Dunno I was just trolling...

Funnily enough I've just joined the merc forums and even my new A45 has had issues, turbos blowing power steering etc...

Fingers crossed n all that.

I think only stis have blown I don't seem to recall even a WRX loosing the cylinders, weird eh

guy on here had a diesel hatch that went pop

VAG Diesel engines are known to have issues.

Early diesel boxer engines made by Subaru had a main bearing that was known to fail, hence early issues with them.

yes I know.





my sisters VW GT Sport TD Golf has had a new turbo after that broke up.

my wife's Ghia TDCi 1.6 Focus' Turbo also gave up the ghost and broke into bits and dropped in the engine.. apparently an known issue at Ford, but didn't do a recall as most broke out of the warranty, that was down to the oil being used at the garage, (lucky we were on a service plan with the local Ford dealer and also still had extended warranty running... total bill was just under £2k.

Subaru diesels are keeping us nearly as busy as the 2.5's They break the crank and when the two halves force apart they break the block too.

Difficult to repair one for less that 3500.00 + VAT and if the block is broken then it becomes as saga.

A new short motor from Subaru is something like 3800.00 + VAT with a further £550 or so for a gasket set. There are no oversize bearing for the cranks, so even if you fancied grinding it you cannot.

The 'problem is spread across Legacies, Foresters and Impreza's. Usually mostly Outbacks in our experience. Not seen a blown diesel hatch in here yet. But it is the same engine , so only a matter of time.

David, is this a problem that's restricted to the first batch of Diesel engines or are you seeing this across all released to date?

Is there anything you do to stop this from happening, such as a "forged" rebuild with a stronger crank and main bearing or custom remap?

Richard

The above is known to Subaru Japan who have extended the warranty of diesel engines, isn't IM passing the extended warranty to the customer?

The only cure I suggest would be a steel crank. It seems that the loading of diesel compression is too much for the usual style Subaru crank to withstand. The diesel crank is even shorter than the petrol ones. It breaks across the centre main.

I bought a high mileage 08 car [ 4 years old 172,000 miles ] that belonged to a Vet practice. It ran on until 193,000 miles of my driving before it broke the crank. A really strange sensation, it just missed a beat, similar to a light fuel cut and then locked solid.

I got it recovered and sure enough it was " the problem ". But at that mileage one could hardly complain and the car had full dealer history up to the day I bought it. Never missed a single service.

I M don't seem to be any more helpful on these than on petrol engines. In fairness we haven't seen too many that are technically within warranty. And as soon as you have passed out of the warranty period or missed / delayed a service they dig their heels in.

Originally it seemed confined to 57 or 08 plate cars where a "rogue engine builder had used too much gasket sealant and partially blocked a gallery, on a batch of engines ". That is plain nonsense, but was the answer given to one customer. It ought to be covered at any time if that was the case. But I have seen all years up to 59 plate in here. Which is across too many years to be a rogue engine builder.

I haven't been brave enough to remap one yet, Bob R is teed up to do it. He tells me he has done a few and they get better MPG and have more torque. l'll only do that on one of my rebuilt engines, in my car, just to be sure that it is safe.

Better MPG sounds good, because I have just done 685 miles this weekend on a brimmed tankful in my latest 59 plate Outback [ that has an APi rebuild in it ] More than that will be phenomenal.

David

When my Legacy (58 plate) engine let go it had done 50K miles and was bang in the middle of the (apparently common ) 40-60K miles failure range. Also when it went it was just like the above, cut out at 70 mph and locked solid !
I had been warned sometime before about diesel engine issues but didn't give it that much thought as never had any reliability issues with any of my previous (4) Subaru's
The main dealer to where the car was recovered reckoned the bill to fix would be £10K + but as my car had full main dealer service history, was outside the time warranty but inside the mileage warranty IM paid for the all of the repair (no warranty though).
The car was fitted with a new short engine and I've since done a further 16K miles but I'm getting rid soon as can't put up with the wallet twitching everytime I drive it, which is a shame as its a great car otherwise.

head gasket leak..
 

Ok, so I think my 2008 STi 330S is showing first signs of a head gasket leak under full boost.

It's intermittent and happened only 2 or 3 times now, but it appears combustion gasses are getting out into the turbo coolant reservoir, and thereby pushing some coolant out to the expansion bottle. When cold, the epansion bottle doesn't return to normal level because there is air in the reservoir.

