Trickie

So guys and girls just how good are Scoobys

I have read through a few posts now and there are some horror stories both new and old Scoobys blowing up breaking down gearbox probs.......

Is there a prob in general or is it driver error?

Mine is ten years old now i do not no what probs its had in the past,I have got recipts for cam belts done services here and there but no real history on it.

The garbox is a little notchy gearing up at speed but thats about all i can see wrong with it.Have i got bad news to come or is it a isolated problem with some cars?

Please leave comments here for all to see who have or are looking to buy a Subaru..

Thanks.

hoskib

iTrader: (1)

to be honest it's mainly only the horror stories you're going to hear about, not to many will put a post up 'my cars running fine and i'm happy'.
i've had my scoob for 3 years and another before it for a year and neither caused me a seconds grief or any additional repair cost.
i think scoobys have a good reliability reputation in the whole, so hopefully you'll have many years trouble free motoring

Trickie

Fair comment to you mate...

Anyone else got any comments.

Thanks

donutman

mine went wrong after 11 days of owning it, £3600 later it was fine

Scoob99

iTrader: (1)

I have had mine 3 and a half years, the only time she has seen a Subaru workshop is when she has been in for a service, mind you like you I am always cautious, but I have Subaru warranty for about another 2 years, mine is a very low milage 98 model and only really comes out at weekends
Cheers
Colin

astenhouse

Have owned 3 scoobys to date, Macrae, STiV (import) and STi7 and have done about 120K miles and appart from brake pads, wiper blades and occasional light bulbs have replaced nothing. No breakdowns

Supercue

iTrader: (1)

I think gearbox problems are more common than IM would like. Although the drive-train on these cars take a huge pounding. So gearboxes are more likely to go wrong when you take into account how much stress some drivers put on their cars.

Mine is nearly a year old and I have had the syncro rings replaced on 3rd,4th,5th & reverse under warranty. I can honestly say the car has been fantastic and has even done a few track days to boot never missing a beat.

No-one mentions much about the dealerships either. I bought mine from Wilsons of Chadwell Heath who were and are top draw both for the sale and far more importantly afterwards. Compared to Fairfields BMW they wiped the floor with them. Another ticked box as to why I changed marques.

So glad I did

ChrisC

I've done 75,000 in three years in two different imported cars. First was very very reliable.
Second had one problem that was not life threatening but annoying which was eventually traced and one breakdown but due to human error not the car's fault. I get them serviced regularly and whilst I enjoy a "spirited" drive with the best I always treat the car with mechanical sensitivity.
That way I reckon the Subaru is as good as any car.

Trem

iTrader: (3)

Its like self diagnoses, its like if you have one of those medical dictionaries. You can have every illness under the sun if you examine everything written.

If you look too much into some stuff on these boards then you will **** yourself and every bump and squeak your car makes.

I got a high mile UK Turbo and its the best, most reliable car I have ever had. Before that I had a MY94 Jap STi, that was also uber reliable(and still is), but because of what I read I was paranoid with the Jap one(fueling etc).

BigGuy

first one (modified) had about 130,000 miles, the one I have now (modified STi7) has
almost 50,000 miles nether one ever had a problem. Most reliable cars I ever owned except for my Honda Civic. In the last two years I've had one Alfa and one Audi actually blow up trying to keep up with me (The Alfa was very spectacular with a uge puff of smoke) If you want cheap and pourly put together then get a Mercedes. My wife has a brand new C320 from work, with absolutely every option available. It has nothing but problems. The Auto transmission blew and had to be completely replaced the lef door mirror has actually fallen off twice, ther are squeeks and rattles and if you roll over a piece of gravel it seems the dashboard is ready to fall off. I can't lean my leg against the center consol because of the creeking sound it makes. My mother has a C180 and "loves" her car but it's allway in the shop with all kind of electronic problems and finally my wifes friend has a new C230 (I think) sports coupe and she too has nothing but problems and hates the car with a passion. The scoobs are usually rated near or actually at the top of the Swiss TCS reliablity report.

You also have to look at how some of these yahoos drive their cars. No car is indistructable, and any car at some point can break down. Also you will normally not hear from the thousands and thousands of drivers that never have a problem - Isn't that normal?

