Rob, that was my thoughts. I've been out of the game with subarus for a while. Sold my classic 4 years ago now. A little part of me thought it might be viable but you don't see many hatches breaking. Well I don't anyway.

If I thought It was a viable option to buy it cheap and source an engine I may have been tempted, But from just looking at the pictures the jury's out on this I'm affraid. I dont see all that many uk hatches being broken like you say & it's not much use sticking an older engine in there as you still need all the specific loom and bits and pieces to go with it otherwise theres check lights amain comes on:cry:

Sounds like a proper can of worms and with the added hassle of transporting it back to Scotland I think it's a definite no no. Oh well, I had better wait until the hatches become a bit cheaper!!

My Car 2010 STI 330S owned from new, with full Subaru service centre service history was taken to a Dealer just before Christmas with suspected Head Gasket failure. The Car had done 28,000 miles and I had been watching it for for a while as I suspected it was running Hot.

The car was road tested and the Dealer said as I did it seemed to be running hot, engine was the compression test and found to be low on the drivers side. Subaru/IM then gave the go ahead to remove the engine, when the engine was removed they started to strip it down to find it had got very hot. Driver's side Head Gasket had failed but it was then decided to strip the bottom end due to the amount of heat that the engine had been submitted too. On removing the pistons they looked ok and not suffering from the dreaded ring land failure, but when the crank was removed they found the shells had picked up.

Subaru then sent an engineer to inspect the engine, this is when I lost all confidence in Subaru/IM.
Engineers report said that the engine failure was down to Oil starvation and that I had run it low/out of Oil end result we are not paying, after a fair few weeks ang a lot of phone calls from the Dealer and a number by myself dare I say they agreed to another good will gesture.

Pictures of the engine,
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h1...20Engine/3.jpg

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h1...20Engine/1.jpg

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h1...20Engine/2.jpg

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h1...20Engine/4.jpg

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h1...20Engine/5.jpg

How many who have engine failure still own the car once the problems are resolved?

Can't get to pics... browser says page not found and go look at other stuff!!!!

now sorted

Kev m - sorry to hear of your problem. The more worrying aspect despite the costs is the fact that majority of us buy these hatches as our daily commuter (appreciate some use as their weekend car) & during the weeks that you say you had to keep making phone calls what on earth do you do to travel to work, go about your normal business etc..... do you need to hire car? For me that is a total nightmare as spent 20k to get a reliable car, not one that by the sound of many posters could be off the road for few weeks with a known fault that Subaru are aware off.

Did you not go striaght in kev when it started to run hot, if mine moved a cock hair id be down that garage asap, as im in the daily business group of us, so if i lost the car id be shafted
What was it doing then getting hotter than middle on the temp gauge?

I actually log down on my phone everytime i top up my oil, i check it every weekend after the weekly drive, and keep the last 5 recipts for fuel, just incase pikey shell decide to fill 95ron in the tanks as it has been known.

Glad you got it sorted , i have to admit Im group from my point have been very good and done what they can to help me, hope i never have this issue .

Got 20k service coming and a few sqeaky peddles and clinkin handbrake but other than that been spot on

By the way whats the marks on the bottom picture, not being a mechanic im in the dark? Is that the fault

Looks as if the whitemetal has wiped and you can see the copper backing material showing through.

so wipeing occurs when? , i presume engineer who initially pulled it thought wiping wouldnt happen if Oil was there, but i suppose it could no matter what, wouldnt it take a while though to get to that point, or could a low oil res do it. weird though how only 2 n half have ot the wipe marks, if he had starved the engine surely all 4 would show it.

thanks for reply Donald my good man.

ted

My 2009 STI Hatch doesn't use any oil, I keep my eye on the dip stick and don't ever remember having to top up. Nearly done 18K miles now. Service due November. It's had the oil changed on the yearly service..that's it. Come on Subaru, why would a modern engine with that milage use oil? As per usual blame the customer rather than admit to a problem!!!

Usually occurs if the oil film that the bearing runs in breaks down causing metal to metal contact, or if a piece of debris gets in there.

Film breakdown can be due to old oil, diluted oil (with fuel) or over heated oil.

If it had been running hot and had low compression readings, then it may be that piston blow by has caused oil contamination.

i was told by my garge, that oil does lay in the bores due to it being a flat 4, is that right ?

Only reason i say is ever since ive had it, i notice on the odd occasion if i drive with spirit and come home if i dont let it tick over for a min to settle, the next time i start her up it can sometimes blowe a little smoke, nothing major but a little. At the first service this is what i was told. but to be honest ive never seen that since.

