Hey guys,

Sorry not sure if this is the right place to post this, but here goes...

Well 2012 looks like its going to be a shocker. Head gasket went in late December on my pride and joy 55 2.5l hawkeye STI. I had it repaired in Jan (had new pistons put in, head studs etc), and decided to get a new exhaust and remap after the running in period. It has been good as gold for nearly three months, last week i noticed on the drive to work, that all of a sudden it was sluggish (I actually thought maybe the turbo had gone), I limpt it to work, but noticed when I parked up the engine was ticking. Drove it cautiously home that night, but you guessed it engine light came on 5 miles from home, and the ticking became more noticeable.
I had it towed to the guys who fixed it last (nice guys) who have pretty much confirmed what you're all guessing, the engine is in a bad way. They couldn't pinpoint the exact problem without stripping it, but it isn't good.

Sooo.. as i'm still paying for the original repairs (and will be for a while) I'm looking to shift it, and get some rubbish diesel run-around until I can pay it all off.

The first random scrappers i've tried has offered me £2000 for it, I was just wondering if you guys think that's a fair price. I know if I broke it the parts are worth a bit, but I don't have the drive space (and probably talent), plus I need to get some money back to put down as a deposit.

Can you guys suggest a scooby scrappers who might be interested (and may offer a tad more), Its near Birmingham At the moment, so I guess someone not too far away.

Its got BC coilovers (br's)
3k mile old mongoose exhaust system (with sports cat)
4 new tires (RE070) that have maybe 4k miles on them (got them in Jan)
The standard gold STI Alloys have light curbing on 3 of them (that was only last year)
All the panels and plastics are sound (front bumper has some paint chips)
63k mileage

I know even working these aren't worth much these days, but I need to try and get as much as I can to put toward a crappy runabout.

Any ideas (short of leaving the keys and hoping some mug nicks it) gratefully received

Thanks
Dave

 

Be such a shame to let it go for peanuts. Why not buy a second hand engine from here for circa £1000 and drop that in. You could then sell it for alot more money.

If not, where are you ?
I've got more than £2K here for it if your not a million miles away.

 

first thing first have you have the fault code read to see what that says?

if you did sell it I would say quite a bit more than 2k. Look at what the same year / mileage are going for to get a rought idea. Also was there no warranty with the work carried out?

 

Find somewhere to strip it, as the box is worth that on its own!!

 

Sounds too good to break.

Speak to whoever did the engine rebuild earlier this year and see if they will strip the engine to find out what went wrong. Realistically a rebuilt engine should last longer than 4k miles.

 

Thanks for the responses guys,

Well it only just made it to the garage on thursday, so this is the first chance i've had to look in to it properly. The garage have been pretty good about it, and any parts will be covered under warranty, but the labour to strip it again (although they said they'd help me out) plus if its something unrelated follow on repair costs would kill me. The credit card is already carrying the previous repair costs, another reason why a replacement engine is out.

Thanks Jay, but There is a very noticeable problem with the engine, not only is it ticking but you can see/feel a slight vibration. I've seen similar cars going from as little as £7k, but with unknown engine repair costs, i'm not sure of its actual worth.

Its gutting, there were no indicators anything was wrong before hand, oil level gets checked weekly, and hasn't changed etc. I know I got petrol the night before, Tesco 99 ron as usual, but I don't know if its related. Had a third of a tank already, before topping up.
Thanks for the offer Matty, its near birmingham at the moment, but I was sort of really just after an idea of value before I do anything.

Thanks again guys.

 

When you decide to sell,pm me mate.

 

Problem with a valuation is that it needs to be a worth while proposition for any prospective buyer, in that if they break it they need to get payed for the time and effort, if they fix it then the same applies, which is obvious.

So if good ones fetch circa £7k then yours in my mind is worth somewhere around £3/4k.

I personally would not want to give much more than £3k as i know whats involved with both options.

Personally i'd bite the bullet buy a standard bottom end or secondhand engine which will be less of a financial hit overall.

 

Get the fault code first. It maybe something silly like a loose spark plug or something.

 

Hi mate.Sorry to hear your news mate.Must be gut wrenching.You say it was repaired in january.Was the bottom end fully rebuilt or just as you say repaired?They may be nice guys but if id had a full rebuild and it only lasted 4 months id want more than a promise of being helped out a bit! Do feel for you tho mate.