So I'm looking for some advice. I am considering getting it fixed rather than selling the car on. If I did, I'd be looking to make the engine fairly bullet proof in terms of forged pistons etc.
Am I best to do this now, or keep running the car for a while and see if it gets worse ?
I'm up in Scotland, Glasgow area, so wouldn't want to be travelling too far for a re-build. I've used Hypertech in the past and pretty happy with their work.

Should I be expecting a bill of around £3-4k for this work?

Fivade pop up to Duncan and let him have a look at it, I've heard of 2-3 who have had similar issues and turns out not to be as serious as expected - as you know hes got Hatch too so will happily have a check over.

If you are going forged at later stage anything from £3.5-£4.5k buddy.

thanks for the advice. Duncan doesn't have his hatch anymore, the engine went twice apparently! I'm sure he now has a BRZ. I spoke to him on the phone and he thinks its early head gasket failure.
He is going to price me up a rebuild, and I'll need to make a decision. For now I'm driving it in i-mode mostly, with very infrequent s# as is sometimes "required".

When you say it will cost 3.5-4.5k at a "later stage" do you mean if I leave it too long and there is more serious signs of wear? So better/cheaper to get it done sooer?

Did it go again after he rebuilt it?

Absolutely.
Get it fixed while it's still reasonably healthy

GT86 he's got mate but he was running that at same time as Hatch....must have recently let it go.

I got mine forged whilst it was going well, basically as I had decided to keep it for few years and wanted peace of mind.

it might have never let go!

....And it might have, as I said mine was done for complete peace of mind and long term car for me!!

Rayman, did Duncan do yours?

Could you give me a bit more info on your build.. model year, what components went in, and what you would have done differently :)

Thanks.

Fivade - no mate I had mine done at RA Motorsports. Drop me a PM and we can catch up on spec etc to safe us hogging main thread :)

2006 2.5L
 

Hi all,

I'm looking at buying a 2006 2.5L WRX STI UK - has there been any issues with the engine in that year/model??

Thanks
Matt.

Its still the same 2.5 engine.

Remember. Not every engine has issues. A lot go wrong with miss use. Wrong fuel and not checking oil levels.

I read last night on Midland scoobies a thread by Kevin at Scooby clinic about a piston fail on a 2little blob eye WRX!

My WRX hatch is booked in next week for forged pistons, as with scottishrayman i am keeping the car for a while and want peace of mind. It is a lot cheaper to get it done now than risk a failure and a more damage, plus i work away and its my wifes daily driver i dont want it going bang on her while i am away.

Not aware the WRX suffers from issues with pistons ?

1. I have not heard of any WRXs going bang.
2. What extra damage is going to be caused if it fails and you stop driving it immediately? Do not panick or get scared by engine builders stories. It might affect big end bearings? The cost of those is so small compared with the major expense which is labour taking the engine out and apart so it doesn't really matter IMHO.

Keep your money and *IF* something happens then fix it.

I didn't think the build cost was any much more from having the work done pre going bang anyway. So you might as well sit it out and wait. That day may never come anyway.

Off the top of my head I'm aware of a couple of 2.5 WRXs going, one a GB270 on the rollers and the other someone who has forged the engine and started a thread on here about where to further improve the car.

It would appear anecdotally that they do have problems but it doesn't happen as often as we're used to hearing about on the 2.5 hatch and hawk STis.

1. The goal for my WRX is around 360ish bhp and at that sort of level it will be running the same risk as the STI.
2. Why risk it going with my wife and kids in the car while i am in Africa unable to help, when i can get it done now and arrange it properly, ie arranging the use of another car for a week whilst its in the garage and having it done whilst i am in the UK so i have plenty of time to run it in.

That's a huge jump in power and it wont be an easy figure to hit without a good few mods (inc brakes). As you are unlikely to see a return when you sell is it not worth keeping your eyes open for a modded STI ?

do you realise the cost to add another 100bhp to a engine to get a it upto 360bhp?

my car runs standard and sees 319bhp with 359Lb/t

it'l be cheaper to buy a STi that someone has already done the outlay.. the cars are already out there.

I won't lie (like some of the WRX boys) i would of loved an STI but at the time i only had WRX money, and to to be honest i enjoy the modding not buying one of the shelf, you put more of your personal touch into it. If i had of bought an STI i would still be putting it in for forged pistons etc and spending a lot on that.
And yes the brakes and handling will be getting done it will get mapped with a full exhaust and filter after the rebuild then i will concentrate on getting the brakes and handling sorted before going for the big increase in power. :thumb: