rods and pistons for the sti's?

 

If its out of warranty then don't bother with the dealers if Subaru aren't paying for the repair, There are plenty of Subaru specialists that will do the job better and cheaper than the dealers

 

Thanks for yor help,

Will do abit of ringing around.

What sort of price would you expect to pay for a short engine (BottomEnd)?

 

A Subaru main dealer in Norwich quoted me £1300 for a P1 short block, brand new. I then rang Subaru UK and they said that dealers do source engines from 'other sources' even though they shouldn't and that this would not be a genuine item. Never got to the bottom of this but after much searching for the right block, I could never get the same answer out of two people. Rodger Clarke motorsport could do a block at £2k, and if I were to go down the route of a new block, I probably would have gone to them. But in the end I bought a whole car with a recently re-built api engine for the same price that the owner paid for the rebuid

 

Hi Mate,

as i live in skegness, i contacted all subaru dealers in area, Heres what i found:-

Subaru Spalding - Not interested in the work

Subaru Grantham - Did not return phone calls

Subaru Hull - Quoted £3000 to £4500

Subaru Norwich - Quoted £3500

Subaru Nottingam, Would do thework but had an attitutude problem

Subaru Mansfield - Called three times on Wednesday, Never returned calls!! Very disapointing since thats where i bought the car.

Subaru Horncastle - Pulled out with work (Fair play,they are a smalldealer out in sticks)

So,Car went on a Flatbed yesterday to St Leger (Subaru) in Doncaster, Price not too bad, £3400 all in. Service was very helpfull!

What year is your P1?

Thanks, Chris

 

Since you got a good service,Thought i would try them!

Going well so far.

 

I haven't got a P1, a have and sti v2. It's just that the dealer thought this was the strongest and best short engine to go for. I was then told by quite a few other 'specialists' that this was the wrong block because compression ratios would be different! So who do you believe, main dealer or subaru specialist??? That's why I didin't go down that route in the end, too much conflicting advice! I used to go to school in skegness...glad I'm not there now!!