RS Grant

Coming home in early hours of Saturday morning, admittedly, I was pressing on.. Country road, nobody about, good conditions etc..

Car stuttered, and wouldnt pull.. this was at 60mph+++.. Thing was that the turbo was still spinning as it was dumping when I let off, but there seemed to be no power there.

I drove it slowly until I got to a stretch of street lights where I stopped and looked under the bonnet for anything obvious. (I'm not a mechanic and anything slightly technical would be invisible to me )

Couldnt see anything, gave the car a wee rev and thick grey smoke came out the exhaust and also a bit came out of the intercooler , smelt like something was on fire....... Which I think indicates an oil problem??

Anyway, turned car off and it let out a massive bang (backfire) from the exhaust.

Called Subaru Assistance and organised a recovery truck to come get me.

Guy arrived, turned car on to drive it onto the back of his truck?! But by this time it was throwing out huge amounts of white smoke, which indicates a problem to do with water??

It was idling so rough that the whole car was shaking.. Sounded like it was running a cylinder down, or at least thats what the guy said, I couldnt really hear anything. Was too busy getting over the shock of my car being on the back of a recovery truck...........

Anyway, car was taken to Town and County Subaru, in Perth. Got a car (Ford Focus) organised through my warranty company for the first 48hrs. Then the dealership have extended this for 5 working days, however on the phone today they said that on Saturday I would have to give back the hire car.

This wouldnt be a big problem if the car was going to be away til middle of next week, I could put up with commuting differently or organising a car to borrow for a couple of days. But they have said that they are taking the engine out because it will need to be stripped down and he said that they might manage that on Monday, so its looking like it will be away for about 3 weeks he said...

Instead of offering me a courtesy car, of which they have none, they said that I would be liable for the costs of hiring another car and that because it wasnt warranty on a new car then they cannot cover the cost for me...

He also said that it would be 2 weeks until he could give me ac ourtesy car, so when I said to book me in for one, he said he couldnt because he would be turning away servicing jobs because I would be tieing up one of his courtesy cars.

My questions are:

1 - Any ideas what the problem could have been with my car??

2 - Can they refuse me a Courtesy Car??

3 - When I bought my car, I was told it was a full, no quibble warranty, so I expect the same treatment as someone who has bought a brand new Subaru, am I wrong to expect this??

4 - Can they refuse to cover the cost of hiring me a car if they cannot supply a courtesy car??

5 - What do I do from here....... I have never been in this situation and I need some help.


Thankyou for reading all the above. Please feel free to post your opinions, ideas and advice as I am totally lost!!


Cheers,
Grant

stevey

iTrader: (2)

mine is also in getting a new short block and the dealer ship told me i could keep a hire car for as long as needed and the warranty would pay for it aslong as the job was covered under the warranty i chose to wait for a courtesy car instead but i did have to wait 2 weeks as they had none in so i cant see why they should refuse you a courtesy car tell them you will take it somewhere else as you cant do without a car it might work

greasemonkey

You're expecting miracles if you think we can diagnose problems like this without even seeing the car. Could be anything from a blown head gasket to a blown turbo to a holed piston, or indeed something else. Your description of smoke coming through the intercooler is a real oddity and makes it hard to even guess.

Dunno. The small print of your warranty agreement will no doubt tell you.

Dunno, answer is as per point 2. At end of day you should expect the level of support specified in the warranty agreement. If the terms are the same as those specified in the Subaru UK new vehicle warranty, you should expect the same treatment. If not, you will have to moderate your expectations accordingly.

See above.

Obviously reading the warranty terms would be your next step as most of your questions will be answered there.

scoobyslut

If its extended warranty we are talking, then I'm afraid they will only allow a replacement car for a max of 48 hours, then it is the owners responsibility.
it is in the small print but no sales rep worth their proverbial salt will ever tell a punter exactly what is and is not the same as a new 3 yr warranty. If they did, no one would ever fork out the brass for it as it is not worth the booklet its printed in. [be honest guys], try reading one first!

The warranty company will then only inspect the bits once stripped down, presuming the "owner" has given permission to take it apart. Then they send out an "independent" engineer, who always has his commission to look after, so if there is any way of denying the claim, he will find it, leaving the owner with a stripped engine [or gearbox] and subsequent bill for rebuild or "tow away".
Yep, been here before so speak from experience......

Red Rocket 11166

I had a similar prob last year with my MY96 Turbo, the Turbo pipe exploded.

Found a very large hole in it.

The guy with the tow truck said he had come across a few Scoobs with the same prob !!!! Fitted a Samco Kit.

Has the garage looked at your motor yet ?

Red.