I bought my 2002 STi back in November after looking since the summer. I did everything I could think of, contacting the previous owner, the main dealer who looked after it, HPI etc. All checked out fine, however on driving home it was apparent the gearbox wasn't right.

Cutting to the chase; I've had to resort to letter writing to the dealer to get the gearbox fault work started. As well as this I'm having to put in a clutch as it's sitting on 86k and not to do so would be daft.

The brakes always felt strange and it transpires the front calipers had seized pads on the inside as well as severely pitted discs and pads that shouldn't have got through an MOT......... I bought the brake bits to change only to find the inner bleed nipples on each caliper has corroded to nothing...... and one of the caliper mounting bolts sheared.....

I've had a call today from the specialist to let me know one caliper is all sorted, but the other is not repairable and despite the new nipple is still leaking. I had to sit down after finding out the cost of a new single caliper...... I can't even see any 2nd hand ones for sale, and with one being require only one makes it harder anyway.

I think the moral of the story is check, check and double check as much as you can. I'd never think of checking a car's brake bleed nipples but if someone asks me about buying a Scooby with Brembos I'll certainly flag it up as much can be hidden behind rubber caps. I was a little too trusting possibly, which was due to the fact I was a) Buying from a dealer, b) It was just back from Subaru at my request, and c) It had a 12 month MOT.

Oh well, I can take comfort in that it will be a hell of a lot better than when I collected it

 

Hi matey sorry for problems,but i've brought mine with CEL(Subaru virgin),after visiting one garage he said Lambda Sensor and just £300 excluding VAT,ok we are sorted and brought from eBay worked just 6 months,ok we brought again new.
After we change pads and new discs(we are brought in good faith everything is fine,but our pads have been badly damaged),we are suffer with ABS problem and we are damage the ABS pump(which many people said,its not possible,but is possible),we are change abs sensor and etc.
We are brought our car with 88k and after 16k we are get Piston ring failure and afterward HG(nothing serious,still is in good condition,but we need this sort after all).

And what said at end,double check and if you have doubts,take money and run for life,why?
Because almost every(not everyone) who selling car/or want sell car something hide and happy lie to eyes.


Jura

 

Is it the Brembo calipers? They DO come up regularly on e-bay, or Google "Subaru breakers" and ring round, someone may have a one-off where the other was damaged.

Did you try Ian Godney at Godspeed for caliper repair? If anyone can repair yours, he can

 

Scary prices are those brembo calipers! but my spec c cost me a set of discs and pads when I bought her, couldnt really look on the inside properly and thats where they had corroded the worst, cheap enough replacements from godspeed though

Tony

 

+1 for Ian Godney of Godspeed, just fitted my new discs and pads today, great product, great price, really nice guy


There is a n/s Brembo caliper on fleebay now for £190, single unit

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Subaru-Impreza...item20b654942b

They are on there all the time....i kinda hope that was'nt what you wanted, or i guess you wont wanna know about it!.....good luck

 

Cheers guys, I bought my discs and pads from Ian and had sent him a PM regarding the caliper, he must be busy as I've not yet heard back.

The biggest problem is time, the car is now not drivable so I need a new caliper asap as it's taking up ramp time and they need to get on with the 'box and clutch. I spotted the near side one on eBay but I need an offside Usual luck

I'll get the old caliper and post it up for sale on ebay with full disclosure obviously, but it might recoup some of my outlay on the new one.

 

Must be worth £150 or so.......someone will recondition it...

 

Hope so mate, I think it's one of these things that 9/10 garages wouldn't repair but someone like Ian will happily do. Hard to say until I get it back. Worst case, I get a bit of money back from selling it, and someone gets a caliper they can make use of

 

You may as well send em both off to be refurbed

Tony

 

Thankfully the O/S caliper, i.e the one that's knackered is the one with the scrapes on the front So at the least the new one will look good The N/S one is dirty but much better paint wise and I'm told is working perfectly so I don't see any point in refurbing it.

If I'd have to have bought a pair, that would have been different

 

you know, when you get a car MOT'd, it says on the certificate that the car must be road worthy for at least 90 days after the MOT in order for it to pass. If this is not the case, I would SERIOUSLY consider having a chat with citizens advice

 

There's so much to sort out at the minute mate, but I do intend on gathering everything together to have a proper look over it once I know exactly what's being done etc.

 

Get them off to Ian Godney. Did my Brembo GT discs and calipers and supplied me new pads as well. Brakes are now awesome

Old cars always have faults, but you would think a dealer would do a QA on it, I'll add this one to my check sheet for future reference thouugh

 

to be honest if the brakes shouldnt of passed the mot then i would be more worried about what else have they left out on the mot

 

Was this a Subaru dealership??

 

No mate, it was a private dealership who had it serviced at a main dealer as part of the deal. I rang them today (main dealer) and in fairness they mentioned the pads to the dealer, the nipples they did not notice as they didn't change fluid etc, and as for the discs they couldn't comment as they didn't MOT it.

According the this main dealer in 2010 the rules on discs fitted changed quite a bit and as such the scope for what is 'legal' and what's not is now very wide indeed......

I have been in touch with the dealer who sold me the car and emailed pictures etc to him. Hopefully I'll get something worked out. What worries me is exactly how bad this could have been.......

The discs 'might' have been MOT passes, but the pads should have never been. With the bleed nipples being corroded there might have been leaks I could not see making the whole lot a recipe for disaster........

 

Good point It's all in hand now though thankfully.

 

I've bitten the bullet and given the go ahead to fit a new caliper to the O/S which will rectify it. Time was against me on this one sadly. You are correct though, you would think a dealer private or main would notice, but then again unless you are changing the fluid, or brake components then you'd have no need to touch the nipples, hence why it was me who made the discovery........ The pads and discs are another issue though.

Definitely worth sticking in a guide because if they are rusted away to basically what look like arrows then the only way to get the out is to drill etc there is a chance it might not work. I didn't notice until popping the dust cap off and touching the bleed nipple, it then crumbled away. The result will be a bill for quite a bit of money, not to mention the integrity of the braking system until it's fixed.........

*EDIT* My advice, unless a specialist suggested otherwise, to anyone with Brembos, would be to take the bleed nipple caps off monthly, wipe down, check and give a coat of grease or something. Any salt, water etc in that cap will just eat away until it's too late.

 

Not all dealers want to notice though, as it costs them more in the deal. Sad but true

 

Exactly

 

I'm afraid thats the second hand car world for you. You always need to factor in some contingency. Could of just about bought an early Sti hawkeye with what i have spent plus the purchase price of my Type R

But thats not the point is it

 

When the gearbox become apparent I knew the dealer would have to cough up, I was happy to pay for the clutch, pads and discs as like you say you have to bite the bullet slightly with a 2nd hand car. The caliper is a bridge to far though......... I'll have to see what I can sort out with the dealer regarding that one...........