hi. i have been offered a p1 car. it has 33,000 miles on the clock with fsh. what are they like for reliability on the engines.? anyone had any bad experiences?

paul

 

not very good bottom end always need rebuilding at about 45k

 

i have seen a few with about 70,000 and still on current engine and some with new engine. its hard to say whats right. is there anything you can do to them, to stop the engine blowing. what causes the p1 engines to go.

 

Rubbish.....if serviced properly and driven properly one should have no probs at all !!!


a remap (ecutek) would help ...if yr uneasy about it , or better still fit a aftermarket ecu

 

The first part of that sentence has an element of truth in it, the second part is a load of bo11ocks.

There are plenty around at 60/70/80/90 K still on original engine, and unfortunately there are also plenty around that failed earlier than this. From a poll on the P1 forum about 30% have failed. lightly Modded and mapped ones have a better chance of lasting than a standard one as big head says.

If you look after it, and it has been looked after, you have a good chance of it being absolutely fine.

Its the same engine as in the V5 and 6 Sti's.

 

cheers pal and thanks for the info. i think i might go for the swap. i se you own a p1 already. is there anything to look out for on these cars. ?

 

mines had 3 engines before i got it, and i had to do a crank and rod about
10k ago been fine so far, but not very confident to be honest, the joys of a
p1 i think wont sell tho as i love it
some may be better than others tho!

 

Yes and look at how many of those have been rebuilt.

Anyway...I am a massive fan of the P1 but I had to turn one down for fear of the common engine failure. I opted for the ultra reliable newage STI instead.....not as good looking and less fun but I could not afford engine rebuilds.

AFAIK the main reasons for the P1 engines failing are ...
1 Oil pump failure
2 Maf sensor failure
3 Incorrect fuel being used
4 Poor service record

As others have said, if the car has been looked after then you should be ok but what ever people will tell you, these engines fail more often than they should, so just be aware of that fact.

Good luck and awesome cars

 

well thats put a damper on things.....lol. never known impreza to go through that many engines. but if i was in your shoes, i would not have much confidence either. had to replace engines in both scoobs i owned. the wrx was down to bad fuel pump, and the type r,had the engine out before i bought it. the previous owner had bodged it to get it working. fitted wrong valve caps or something.lol.

 

i did put an uprated oil pump and racing bearings so i should be ok to be honest, the bottom end is much quieter than when i brought it, you'll hear if the ends are on the way out!
buy it but and expect a rebuild, it'd be a bonus if your a lucky one

 

well maybe i was a bit optimistic with 45k thats how long my mates lasted which had fsh treat like a baby

 

My P1 engine ran 400bhp on standard internals up to 42k mile, then I done a forge 2.5 coversion, but the orgrinal engine ( that had 400bhp put through it ) is still going stronge in the "donor's" car

 

1 Oil pump failure
2 Maf sensor failure
3 Incorrect fuel being used
4 Poor service record

Well most of them are easy to avoid. Always use super unleaded like V power and replace the MAF (only £70) once per year to be safe and make sure you stick to the service schedule or better.
The RCM oil pump is only £150 if you are that worried.

Any impreza not serviced or ran on cheap fuel is likely to develop issues. The MAF's are a known worry, you could always remap with Simtek and lose the MAF altogether.

 

if i go for it. i think i might change the oil pump and maf. be on the safe side. well deffinitly the maf anyway. thanks for the info guys. looks like i might be venturing away from the evo and back to the subarus then.

paul

 

Ran a P1 engine at 389bhp and 363 lbft @ 1.6bar, for around 25000 miles and never had a single problem.

Banny

 

Mines on 55k and counting, ill let you know when it goes bang.

 

Doc have you got the STi rear lights yet, is it the only thing your car needed to finish it off when I collected the P1 wheels.

Banny

 

buy the P1 and get Bob Rawle to replace the Maf and remap it and u will be fine.

 

mine went afew months ago @44k had the car from 27k, knowing the probs with the engines i did every thing anyone could ever do, and it still went lol, and all that worrying i did over the last 2 years driving like ace ventura, waiting for that knock

mark

 

Is it the same engine they have in the V5 STI Type-R, or is that diffrent?

 

Ours went at 37k, 41k (suspected dodgy rebuild done my main dealers) and 75k. it's currently having and engine rebuild and will be up for sale soon

 

Exactly the same engine as the StiV type R

 

The problems mentioned are common to all classic Imprezas.

 

This has been done to death: the central problem with the P1 was that it was running an STi5 map i.e a map optimised for 100RON fuel at a time when the best you could get in the UK was Optimax i.e. 98 RON and many owners would have just put other brands of SUL, i.e 97 RON in there thinking (quite reasonably) that it would be ok. A number of mappers have come on here with words to that effect and IIRC even Mike Wood of Prodrive stated that they were not asked to rempap the car for UK fuel.

It's no wonder a lot of them went pop, especially when owners put decats and induction kits on them etc!

Then you have the infamous MAF contributing to the death toll.

Get a healthy re-mapped one and all should be well!

Ns04