ukjesters

iTrader: (3)

Hi all,
As a serious future scooby owner, why does it appear that so many scoobs have endured engine rebuilds/failures etc?

Is it down to lack of maintenance on behalf of the owner or just a design problem or something of that sort.

Potentially looking at a uk 98 model, unmodified car.

Currently driving a gti-6

Any advice would be much appreciated,
Ta
Rick

Brun

The 98's have a piston slap issue. Most - i assume will have been sorted under warrenty
Fit an AFR and a knocklink and use decent fuel along with plenty of servicing and you will be unlucky to lose an engine (it does happen however!!!)
If you can, stretch to a 99 spec. You will benefit from nicer front bumpers, interior and the phase 2 engine which is easier to tune

Pavlo

many cars are abused in some way, many imports are time bombs, especially with the fuel and bleed-valves etc.

You get the odd standard one go, but on the whole if well maintained and/or properly modified they are very reliable.

Paul

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

The thing is, there are many people who will pop up on here saying their engine has blown. It does make you paranoid. But think about it, you don't post saying your car is fine and dandy do you?

Look at the sales figures for UK turbos and JDM import numbers and compare this to the number that have knackered engines. There's a lot of scoobs out there with engines that never had problems.

Admittedly there is an inherant flaw in the design where the big end journals are somewhat smaller than the average in-line 4 engine. The effect of this is that it will not tolerate abuse or neglect (and ignorance ).

Many JDM imports end up knackered through incorrect fuel and no knocklink (or re-map to use UK fuel). UK cars just don't suffer from this, unless they are modified or suffer from airflow sensor failure (MAF)

2 things kill these engines, dead/dying MAF's causing knock/pinking, and oil starvation after an oil change.

A well cared for standard car, which is well maintained should never give you a problem.

ukjesters

iTrader: (3)

Thanks for the encouraging advice, especially seeing how i really want a scoob, test drove an import celica gt4, wasnt impressed, test drove a uk scoob - me wants

Is the maf sensor sensor on the service schedule or is it one of those parts that just goes and when it does it causes huge expense?

I know what you mean about positive posts as well, hardly gonna post about your car running good each day are you, so point taken

Bank manager... oh bank manager.....(that'll be the Mrs...not the bloke at TSB with the suit!!!)

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

...but it might! My UK MY00 with PPP had a big end go at 61k miles despite FSSH and a lifetime of pampering. I accept it was unusual, though, and so did Subaru UK.

As Ali-B says, most failures seem to be Japanese imports that suffer det due to poorer fuel quality than they're designed for. Also MAF sensors fail on some cars which also leads to det and a knackered engine. Last but not least, any problems with the oil system (faulty pump, or temporary oil starvation following poor oil change procedure) can knacker the bearings.

My new STI will be getting a UK fuel remap, Knocklink, and a diet of quality fully synthetic oil. I'm confident that its chances of a premature death will be low - at least, no worse than any other Impreza.

New Age (2001+) cars do seem to be much better than classics in this respect.

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

The latter, I'm afraid. Independent specialists will generally do a better job of correctly identifying and if necessary, replacing the MAF sensor if it turns out to be faulty.

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

Bought an sti4 in december. had 60,000 miles on it. done 10k since. in that time i have had no probs what so ever. Took it to Power Engineering with in the first to weeks for a remap. I give it an oil and filter change (mobil 1 15w50 change) every 3k. always fill it with optimax and just let the engine warm up and cool down properly. common sense really, not a lot to ask for such a quick car!!! Just look after them and they run and run. They did win the JD power survey in 96 and 97!!!

vulnax999

iTrader: (7)

The MAF sensor is between £80 and £280, depending on year ( earlier cars needed the housing too, later ones just the actual MAF sensor ).

BUT if it fails, and they seem to fail slowly over time, then you are looking at significant engine rebuild expense, £2k ish at a guess, depending what broke!

Neil
JDM wagon MY94 had for 4 years, no non service items gone yet and getting more modded by the day!
BUT had scoobyecu 18 months so suited for UK fuel. And always run on good fully synthetic oil and new filter/oil at 3000 mile intervals.

Pavlo

My legacy did 130,000 miles without significant fault, 30,000 of that was mine with 270hp or so.

Paul

TheSilverScoob

I have had a standard MY00 for a few months now and i am already thinking of what mods i may look as when the Subaru warranty runs out. Are there any mods that would not affect the chances of a blown engine? What are the best mods using the performance per £££ formula, while not risking injury to the car?



Phill

Matt Classic

I went for a TEK2 re-map and a de cat centre section and a different back box (left the downpipe in for MOT, no hassle) on my 00MY
Took my car from 226bhp up to 256 and torque up to 262llbsft. Been very happy with it for the last year.
TEK 2 was the best £650 spent

scoobyboy

why do you think they do a better job?

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

When my engine blew earlier this year I called a number of different companies. Although my local Subaru dealer eventually did a perfectly decent job rebuilding the engine, they couldn't really offer much of an explanation as to what had (or even, might have) gone wrong. (I suspect this was more political than anything).

However, without exception, the independent specialists I spoke to (TSL, API, ScoobyClinic, Powerstation) were happy to suggest failure mechanisms and describe their symptoms. This gave me a lot more confidence, and were it not for the provision of all the parts f.o.c. from Subaru, there's no way I'd have gone to a main dealer for the rebuild.