P1 reliability
 

Hi people.... a question i need answered please...:wonder:

Im looking into buying a p1, the car has only 26.5k miles on it, pretty much standard apart from a dump valve, exhaust and a remap by bob rawle...

I have never owned an impreza before and so the question i have given the spec of the car is how long will it last if driven conservativly... i have noticed a hell of a lot of these cars are having engine builds after doing relativly little mileage...

And one more question while im at it... how much power can the p1 engines put out reliably... and how much would an engine build cost? That was a few questions but hey, who else better to ask than the real enthusists.:luxhello:

Alright Woolfy :thumb:

Basically you will not get a definitive answer. This question has been thrashed out countless times on hear, without a satisfactory outcome.

It is common knowledge(or a myth) regrding the P1(:notworthy ) reliability, and your main concern should be can you afford an engine rebuild if it all goes horribly wrong.

Awesome cars though.

Have you been on P1WOC ?

no i havent mate.. never heard of it to be honest. I can afford it but id rather keep the wedge in my pocket if you catch my drift!!

Would be gutted if it all went wrong mate:cry:

Really do fancy having a bash in one though... i have been an evo man for years but fancy a shot in a classic impreza.

Had my P1 for 5yrs now never missed a beats... other than going to the garage for mods and servicing running 400bhp for last 2 yrs and 360 before for 3 yrs if you drive properly :) and service it regularly you should have no probs ..................... welcome to our site
ps you will not regrets buying a P1 :thumb:
just to add if the car was mapped by Bob ... don't worry about engine blowing up !

P1 has more character than any Evo imho, I was set on buying an Evo 6 tommy Mak before I bought my P1
wet suit now on :)............

Big Head.. this car has been serviced on the dot by main dealers and is apparently in mint condition...no scuffing on rims or interior etc. What do i really need to look for on a test drive/inspection?

Bob Rawle mapped the ecu a while back after it had a downpipe and a sports cat fitted. Hoping if i buy it it looks after me... I always have my cars serviced on the dot and look after them, never really cane them for a prolonged period of time. Only open them up now and then.:)

The Dump Valve alone would rule it out for me ................... a 'certain' type fits a dump valve and I wouldn't want one of their cars to be honest.

The re-map may be ok as its a respected mapper ..... my advice would be to find a STANDARD one for reliability.

Now that defeats the whole point of owning a Subaru Impreza imho :)

well if its low mileage ... should drive like a "new" car :)(on test drive )

I have owned a P1 for 4 1/2 years now. I bought it with 47000 on the clock. It now has 67000 on it.

It has a full decat, Blitz SUS dry type filter. It has had a Forge VTA and an HKS SSQV VTA dump valve on (only got idle issues with the HKS).
It is still on the original bottom end. It gets serviced as per schedule.

I go through a set of 4 Toyo T1-S every 15000 miles. It gets no more than 200 mile to a full tank of V-Power, that will tell you the way its driven :D

I have no reliabilty issues what so ever (touches wood to be on the safe side ;) )

They are fantastic cars, you wont be disapointed.
STi 8 bottom end goes together with the P1 heads so if it does go bang you can build a stronger engine.

Try P1 WOC

Cheers

Martin

Re-map is good, the main reason why they got a noteriety for engine failure is due to deaf (mechnically) drivers and the higher state of tune (or stock JDM tuning ;) ) making them more fussy on the UK's lesser quality fuels and less forgiving to idiot owners driving them hard whilst ignoring the very faint pinking heard in the background.

And as PS hit a note on, its usually the ones who fit a aftermarket dump valve who would be of the more mechanically ignorant variety (if they weren't, they would know the stock is perfectly up to scratch). Sadly marketing had duped them into buying somthing they don't need in priority to the need to pay attention to the car's fueling map in order maintain the engine's longevity.

Good reliable cars in the right hands. Certainly better than a STi import of the same vintage reliability-wise.

The problem is the hands it was in before - how long did it go with a decat downpipe fitted before the remap was carried out? (bad enough on a stock UK MY99). And what fuel did it run on? And how many midnight runs at a sustained 140mph has it seen? Trackdays, a trip to the 'ring and some autobahns for good measure?

The odd blast isn't the issue here, but if its thrashed evreytime the thing is rolled out the garage, it will succmb to a wallet raping sooner rather later. This becomes an issue if the car is a not a daily driver - and most p1s are certainly a second car tucked away in a garage waiting for a sunny day.

What to look out for? Can't say. Even if its in mint condition, it may have been driven as a weekend toy by a tool and meticulously polished with Swissol everytime its put back to bed at night, have all the servicing done on the button. But despite there is no magic ball to say what condition the engine is in (even if it runs ok) and if the bearings are worn down to the copper, it wil not display any knocking and still have good oil pressure....that only happens when its too late, when out the blue it starts knocking on heaven's door.


Don't get me wrong, it's an issue with many Impreza models. But its still something that has to be kept in mind, as the P1 is certainly no exception.