Matt_Turbo_2000

Mine is an MY00 have had it 6 months and it has been great. Thing to look for is full subaru service history and lots of receipts then you know it's been well looked after.

GaryScoobNCBR

had mine 2 years and touch wood everythings been fine, only sees a garage for petrol and servicing, but then i do look after it.

Let the turbo cool down properly etc etc

Its the same with anything, if you treat it properly it should be fine, people who think they are "bullet proof" and can drive it a 7000 revs all day long are just plain stupid.

Gutmann pug

13 months and not one problem

Kevin Groat

STi V3, owned 5yrs done 40'ish k miles. Service it myself biggest thing that's gone wrong is a replacement battery. Previously had an old L series estate which I bought for £500, ran it for 4 years 40k miles. Serviced it when I bought it and then never touched it again (bar exhaust & brake discs) - didn't even change the oil. Hence I bought another Subaru.

Silvafox

iTrader: (1)

I agree with trem. If you read everything on these threads you'd be paranoid. Its the same no matter what car you have and its relative discussion forums. As already stated, people only normally air there problems etc on these boards and are either offering or after advice. I've found my MY02 STI to be very good so far and am confident from the general feeling that'll it'll be reliable until I get rid of it in a couple of years. I would certainly have another.

By the way had a service at 11k and one at 22k just 7 months later and it didn't use one drop of oil and its had plenty of 'spirited' driving. Every other car I've had thats been turbo'd has used oil, come to think of it every other car I've owned has used at least some oil except the Scooby.

EddScott

I've had mine since Oct 03 and done about 6.5 to 7K with no problems. Its makes a dodgy clicking noise in reverse which is either a bearing of somesort or a tooth missing off reverse (so said Sub dealer) its something I never noticed when I bought it and I suspect its why the last person sold it on. However its done it for at least 8 months and is no worse and have replaced the gearbox oil and found no metal flakes or anything so I'm not too worried about (if it goes its an excuse to drop a 6 speed in).

I had to replace the front discs and pads recently and the whole thing came to £120 thats for 4 pot brakes too and they work fine and I've got TEK3 ecu etc.

Very happy with mine and any problems will be repaired to higher spec as I don't intend to sell it.

Leslie

Lot of sense mentioned in this thread. The Scooby does produce a lot of power and if the engine or gearbox are misused then the reliabilty can be compromised just the same as any poky set-up.

If you subscribe to the "drive it as it was designed to be driven" school, which is often an excuse for ragging the motor to the redline on every gearchange, then as much fun as that might be, you will certainly shorten the life of the mechanicals. That is just pure logic.

The car is very well put together in my opinion and if you treat it with mechanical sympathy as well as enjoying the performance then it will last as well as any car. Don't be mean over oil changes by trying to stretch the mileage and get the servicing done properly and you will get the sort of reliability that you would expect from it. It is such a good car that it deserves to be looked after.

Les

Carl Davey

iTrader: (3)

I bought my MY98 PPP UK Turbo with 82,000 miles on the clock. I continued to keep up the service history, warmed the car up and down and generally looked after it. At 97,000 (after thee service) the engine let go for absolutely no apprarent reason (believe me, i'd love to say i was caning it ).

One replacement MY99 WRX EJ-20 and all's well again. 106,000 and counting.

Don't let the horror stories put you off though. Buy one, you'll love it. I'd buy another, just one with a little less miles this time...

Mikkk

My car's running fine and I'm happy ...
(MY03 STi Type UK, Nov'03, 9k+ on the clock already ... to paraphrase a certain ad campaign: I'm lovin' it

Myk

My Scoob is great, in the three years I've had it I've always had a smile on my face

Even though I'm on my third gearbox I think thats prob to do with my driving

One small bit of advice on the gearbox side of things, overfill the gearbox by approx 2-3mm over the max level on the dipstick. From what I've found out, and been told, 3rd gear tends to run a little dry when going quickly, this sorts it.

Apart from Gearboxes and me hitting imovable objects, my scoob is still going strong

Three cheers for Scoobys......hip hip........


Mike

MY93 Wrx

corradoboy

I've had my MY03 WRX PPP for 4 months and apart from the expected battery failure and blowing the I/C pipe off , it's been fine so far. Had 20k when I got it so I don't know how well she was treated for the 1st year of her life, but I warm up/down and drive smoothly and progressively (mostly ) Due an interim oil & filter change so I'll be off to a non-dealer specialist to ensure it's done correctly

SteveV-WRX

I was very unlucky.

