All,

I have had my jap import scooby for almost two years and I bought a 2 year private warranty which has 3 or so months left. Three weeks OK it blew up because of lack of oil according to the warranty company although there was oil in the car it appears it did not circulate for some reason. No oil warning lights came on, there was oil in the car, perhaps a bit low but not below the minimum line as I checked after it blew......

The bill is going to be about £4500 which is something I could do with out right now........

In the warranty report it states:

'The exact cause of the lubrication deficiency could not be confirmed but the following should be given due consideration. Operation of the engine with an insufficient quantity of oil. Intermittent sticking of the oil pump pressure relief valve in the open position. The repairers informed us that the oil pump for this particular engine has beeen modified. Neither condition would constitue a sudden mechanical breakage in our opinion and it appears from the repairers admission that the oil pump is subject to modification'

Do they mean that the oil pump had already been modified? or has been modified in later models by the manufacturer? i.e. could this be a manufacturer defect?

I would have expected this sort of thing to be covered by the warranty.

Any advice on whether I should contest this or not? or generally how to proceed?

Cheers,

James

 

Damn right I'd contest it !, similar thing happened to me years ago on an Opal Manta, the relief valf wasn't relieving and the rocket box just kept filling up with oil (resulting in non in the sump), hence engine seized !, had the engine rebuild, bored and crank reground etc by Vauxall main dealer. Two weeks after getting it back same thing again, (hadn't even run it in !) took it back to them - they said I'd run it out of oil - crap so I took it up with Vuaxhall UK they said a post was sent to all dealers alerting them to relief valve problem and to change on cars like mine. Dealers claimed they never knew about it ! funny how their memory suddenly came back when the small claims court documents landed on their matt. Brand new engine (and relief valve) then was suddenly a free option !
Take this further.. if there was oil in the engine at the time of the fault then it's deffinetly mechanical failure of some sort and must I'm sure be covered by the warranty.

 

Thanks for that!!! Does anyone have any ideas on who I can check whether this is a known problem? normally when I have tried subaru uk dealers they have been less than helpful as my cars an import.

I guess I will start with an arsee letter to the warranty company....

Thanks,

James

 

Try emailing some australian or nz subaru dealers as they sell the jap stuff and might have come across this problem.

 

You will be out of luck I'm afraid, its the stock answer from all the warranty companies when a Scoob engine goes (assume you ran a big end)and dealers will not assist as its an import.

Its quite possible that the oil pump was modded in Japan where they are n "upograde" ... to help prevent big end failure.

What were the circumstances of the engine failure ?

 

"The number 2 big end bearing shells had seized and spun within the housing damaging both the con rod and crank pin" Description goes on.....

Parts needed:

SEN51 Piston B 97.50
SEN37 Piston Ring Set 128.29
SEN16 Crankshaft 475.00
STU09 Turbo 643.00
SEN23 Big End 122.49
SEN24 Main End 148.00
SEN13 Oil Pump 175.50
SEN14 Oil Cooler 96.68
SEN15 Con Rod 74.00
SGA09 Gasket Set 379.70
SGA22 LH Rocker 14.10
SGA88 RH Rocker 14.10
SGA20 Chest Gasket 44.60
SGA06 Gasket 15.96
SGA02 Gasket 10.58
SGA03 Gasket 10.58
15208AA024 Oil filter 10.12
Oil - 4.5 ltrs 23.18
13028AA072 Belt 99.97
Air con service 75.00
Coolant 10.12
Spark Plugs 41.00

Parts Total = 2708.47
Labour = 900
VAT = 631.48
Total = £4239.95

Does this list of parts seem about right? I guess price wise is this what you might expect?

Cheers,

James

 

Jeez! Turbo as well!
I would have thought a crank regrind with some undersize mains would have been a cheaper option, was for me, unless it is a real mess.

Labour sounds cheap!
Big end failure is very common.
What year / model is the car?

Been there, feel sorry for you, expect a battle with your warrenty co. A Small claims Court threat is often needed to open negotiations......

 

I have who says his place charges about £4000 for a new land rover engine.

Any ideas if a new engine can be obtained or whether it would be cheaper than a rebuild?

Thanks again,

James

 

Sorry forgot to include on last posting - Year is S reg 1998-9, type RA.

 

er, it is a "known fault" with gen scooby oil pumps to fail and loose all pressure,so go for it, subaru do know all about it.
But to take a turbo as well?? Even I would be making enquiries about that one, let alone the warranty company,sounds like a "ride taking" to me, and dont think they will wear that one. The only other recourse, is to get an "independent" report off an engineer about it, then send in his report, at least a cheaper option

 

Company isn't WH by an chance is it?

Think this is a std response nowadays - go to a solicitor - you will need a squeaky clean service histroy to make a claim.

It will be up to the warranty company to prove the engine was low on oil - get an independant assessors report as well - get numbers of the AA.

Don't even bother sending an arsey letter to them - it won't do anything - get to the solicitors straight away 'cos it'll take a good few months before it's sorted.

I'll try and dig out my letter from them and the assessors report that I commissioned - some cynical people may say that it's in the assessors (who the warranty co use) interest to turn claims down........

 

Warranty Holdings recently declined to renew my warranty after the initial 3 year period.
Reason given was that the underwriters were no longer prepared to insure Subaru imports.
So now I am running without a warranty.
If anyone knows any company that is currently supporting WRX STIs I'd be interested to hear about it.

 

Squeaky clean service history - It blew the day before it was going to be serviced - had done 6,500 miles - 500 over - Is this likely to be a problem?

 

scoobyslut - When you say its a "known fault" is there any way I get more information on this? from Subaru or any where else?

Cheers,

James

 

All I know is from when my own UK engine let loose, the dealer did tell me they had previous failures, and "was known" to Subaru, mine went with only 19k on the clock from new, by the time I stopped the engine, which I did almost immediately,it had taken crank, piston, rod,bearings, and washed all the bearing slurry into the cyl heads, so had new heads and cams too, but they did not replace turbo. and all from the oil pump releif valve sticking.

 

Jab,
service intervals on scoobs are 7.5k or 6 months, whichever comes first so no you shouldnt have any problems

Tony:

 

Assuming you have got the service intervals right (as Tony points out)

Jabrown - 500 miles over the service interval may well be a problem, if you go over chances are your warranty will be null&void IMHO and experience.

Had a cam belt go 300 miles past the service interval on a FORD Sierra (shudders)It was booked in for its service the following week, no joy!

With your engine failure - they could say that if you had had it serviced on the nail the fault could have been picked up and fixed, anyway every warranty i haver had/seen will only be Ok if the service intervals servicing is stuck to

Sorry it is not better news.

Good luck and i hope you get it sorted.

Paul

[Edited by Paul Habgood - 9/16/2002 1:22:19 PM]

 

98-99 car should have been serviced several times at 6 month intervals. The mileage doesn't count as it is so low.

Despite this one would not expect a 3 year old car with low mileage to fail, but warranty companies are not charities

 

sheepsplitter: It wasn't that long ago that warranties were for one year only and not extendable. I couldn't wait for mine to expire so I could get modding.

On average you must be better off without a warranty as you have to pay overheads etc. on top of your share of everyone's repair bills. Put the money into a separate account and keep your fingers crossed