Otis

Letdown,

Forgot to say - do a search on 'Piston Slap' as the archives are quite comprehensive on this topic.


Otis.

Gary Foster

My MY98 sounds like a diesel when cold, when its warm it sounds sort of 'Tappy' at lowish (3500) revs when under load.

It's difficult to hear when warm as all the other noises - valves, injectors, turbo etc etc make it hard to hear. I first noticed when it was warm 3 days after buying the car after driving my friends.

Suggest starting the car in the morning and playing with the throttle with the bonnet up to hear it - it doesn't make the noise if you keep the revs constant.

Mine has not yet been diagnosed as piston slap, dealers has 'knocking noise from no 4 piston when cold' on the warranty claim.

'Apparently' (according to my dealer) piston banging against a bores are not a problem anyway and the engine will last over 100,000 miles with no problems at all. Not sure how they can tell this given that not many MY97 / 98's can have done 100,000 miles yet.

I remain skeptical - but hey I'm certainly not an expert so don't quote me.

Gary

letdown

Does anyone know what the symptoms of this fault are?? I only ask as I have a MY97 and the warranty is up at the end off the month!!

sickboy

Yes, your pistons make a slapping noise ;-)

sickboy

My MY99 sounds like a bag of spanners until it's warmed up. I mentioned piston slap at the last service and the guy said it was to do with the different clearance on no 3 cylinder".

He didn't elaborate, but it sounded a bit better after an oilchange.

It's worst when the weather has been a bit chilly and it's the first start up from overnight.

Otis

Very strange that you get it on an MY99 Sickboy. I thought it was sorted for the MY99 and MY00.


Otis.

adge

iTrader: (22)

My MY98 was noisy when cold which went away when warm so I complained to dealer and they said it was piston slap and fitted a new short motor no arguements under warranty at 32K as it was obviously a known problem with the MY97/98 models. I just hope they fixed it on MY00 import.

millband

Gary - don't let the dealer get away with that! Looks like everyone else (now including me - MY97 engine being replaced in the next few weeks at 45k miles) gets a short engine, so it must be pretty serious.

My symptoms sound identical to yours.

Cheers,

Steve

Matt Porritt

Will the pistons haveing short skirts you have to expect a little especially under a little load.

Is skirt failure at revs a common prob on the WRX/STi's?

Gary Foster

Cheers Millband,

I was starting to believe the dealers claims for a second - 'it's just scare mongering from those people on the Internet' was a particularly choice phrase that was used.

Yeah, cheers I feel a little more confident that I've diagnosed it correctly, will be phoning the dealer again today ...