Edward

MKC, If you have a faulty MAF the ECU won't record any faults unless it stops working completely.

It might be worth posting a link to this page in the Drivetrain forum.

E.

[Edited by Edward - 7/3/2002 11:39:25 AM]

MKC

Hi All,

I brought my MY99 last October from Anthony Betts in MK.
60K fully serviced and in perfect nick (so it appeared).
After 2 months, at a constant 5k revs at some speed over the national limit, power dropped, turbo didnt work and car ran on 3 cylinders. Toom it back to ABetts and within the Subaru 3 yr wtee it had a new short engine, clutch, turbo (piston melted and turbo knackered). It was off the road for the whole of Xmas and New Year...I ran it in as asked, changed the oil and filter after 1k, etc.

March, exactly the same symptoms, same speed, same revs, constant cruising (I had driven like this or eratically many times prior to this) and it blew again (3 weeks after after 400 pound service). Took it to Adams (2nd opinion etc). They replaced the whole engine, heads, turbo, etc under the extended wattentee as the piston had a hole again and turbo was gone too. They had the injectors checked and cleaned,I ran it in and changed oil and filter after 1k etc. It ran sweeter than ever...

24th June, same speed, same revs, same power drop, running on 3 cylinders. The only difference in symptoms is no smell of oil, no smoke out of the back (which on the other two occasions only appeared after it had been left for 15 mins). I have not yet asked them what they have found (as they have only had it a day).
I would guess its the same thing again...

What the hell can it be !!??

There were no leaks, no funny noises, no weird symptoms at all.
I always warmed it up for 5 mins before ragging it. I do not red line it (but do drive it hard). I cool it down for 5 mins after every journey too. The car is not modified in any way either.

I want to return it to Anthony Betts and will be writing to them shortly (it appears not to be their policy to refund/buy back !!)

I contacted Subaru and they seem to wash their hands of the car after the 3 years (even though the used cars are sold as Subaru Proven cars). I am writing to Subaru, ABetts, my solicitor and a consumer body this week. I have also been in contact with a TV show.

Has anyone else had so many problems with a UK dealer suplied Imprezza ??? Any additional info, contacts, examples, warrentee issues, etc, would be welcome to add to my protfolio of collected info...

Any info on what caused other peoples melted pistons would also be useful.

Regards, MKC.........

scooby2000

i too have a my99 and it has had a new engine fitted after buying the car in august 2000 i noticed that it was using a hell of a lot of oil so took it in to intermoto in liverpool who checked it out and found the bearing on the turbo knackered (oil on the exhaust side ). so replaced it all find until i checked the oil and low and behold the problem was back so back we went to liverpool who topped up the oil and told me drive for 500 mls and come back so this was done off i went back after the miles and the oil had disapeared so they stipped the engine down and found no 3 piston rings had broken up and scored the bore so engine was replaced under warranty , all fine running in etc.. oil changed at 1000 miles until the last couple of weeks ago i noticed oil smoke out of the back on idle only a bit at first then it became more and more so i took in to mainland in widnes and they stipped the engine down and found no 2 piston broken , no sign of melting burning etc... just broke. the service manager seem to think it has been broken since the new engine was put in which came has a complete unit heads the lot so at the monment they are waiting for the rings which are on back order. the car has only done 7000 miles since the new engine was put in and hardly ever been thashed. i does seem to say that there is a problem with quality control in the engine dept and looks like the plastic engine problem . i hope that you get yours sorted soon

cheers neil

MKC

Blimey....Good luck with yours too...useful info.

If anyone is interested, the parts I got last time round
were as follows (got most of these the last time too):

Anti Freeze, Oil, Oil Filter, Air Filter, bolts & shims, rocker gasket, short engine EJ205 Impreza, EJ205 Heads, turbo 98-08,
valves and shims. Injextors tested and cleaned. All came to 3975.74 + vat excluding Labour....(paid by wtee company), Adams appears to have not been paid for loads of the labour, the warrenty company pay for a set 9 hours or some rediculously small amount...!

Cheers for your comments...any more from others would be great...

MKC

Trumble

AB in MK is now no longer trading...

Best of luck.

T.

MKC

Noticed that...They ARE still trading for Suzuki in Hemel. I hold Subaru partly accountable as the car was a PROVEN USED SUBARU and therefore covered by rigourous checks ETC, backed by a Subaru Approved Extended Warrenty and Sold by an Authorised Subaru Dealership. I have just finished my 3.5 page document detailing my issues etc. Contacted trading standards, The AA, Driven (4car), my solicitor and will be contacting Subaru, Suzuki (for AB(if necessary (i know a European director their anyway))) and AB in the VERY near future. I am sure the outcome will be amicle to all parties and that press, radio and the internet need not be involved...Regards MKC

MKC

Quick note...out of 230 days of ownership, the car has been off of the road (with engine failure) for 75 days (and counting). I have only been able to use it for (average of) less than 5 days a week since buying it in November. If that is not 'unsatisfactory' and 'unfit for purpose' then I do not know what is..!!!