Purchased a MY94 ukturbo in june last year after looking for months for a prime example, same day I brought it (driving back to london from devon) engine went, the next 6 months I was plauged by nothing but problems, the garage I used actually had the car more than I did (seriously).

Eventually sold the car for half of what I paid for it and after spending somewhere in the region of £3500 in repairs.

I suppose its one of those things, your bound to get lemons in whatever make/model you buy.

But would I buy another one even though the last nearly brought me to financial ruin, HELL YES, the flat 4 burble through a straight through SS exhaust is intoxicating.

Wrexy27

hey corrado boy,

I thought the new WRX's you didn't need to leave the engine running for a while after spirited driving (unlike my old classic) - am I wrong? if I am why didn't they leave that little sticker on the front drivers door panel like in the classic. I suppose another question would be - do they sell a turbo timer for 03 WRX's?

Anyway, I always warm up, just not necessarily down!

mines an 03 WRX with ecutek and decat. Oh and so far so good in reliabilty stakes!

julian N/W wrx my93

mines a my93 with 115k miles on her now, stil going strong, regular servicing seems to be the key. I change my oil/oil filter every 2k etc. And still got 262bhp@flywheel not bad for a 11 year old shed!

camk

I had an Sti for 2 years and did 60K in that time. Needed a new clutch and aircon motor. A few other smallish problems(Lamda sensor etc). I ran it on unleaded most of the time but never had it de-restricted so it was never fully maxed out.
The biggest issue for me was the cost of repairs. There is very little that is cheap or easy. Great car but if it goes wrong you will need to get the wallet out, and IMHO its not an easy car to work on as a DIYer.
I never found the car to be the panacea that everyone went on about regarding fantastic reliability. Its a nice car and drove very very well. Sticking my neck out a bit I'd say a lot of the issues I've seen on here are on modded cars. The further you push the engine performance the greater the issues with fueling and associated bearing failure. Gearbox failures look to be less common. There are obviously exceptions to all of this.

RLE

iTrader: (2)

Had the car three years (UK97) and only thing that I have replaced is the radiator. Firm believer of prevention is cheaper than the cure although in the case of the Subaru they appear to be the same.

New clutch has just been fitted as I just knew the standard one wouldn't handle the 300 plus bhp thats going through it now.

Thousands that I have spent have all been on modifications and cosmetics.

Trickie

Big Thanks to you all...



I am and as you should all be a little more reassured about the reliability of you Scooby, if you look after it, you should have problem free motoring.



As you can see from the replies I have had you always get a lemon which is not your fault it’s just unfortunate that you got it.



My Scooby like I said is 10 years old but its still going strong so hopefully with a bit off good luck I got a good one.



Please keep adding your comments to this post.

davedipster

Had my 03sti for 6 Months now and it's never missed a beat.
Not a single even small fault.

My last car was a Honda civic type r which I had for 12 Months and I had bother with that, replaced headlight unit, electric window assembly and it scrubbed tyres until I had it fixed.
Before the civic I had a Renault clio 172 for 11 Months and that was a complete nightmare,
Respray needed on the roof (painted over water/oil at the factory!), water leaks, poor trim fit, replaced rear bodykit cos it warped in the summer...and so on.
My father bought a new 5 series BMW and they had to replace the air conditioning controller, the windscreen wiper motor and the the trim rattled.
My brothers TVR decided to grenade itself bigtime after 6k miles.

So I suppose any car can have problems, after all you cannot inspect and test every component on a car and alot of components are sourced from outside contractors. A percentage of all components will fail short in their life it's just averages. Failures can of course be reduced by using a fundamentally sound design and good quality materials, manufacturing methods and quality control-a feature of Japanese build.

But from the JD power surveys here and in the US it does appear that Subaru are much better than most for build, fit and reliability.

Dipster

lordharding

iTrader: (1)

had mine since new and is 4 years old next week

27000 miles only

under warrenty

alarm bracket 3000 miles
new battery 25000 miles

subaru assistance called out when would not start due to being parked to a transmitter aerial typed code in and started first time !!!

great reliable car

Scoob99

iTrader: (1)

See NO WORRIES