1 question i have then for you don, the oil dipstick reading, if you look at both sides the back is alot higher than the front, am i right in thinking you go with the front marking rather than the back, reason im asking is if you fill her to the mark, the back side of the dipstick is well over the full marker, which if somebody like me for instance doesnt keep checking, or looks in the wrong area, what looks like to be a half full oil resi, is nearly empty.

If you "get out and get under" and look at the angle the dipstick enters the sump, its enters almost horizontal.
Would read the top (left side) as you stand in front and pull the dipstick out.

yeah thats what i do thanks
.

The Dealer that did the repair put me in a good spec courtesy car, until it had some issues and then Subaru/IM paid for me to have a hire car ( which is when they decided to repair my Car as a good will gesture)

The temperature gauge never moved, it was the fact that when parking the car up after being driven the rad fans would come on and when left to idle they didn't switch off and the expansion bottle was very dirty and smelt gassy

Many engines do use oil and require bringing back up to the level periodically. New engines in particular are known to use oil, consumption usually drops after the initial running in period. It surprises me that people do not know this. BMW for example consider one litre per thousand miles to be within tolerance. Also low oil and low oil pressure warning lights cannot be relied upon as there is often very little difference between the oil light coming on and the engine running with low oil level or pressure.

I think somebody questioned why only some of the shells had been affected? Depending on the engine layout and more critically the layout of the oil ways/pipes some cylinder components would be more affected by oil starvation than others. I have dealt with a few customers that have had Subaru's (new age and 2008 onwards cars) suffering from varying degrees of damage caused by oil starvation. Most of the engines followed the same pattern of damage. Such as the cylinders furthest away from the oil pump/feed suffering damage first etc as the oil pressure is weaker.

The last generation of drivers would have been driving when most cars required weekly oil and water top ups otherwise one would cause damage to the vehicle. I know that Subaru drivers are often 'engine aware' and check the vitals on their cars regularly. I very often look at potential trade in vehicles that have not been serviced for 2 years plus and are running low on oil or water, or both. When pointed out the owners often do not have a clue about how vital it is to check the levels at least one a week. New shape Mini owners seem particularly bad at maintaining their vehicles. I have appraised cars that have lapsed MOT's by up to 6 months and the driver does not have a clue.

As an aside, some manufacturers engines are quite hard to read accurately oil level wise. When servicing some vehicle makes the manufacturer advises that the vehicle should be left overnight after filling with oil and checked in the morning. Naturally this is not always done due to the inconveinience caused/time/space in workshop etc.

Littleted is correct about 'Boxer' engines retaining oil in the horizontal bores. It was a USP that we would mention when trying to sell someone a Subaru along with the low centre of gravity etc.

Kev M - in the end you say that Subaru completed the job as a goodwill gesture, out of curiosity how much would it have cost if this wasn't the case?

Ta.

ScottishRallyman,
I have no idea what it would have cost if I had been left with the bill, I dread to think what the final amount would have been for a short engine and all the labour to remove and re-build and re-fit the engine.

Thanks - out of curiousity I would have been tempted to ask.

Rob - WDYT Subaru would charge £3K ?

When the hatch engines were first being reported failing, 2008/2009 ish?, it was posted that the subaru dealers were suggesting it would be about £5000 - £5500 for the short engine and labour.

I recall the time quoted for the job was around 14 hours labour.

How long was it out of warranty?

Did they change the engine, or just replace components?

The Car is still in Warranty until end of Feb 2013.

The fitted a new short engine as far as I know, but then had to fit a new Cylinder Head on the drivers side some weeks later to stop the cam shaft seal leaking.

thought I'd update as mine has had a 2nd engine failure
27k miles and under 3 years old

Subaru dealer reports are that there was no oil in engine although they couldnt find any leaks.

i topped up 1ltr a week before this and had serviced 3 months back with 3k miles covered in this 3 month period.

I had to authorise the strip down of engine (at my cost of around £1800 if warranty not upheld)

- 3 pistons cracked and broken crank

Subaru say that because my 1st and second service have 14k miles between them, not 10k like it should have been the warranty has been voided.

so thats 2 enignes gone now, obviously down to piston failure but qany excuse found has been used to get out of the repair.

When was the 1st engine failure & repair - wouldnt you start a new service interval after that was fitted?

Rb5 - that is horrendous bad press for Subaru & how engine can go twice in under 30k for a car that isn't cheap to buy/run doesnt look good. I've got Hatch Sti at mo but seriously makes me consider would I take a gamble with another new one.

With them saying they won't pay, how much will it cost you to get car back on road?

Damn that's bad news mate. There is an RB320 engine for sale on ebay . Not sure whether this would be cheaper than re-building your knackered lump..What condition are your heads/cams in?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Subaru-Imp...item46040398eb

You say '1ltr a week'

As in every week it used a litre of oil?