Happy Hunting :)

TM

Im looking for a P1 without an engine, at least then I`ll know its ok :D

As PSL states, dump-valves are tended to be of a certain type of character but do not let that put you off, simply remove the much slated object.

In all honesty I do not see many chav's in P1's.....

Just buy it mate! :)

Don't be worrying about it blowing up but just make sure you have the cash ready.

You could get the rebuild now and add a few mods at the same time then you will NEVER have to worry about it :D If you have never tried a scooby before then a P1 mapped by BR is pretty much the best experience you can have as your first ;)

If the car is in good nick and has all the service stamps, then I dont think you should have any problems.

The Impreza engine is VERY reliable if not thrashed ( boxer engines seem capable of pretty huge mileages if serviced and looked after ) - a lot of the faliures you hear about seem to be imports with a questionable past that have been messed around with and driven on the rev limiter a lot of the time by people who stick standard unleaded in and never get them serviced.

Go for it!

Dump vale might just have been purchaced in a moment of madness (and no, I don't have one!)

Do it!

Best impraza ever made accoring to some.

so you'd have the standard one which has a map not suited for uk fuel over one that has been remapped to the cars mods and taking uk fuel into account which would actually make it more reliable?:confused:

more quality advice from pissy:cuckoo:

Stock UK MY99s will generally run decats without issue on SUL. Most tuners and mappers will atest to that. From my experience, I ran mine sans remap on a H&S system for about 6 months and it never, and I mean never, lit up any more than two greens on the knocklink.

JDM 99s and P1s are a different matter; and I would not run a decat on a P1 without getting it mapped immediately after.

ns04

Looks like i have managed to locate a 24k mile, fsh completely standard example for under 13k..... without a dump valve!!!!:luxhello:

Sounds like a cracking car, cant wait til about 10 tommorow morning.

If i get it ill let you all know...i might even get my wallet out again and join up.:thumb:

:idea: And what company is best for a full exhaust, de-cat, air filter, boost controller, fuel pump and ecu upgrade? How much and who do you regular users recommend? :confused:

depends where you are located !

Good point... im in Burton On Trent mate.

:iamwithst

Lots of post about scoobs of this era,

"Bought my first Scoob only owned the car 3 weeks and engine blown up" "Have i bought the chocolate engine model" and "He must have known the engine was duff" Once these engines start to knock they are FUBAR'd in miles not weeks.

Her are 5 more likely reasons below.

1) Putting cr4p fuel in and thinks it won't make a difference.

2) High speed runs to see what it can do!! long periods at flat out in 5th is nearly always Fatal in more ways than one ;) In Impreza manuals states never hold at one RPM on motorways for long periods and modulate throttle.

3) Close gated gearbox, Flat out in 4th going for 5th and gets 15Krpm in 3rd

4) Over reving the engine and never cooling down before switching off

5) These engines are powerful which does put strain on componants and Sh1te happans

IMHO

Tony

The fact that it's not as slow as f*ck would rule it out for you Pete!

TX.

Tony.

Whilst I agree that the factors you mention are fine candidates for failures; as most failures do happen within a few weeks of someone getting the car and being ignorant about how to look after a performance car: not warming up etc...

HOWEVER.

IIRC JDM STis MY99 and 00 are set up to run on japanese 100RON fuel and I've heard many mappers say that the P1 saftey margin is rather slim on UK fuel, being pretty much a std JDM map. Of course, if the car is driven gently, especially with the advent of 99RON SUL, it may never be a factor, but if it's used, not abused, as intended it may well be. If the owner has upped the ante with a decat, the margins are eroded further.

I would suggest that anyone with a p1 and decat at the very least gets a knocklink. If it does bugger all but light greens I'd be quite happy to say sorry! I'd much rather apologise for that than be confronted by someone a bit miffed that they're now facing a 2k+ bill for a rebuild! :)

Better safe than sorry! :thumb:

:thumb: Totally agree ;) sorry the :iamwithst was meant I agreed with your post and not you were Stupid

:thumb: Totally agree ;) I know a few JDM's and highly tuned UK's have filled up with Optimax and K/L lit up like a Christmas tree, either a bad batch/tanker load error or someone on a fiddle :mad:

IMHO

Tony

Im looking for a p1 as well. How much is a full engine rebuild if the worst happened?

A very big price range, anywhere from £2.5-5.5K.

That depends on Block/crank condition, who does the Job(dealer/independant/friend), recondition short block and how much you do yourself.

Two peeps I no said about £1500 "for get you going parts" and £2500 for named Choosen parts + Labour, they both removed engine and had a mechanic friend rebuild it with said parts. both never said how much they paid him but assumed £500-800

I saw UK Dealer reciepts of £4000 + VAT for my old MY99 STi

Second hand engines range from anywhere between £800-3000

Try APi engines API Engines for a much better idea of prices than me

IMHO

Tony