Steel wishbone recall on Imprezas/Foresters 02-07 RESULT!
 

So after reading about the recall on the front steel wishbones/lower control arms on Imprezas and Foresters (build dates 01/01/2002 to 31/12/2007) on this thread:
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/t...bone+corrosion

Vosa site:
http://www.vosa.gov.uk/vosa/apps/rec...Text=Blank&tx=

and reading about a few failures on here recently I thought I'd better double check the condition of mine (2005 Blob WRX wagon), this is what I found on the offside:
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Looked pretty bad to me so emailed some pics to A.F. Noble Subaru (just outside Edinburgh) and got a phone call from a female member of staff in their service dept. the next day and they confirmed they looked like they needed replacing, but, she stated that the parts fitted to my car were not covered because they were from a different batch of parts not covered by the recall. I contacted Subaru direct who confirmed right from the off that 'batches' were irrelevant. They requested that A.F. Noble inspect/test the wishbones and send them a report. I contacted A.F. Noble again but this time spoke to Michael Philp in service who was very helpful and arranged to have the car for a few days. He explained that they use a spring loaded centre punch (about the size of an old fashioned bicycle pump) to check the strength of the wishbone in a specific area, if the punch leaves a significant indent then it's classed as a failure.

It's then down to Subaru as to whether they will cover the cost of replacement, and seen as my car was inspected in 2012 when the recall first came out, and passed, I wasn't holding out much hope!

These are the indents on my wishbones left by the centre punch:
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These were classed as a failure by A.F. Noble so they sent a report off to Subaru who, to my surprise approved the replacement of both front wishbones at their cost. RESULT!

This also included new front and rear bushes and lower ball joint.

These pics were taken at the weekend, a couple of weeks after getting the car back:
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So I recommend you take a look at your wishbones if you have a 2002-07 Impreza/Forester with steel wishbones (obviously excludes most cars on here as STis and WRX saloons all have alloy wishbones, so don't start clocking up this thread with if you have either...)

Hi mate, probably a stupid question but will they have rust on if their steel? Thanks.

They'll be black, the ali ones look different to the pics above

Thanks mate I'll get the scooby up later and have a look

I'm guessing my 51 plate bug wrx has been done at some point because it's got alloy wishbones on it :wonder:

What you think?

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One of your roll bar joints has snapped off, In the last pic, buy a new pair of arb links from the looks of it the other side is ready to snap too, the wish bones look crusty, I'd get the checked by a mechanic mate if your unsure

Cheers mate I'll get someone to take a look. First time I've been under the car since I've bought it

I'd be getting them to get it on the ramp and check everything over mate

Will do bud I've just emailed Subaru Newcastle there with the pictures I'll see if they get back to me if not I'll email them over to Subaru and see what they say.

What car is yours Dan, a Forester? You don't have the same droplinks as on my Blob wagon, look like saloon ones...

They don't look as caked in rust as mine did so might be ok. And yes, you are missing a near side drop link, get both replaced.

Is yours a saloon or wagon? If wagon it's a common mod to replace the steel ones with the lighter alloy ones, the dealer won't do this of course they will only replace the steel ones with another steel pair.

It's an Impreza bud, saloon. Glad I got under the car today. The lad I bought it off has let the car run into the ground, such a shame.

Hi there

Personally I would replace those steel wishbones for classic ones(which are alloy ones),those cost around £25 each

But yes Subaru has have recall on this issue and you should contact Subaru dealers directly about this

Thanks,Jura

Mine snapped on my Wagon last year (fortunately whilst manouvering on the driveway). Got them sorted by Subaru under the recall. There was a thread on this when the letter were first issued by Subaru back in 2012:

https://www.scoobynet.com/925245-low...l#post11541992

:thumb:

Thanks Jura, yep if Subaru hadn't covered the cost of replacement I would have gone down the alloy arms route. Not sure if I would be able to tell any difference between the steel/alloy wishbones in day to day driving so very happy with the outcome.

Yep, mine had the waxoyl treatment in 2012 apparently but thankfully caught it well before failure. Will read your thread later, lucky it only failed on the drive as someone else on here had a failure on a dual carriageway!

I wonder how long they will continue to use rock salt in the winter now there are alternatives as that has to be the main culprit for corrosion like this, would love to have a 10 year old car that looked as good as a 10yr old Jap import does underneath!

Really does annoy me when your after a motor . it looks nice body and interir .not too bad. But different matter underneath just cos people cant be arsed

I rang 2 dealers yesterday to try and find out if my 03 WRX was one of the affected vehicles and needed to be checked, neither could tell me - useless.

So I pinged an email to Subaru UK who very quickly emailed me back confirming that my car needs to be checked, gave me the recall number and details, and advised me to get it booked in FOC to be checked :) so we'll see how it goes. Although I don't have any local dealers! doh!

Any remedial work to rectify the issue in the recall should be free of charge too.

What address did you send to? Not had much look finding one.

I haven't actually looked at my lower arms recently, so I'm not sure what kind of state they're in. Although I need to change the oil in the next week or 2, so I'll take a look then. It would be nice to get some fresh arms FOC :) but I'd also be happy just having peace of mind.

I posted all the details in the original thread. Have a shifty in there and you will find everything you need:

https://www.scoobynet.com/925245-low...l#post11597021

:thumb:

It's a saloon :thumb:

The JDM versions have alloy wishbones as standard. It's how they kept the prices down on UK versions.

A couple of people have messaged me asking how I contacted Subaru to find out, so thought I'd post it here, I visited this page:

http://subaru.co.uk/support/

And filled it in then got an email back off them pretty quickly. Strictly speaking its more for complaints I suppose, but since 2 dealers couldn't give me the answer to my question, I felt I had to ask Subaru UK. Cheers

same way I got in touch, they were quick to respond and very helpful

Cheers :thumb:

Had a reply already. My car does still have an outstanding recall for the lower control arms.

Just need to decide which dealership is best (Esp if it needs to be left if fails test), Derby and Worksop look like in middle of nowhere.
Sheffield even though a distance away, is near railway station I guess.

Thanks for help.

Take the confirmation you have received from Subaru with you. That way the dealer cannot argue. I had to do this when I had mine sorted (for the second time) last year. Some dealers do plead ignorance believe it or not.

Sheffield (Europa) sorted mine. Check my full experience at this link:

https://www.scoobynet.com/925245-low...l#post11557645

That said, they never waxy-oiled them back in 2012 when they did the original inspection (although they said they weren't instructed by Suabru UK to do so), hence the complete failure of the arms on 2014.

Train is not actually that far from Europa, it just looks a distance on the map.