Some people have Impreza's as 'weekend' cars.
I need a 'weekend' car to cover the 'weekday' impreza..!!

carl

Conversely, I have driven 70k miles in my Scoob in the past 2.5 years and the only 'work' I have had done (so far... ) is scheduled servicing, consumables replacement (brakes, tyres, discs, etc.) and once an oil seal went on the rear diff. I think that's pretty good

SimonH

Sounds like a bit of a nightmare I've not had any (touch wood) problems with my MY00 and it seems odd that you've had the same fatal problem 3 times.
I don't know much about these things but I wonder if there could be a fault/code error/glitch in the ECU that is screwing up the fuelling or something. I assume the ECU has never been changed?

Just a thought

MKC

The ECU has not been changed. Only the mechanical parts have been done as far as I am aware.

I would be interested if anyone can LIST all of the sensors and control devices linked to the engine. It would be interesting to know how much these all come to. Sure it would not be that much and it makes sense now to replace all of these too...

Cheers,

MKC

Edward

MKC, I went to the open day at Power Engineering / Ecutek on Sunday, they have come across quite a few faulty MAF (mass air flow sensors), basically the sensor gives a lower voltage to the ECU than it should for the amount of air going into the engine, the ECU reduces the amount of fuel that is injected and causes the engine to run to lean, this could have caused your problem.

Cheers

E.

MKC

Thanks for that info...

It appears that Piston 2 is the one which was full of holes last time and has lost compression this time (not yet stripped). I do not know which piston failed on the 1st occasion.

Does anyone know why one piston would fail each time.
Ie, is there something that usually affects number 2 more than the others ?

Thanks,

MKC

MKC

The dealer also said that the error log ??!! did not register any faulty devices. If the voltage dropped, would that not show up in the log or whatever it is...?

Thanks, MKC

Hanslow

This might be complete bo11ox but I remember someone mentioning in the past something to do with speed.....

Feel free to shoot this down, but I think one of the reasons for a change in the bonnet design on the MY01 was because at high(er) speeds on the classic shape, the air was hitting the bonnet and passing over the air scoop and sent temperatures soaring inside the engine bits. There was a possible correlation in a lot of the cases where the No 3 piston had gone and continued driving at high(er) speeds.

Now that may be all a crock, but I'm sure the likes of Pete Croney, Mike Tuckwood and Trouser should be able to recall any stories similar to the above or whether I've been breathing in some funny substances

May be worth some investigation??

MKC

Thanks for that. When the power dropped, the temperature shown on the gauge was mid way as usual. This is probably not recording the temperature you are talking about, but I did make note of it at the time. However, the temperature of the front of the engine and bonnet lift was pretty high. I do not lift the bonnet very often and this may be usual...

I wanted to add a link to this into Drivetrain section, is that relatively easy, do you paste the web address into the message ?

Cheers...

Hanslow

Just create your new thread in drivetrain.....

Then add in [ url]http://www.scoobynet.co.uk/bbs/thread.asp?threadid=107921[ /url] without the spaces in the square brackets.

Should work a treat. Or you can edit someone elses post that has done it to see how it should be done

Hope you get the car sorted

alanjack

Sound familiar Paul?

MKC

Added the link and it works...thanks...

Out of interest, does anyone know exactly what relationship Subaru UK Ltd have with Proven Used Cars sold by Subaru Authorised Dealers ??

They appear to have none other than to premote the sale of their brand and to get the dealer to follows set rules and procedures for the service and checking of certain criteria prior to sale and during ownership.

They do not appear to actually be responsible for any proven used subarus..!!! I am waiting for a response to a letter I have recently sent, so I may be wrong, but if anyone has asked the question before for similar reasons I would be grateful to see what you were told.

Thanks, MKC

MKC

AB have now said that, as the Fault is being rectified by Subaru UK even though the car is out of manufacturers wtee, the fault has been aknowledged and responsibility taken on by Subaru!!!

Subaru got me a better courtesy car and have covered the insurance etc which is one good thing. The engine & ECU are due to be replaced also.

I have a few media contacts, but if anyone else has any links to consumer sites, watchdog type sites, etc, then please let me know.

Regards,

MKC

Gez

Definatley sounds like a fuelling problem. Maybe the car was brought over with a Japanese ecu/map requiring 100ron fuel. You were obviously using 95/97 Ron thinking that the ecu was set up for it. The fuel obviously cused a large amount of detonation hence the holes in your pistons. I think that subaru are to blame without a doubt. Best thing to do once you receive the car is to run it down to Power Engineering to check the map or invest in a Knocklink to detect detonation in the engine. Being a uk car there should be absolutely no knock. Take all precautions before you start giving the car welly.
I do get upset when i hear of these stories about the subarus especially when it never happens to a Mitsubishi.