06 STI - piston cracked?
 

In June I bought a 06 sti from a private seller. The car had the 10k service stamp and had done 17k miles, so I took it straight to a main dealer to get the service history up to date.
@ 20k it started to misfire, took it back to the main dealer who stated that the piston had knocked the spark plug and replaced it. £217 later the car was back on the road..............for two days.
It has now been at teh garage for two weeks and they are still working on it. Apparently the piston has cracked and I need a full rebuild and the warranty will not pay out becuase the 1000 mile oil chamge was not completed.
The bill I am facing is £6,000.
If this is a mechancial fault - do I have any come back with Subaru and if so how do I argue this?
As I said it is an 06 plate with 20k on the clock and no modifications. Surely a manufacturer should acknowledge that a piston does not crack because an oil change was not completed?
Anyone had a similar experience?

£217 for a spark plug change!!
£6,000 for piston swap!!!

Do you mean dollars and not pounds?

Piston ringland damage regularly crops up in the US due to a poor standard map leaning out - but I'd not heard of it over here.
Although the oil change miss isn't likely to be the cause of the problem, IM are using it as a valid reason for refusing a warranty claim.

I'd rescue the parts currently being removed and get the original engine inspected by an independent assessor, followed up by legal action.

yep, that is pounds, not dollars. They reckon a new short engine whatever that is and the dealer has stated that they are getting off on a technicality. very understanding but he states that it is not covered under teh european warranty and I am pretty much screwed.

a - subaru will have a hard job fighting a proper legal argument on this

b - your dealer is flipping expensive

I recently had the same problem with my 06 WRX STI. It is totally standard, no mods at all and has covered 7,000 miles. My car hadn't been running right(see previous posts) it took 3 trips to the garage before they finally did a compression check on the engine. It was down in one cylinder, they took out the engine and one of the pistons had melted. They fitted me a new short engine, new boost hoses and turbo hoses, and a new ECU for nothing. Keep on at them mate, i had to!Good Luck

Any idea on how I go about fighting this? legal standpoint etc?

For a kick off, don't pay £6K for the repair if you end up having to, get a specialist to do it.

It's my understanding that the onus is on Subaru to prove that the fault occured as a direct result of not having the 1000 mile oil change done. (it's the same if you fit some mods) You'd have to take it to court though and would probably end up costing you the same as the engine rebuild.

Sorry.

Fight it mate , when i used to work at vw a certian customer kept blowing the dash display and in the end brought the car back at full price after a year and a half of them owning it !!! As every one els has said mate he is a complete rip of !!!! you can file with the small claims court upto the value of 5 grand i think and costs you 60 quid which you can claim back as costs . Do not pay for the work mate .This stinks i would first demand to talk to the dealer principal and have it out with them m refuse to leave untill you have spoken to him/her as the sales manager is pretty much just trying to watch his spending budget and giving you the short straw .