Stef

My car has recently been diagnosed with a big end bearing failure on number three piston (or whatever!), which was NOT caused by anything in particular.
Apparently, it's quite a common fault as quite a lot of UK cars have suffered the same fate. My dealer told me that Subaru themselves cannot find the problem, and it's got to the stage where short block engines are on back order!
Has anyone else on here either been through or heard about this?

Stef.

bob

Anders had the same problem.

DavidBrown

< - posting deleted by request - >


[This message has been edited by DavidBrown (edited 02-06-2000).]

AndyMc

I would have thought the lack of short engines is down to the piston slap problems that seems very common on 97/98 MY cars,mine included.

Chu

same here!!engine had a grenade go off in it as the mancanic said......still on my new one......97 type-r

DaveU

yup - MY99 STI-V Type-R suffered same fate after only 5000 miles. Similar description to a grenade going off in the engine bay.
Let's be honest though - how were you guys driving your cars at the time (i've heard how Stef was driving!)? I was seeing how fast my car would go and was doing 8000 revs in 5th with not enough oil in the engine...

Trout

iTrader: (1)

Dave,

you're back!

MY98 engines also had a serious PISTON SLAP problem with a lot of short blocks being replaced at the moment - so it may be the MY98 just wasn't a good vintage for various reasons.

R

bobn3

Hi all,

What is piston slip, and how do you know if its happening to your car?,

I have just got a 97' sport 5dr, 48,000, cambelt is been done soon, is there anything else I should have look it by the dealer?

Cheers

Lee Ng

Stef,

Same thing happened to mine, but mine's being a '93 WRX. New block running fine so far, but for how much longer......

WAL

I'm glad it's not just mine that has started to sound like a bag of nails, thought I'd got a real Friday car!
I'm waiting for the yes or no from Subaru for a short engine replacement for the 98MY piston slap problem. The car has only done 21000 miles and has not been driven" a la Stef", a TVR Cerbera appears to have more reliability than my Scoob.
Anyone know if the 99/00 MYs are any better?
Still enjoy the car though.....

Steve S

asked my dealer to check knocking noise from cold and got told that it was just scare stories on the web?????but still said they'd look and report to subaru.Anyone else had same reaction?? steve my98

Trout

iTrader: (1)

There were a specific bunch of MY98 (not sure if it was all of them) that suffer from Piston Slap (it still sounds like the result of a night out in Essex ).

I know for sure of TWO cars recently that were taken to a very reputable Subaru dealer in the South East and the owners were both fobbed off with this 'web scaremongering' story.

The same cars were then taken to another Subaru dealer (this just doing Scoobs, not bothering with Saabs and Lotii ) and this dealer kindly replaced both short engines in short shrift as they were suffering from terminal Piston Slap. Both cars had done under 30,000 miles.

This sounds like a loud tapping, especially when the engine is cold (it is also, obviously, engine speed related). Owners of old Alfasuds will be familiar with the noise, although not after 21,000 miles.

R

AndyMc

Sorry to highjack Stefs thread but,

My my98 has just been for a service(18k miles) and I asked them to investigate the deep dok-dok sound that it makes for the first five minutes of running.

When I picked the car up the service manager said there was nothing wrong with it,and the noise was caused by the wastegate solenoid,just the response I was expecting.

At first he made out that they had never heard of the piston slap problem ,then when he realised he couldn't fob me off so easily he said they had fixed a few cars but they were much worse than mine.

He said the problem was caused by the low friction coating wearing off the pistons after about 10k miles and that when they take them apart they are in perfect condition.

I told him mine was getting worse all the time and if it wasn't fixed now they would probably have to in the future.

Eventually after much discussion he offered to put a new piston in No 4 cylinder bore which I am not happy with.
Why should it only happen to one cylinder and what is to stop it happening to the other three in a few months time??.

I have decided to let it get worse for the time being and then push for a new short engine in the future.

Curiously the noise has reduced since the service,I hope they haven't put really thick oil in.I wouldn't put it past them!

Andy

Jason L

Andy,

Any dealer worth his salt will know and be advised by IM that on Turbos they will not just replace the no. 4 piston but will only replace the short engine....

However, on non-turbo cars they just replace the piston... most strange !!! and nobody seems to know why (John F any further views ??)

If i was you i wouldn't wait for it to get worse... if the dealer disagrees go to another.. and if you still have a problem i believe it is possible to speak to IM and request one of their engineers look at the car !!!

Whichever, i would get it sorted sooner as its unlikely to be the wastegate solenoid if its getting worse...

Jason

WAL

Steve
We'll have a chat tomorrow night, you've been speaking to the same service manager as me!!
Warren

strong

Stef,

I'm pretty sure it was a no.3 big-end bearing that failed on Adam Curtin's 96MY last August at about 61,000 miles. He was driving round the Ring at the time. Subaru replaced all the bits under warranty (JUST inside the 3 years, but over the mileage limit).

Here's a post from IWOC at the start of April from a guy in New Zealand that is also of interest on this problem:

>I recently had a bearing no.3 go in my STI IV, this is the 3rd time I have
>had a bearing no.3 fail in a Subaru Impreza. I previously owned a Impreza
>GT. Due to the low levels of octane fuel these failures were attributed to
>fuel problems. I was however been running my STI on 102 unleaded for a few
>weeks before the failure so decided that fuel was probably not the problem.
>I had a mechanical forensic investigator to see if he could pin down what
>was causing the problem.
>
>The result of the investigation was that it was narrowed down to the oil
>pressure regulator was getting stuck in the open position, not open enough
>to light up the oil pressure warning light but enough to cause accelerated
>big end wear on all of the bearings. Apparently bearing no3 is the last
>bearing to receive oil. This is not usually a problem as there is plenty of
>oil but when the pressure is down it results in bearing failure.
>
>We have had three engines fail locally due to bearing no.3 failure, two
cars
>had new bearing fitted locally and failed again within 2000kms. I suspect
>this is due to the pressure release valve remaining stuck in an open
>position.
>
>My question is, has anyone else experience bearing failure on the no 3
>bearing?
>
>Thanks
>
>JohnB
>STI IV Type-R
>Fitting an oil pressure gauge

GavinP

Time for a mass purchase of oil pressure gauges then ?

Thanks

Gavin

NITO

Mine (MY98)also has the -clattery-clattery piston slap sound, especially when cold. I questioned my dealer and they said it was normal and that all Imprezas exhibit this. My MY95 definately never sounded like this. On further questioning he said that they've replaced short engines on the Legacy but never an Impreza!

My Turbocharger is also letting some oil pass, although it has been running at 1.15bar it's still below what it was trying to run when it was overboosting. It's done 41,000 miles...time to grovel at the dealer...it's just had the 4th and 5th syncros done!!

Anyone else had the clicking clutch diagnosed yet! My clutch sometimes goes extremely stiff or it goes very spongey...anyone else??

Nito

Scott J Davies

Strong/Stef

My Friend (just been banned) has/had a UK MY99 he had exactly the same thing go wrong on his car baring failure on the No3 piston (enthusiastic driving he was told). He also had a set of cracked discs (again enthusiastic driving), then his clutch went for a burton (more enthusiasm).

He called a senior bloke in Subaru UK after he was told it was going to be 6 weeks before he would see his car again, after that his car was ready in a fortnight.

He also was told that some problems had been caused on UK cars that have a leather posing pouch, this was causing the engines to blush and blow a bearing in order to have the pouch removed. He he he he

James Neill

iTrader: (1)

So what's the difference in sound between piston slap and the wastegate solenoid. I'm getting confused - how do you tell the difference??

I have a MY98 with 40,000 on the clock. I do get a ticking sound from cold - but I'm sure its just the solenoid ????

Regards
James

Stef

Scott.
Very funny you muppet!

Paul.
Thanks for that, it sounds like it could be it.
My dealer confirmed today that the cause is UNKNOWN, even IM have no idea what's causing it, but it's not rare. This is on top of the piston slap problem.
Oil surge was originally considered an option, and this reg thing is pretty similar.
I'll show my dealer.

Stef.

millband

I've just got my MY97 car back from being checked for "sounding like diesel when cold" as part of the 37.5k service at K T Green's in Otley.

It was left overnight and he said they couldn't hear anything, but then explained (without any prompting from me) that the cause was probably piston slap, and this has affected a few cars from the same year.

Basically he said get in touch before the warranty expires in September, and he'd order a short engine for me. I think this is top service, no evasiveness and very helpful.

My car also get's the ticking boost solenoid, but I'm not too worried about that.

Steve

Paulie

ooo bugger

I've got my diesel-sounding MY98 booked in next week for 37.5K service (into an apparently nice dealer) and have been told that an oil flush should cure it...

has anyone else had that line?

millband

Nope, didn't get any lines at all, which is refreshing.

Basically the story I got from K T Green, and have read here too, is that if the car "knocks" for the first few minutes from cold it's piston slap. Mines a good thunking knock/rattle under load that goes away once warmed up, and has got worse over the last 10,000 miles. Apparently a little is to be expected, but mine sounds like a taxi to me!

Definitely not valve rattle, that's a "lighter" sounding noise, and not the boost solenoid - that's a constant pace, not rev related.

Steve M

Stef

Subaru have told my dealer to replace my oil pump as well, so it looks like the oil reg problem is the most likely cause.
If this is the case with the 98's after 50,000 miles or so, they've got a big problem ahead....

Stef.

Nico van Steen

My Subbie dealer who had been driving his MY98 on the Ring last Sunday suffered from the same fate.

Did a run, let the engine idle to cool down, shut off the engine went in for some coffee. Then after 10 minutes started up for another run.... Sounds like a bearing. Will take the engine apart shortly.

Nico van Steen
Netherlands

strong

Nico,

I don't know what a failed bearing sounds like but my 98MY car had a bolt come out of the side of the engine that's used to hold the frame to which the cambelt is bolted onto. This made a clacking sound as it bounced around the cambelt area (damn lucky not to cut it but it did knock the timing out). It happened in very similar circumstances to your dealer friend. I'm not the only person to have had this on a 98MY, so yet another (but less common) problem with the car. Dealer told me these bolts aren't held in with anything special.

James W

Ive just bought a MY 98!

cheers for spooking me guys

Jim

WAL

P300...
Even though my car is suffering severe (IMO) piston slap I've had absolutely no loss of power, so not sure of your theory
I am really interested to know if this obviously common problem has been rectified on the later cars as we're thinking of a new one soon. Still waiting for the go ahead on the short engine, two weeks and waiting.
Just out of interest what new components are fitted under the description "short motor"?

Warren
98MY Diesel Turbo (at least for 10 minutes in the morning!)

P300MJH

Hello all,

My first post! - I have been following threads for nearly a year!

My comment is this...

Could this piston slap - in its early stages be enough to cause the 'loss of power' feature that many of us have experienced in second gear - due to the knock sensor detecting what it *thinks* is det?

(crawls back into the shrubbary)

Martin