 

^^^ +1 nice guys or not 4 months is shocking, any decent garage that had taken your coin for such a rebuild would surely want to know the reason for the failure themselves, and as such i'd have thought the labour part at least for the strip down should be free, if any pre existing parts such as fuel pump or maf are at fault then fair play charge for the put back together, but the strip should be FOC, and i'd push for that, otherwise take it to another well known specialist such as API, Engine Tuner, Roger Clark and get a full report with a view to legal action if it turns out they made mistakes, as i'm sure any of them would be striping for free.

As a side note, was it a well known subaru specialist that did the original rebuild? because these engines are very particular about how they are put back together and mistakes are easily made by those unfamiliar with the brand.

 

Hey guys,

Thanks again for all the advice, its much appreciated.

Just for the record it was a well known specialist (if i'm spending that much money, I don't trust it to just anyone), but I'm reluctant to point any finger of blame. I have no doubt the guys know their stuff, and have been nothing but helpful along the way. This wasn't my first head gasket failure, and the difference between these guys and the
dealer doing a warranty job was night and day.

It wasn't a fully "built" engine, it was mostly just in for the gasket repair, but had new, better head studs, replacement bearings and new forged pistons to try and toughen it up a bit.

Knowing my luck its bound to have been a fuel pump issue, or something unrelated. I always let the car warm up and cool down, check the oil etc, but it does get driven pretty hard. The real gutter is, my old 2litre felt bullet proof, the 2.5 just seems to have been a lame duck from day one.

I'll let you guys know how I get on anyway. Thanks Gents.

 

DCCD gearbox set up - say £1800
Brembos front and rear - say £600

So thats £2400 already, without starting on panels and interior. £2k is a **** take!

 

you have pm ;-) with regards to both options

 

So it had new pistons and new bearings? So basically a full rebuild?

Jeeez, check out the vultures trying to buy the car! cptcaveman, I wouldnt be letting that car go for less than 4k, infact its probably worth more IMO

 

It's a 2.5 with a blown engine,he doesn't have the space/skill to break or repair.

On the face of it the car is worth more in bits, but it's a lot of work to take those bits off and go through the hasstle of selling and posting the parts and anyone doing it needs to get payed for that.

Yeah for sure there is more than £4k in parts but once the box and brakes are gone he will be 6months before he see's anything like £4k he may get £500 for the front end and a few bit's and bobs to make another £500, but then he has nowhere to keep it, so for him it's not an option.

I'd fix it, or break it, but i have the tools, space and know how.

 

I'm not even sure there's 4k worth of parts in there with the depressed parts prices - look at the gearboxes going for 1k on here. Nobody's going to pay top dollar for a knackered engine either etc.

Either way, in most cases, it would seem breaking only works for the owner if their labour is free - i.e. a "real" breaker who makes his living from breaking cars has to make enough money from time to put food on the table, where-as if you're breaking your own car, you probably have a different job. However, breaking your own car essentially means taking on a second job of "car breaker" until its done, because it takes a *lot* of time to break it, and more importantly to sell the bits.

 

having been to a few breakers recently, they want to charge you for the part plus labour to remove it, so as mentioned 2k is a joke. Isnt a 2.5 short block from subaru something like £1500. As I mentioned earlier though, at least get the fault code read to see what it indicates.

 

£2300 on RCM website for the short block. The bare block is around £1500

 

+1 really feel for you mate mines poorly too had it nearly 14 months and havent even driven it yet! just on with rebuild now not cheap is an under statement

 

1k for a 6 speed dccd gear box??

 

ditto!

I think some people are confusing the value of this car with a rusty old classic!

 

For the amount of time you've had the car back and it was done by a so called specialist, the least they could offer is to check the car over for the CEL and then proceed to strip the engine out for the ticking noise you mention free of charge & if found to be there fault they should repair as a gesture of goodwill

 

+1 Agree totally.Thats what i would be pushing for.

 

No, they'd be non-dccd, but is a dccd box going to fetch almost twice the money in todays market? I don't think it will.

 

About 2.5 to 3k is the going rate i believe.

 

You'd never get £2500 / £3000 for a 6 speed box even with DCCD. £2000 is its money now unfortunately.
Non DCCD boxes can be had for a grand now, infact I was offered one earlier this year £900.

 

The price of 6 speeds is dropping like a stone now,give it a few more months and you will pick one up nearer 600 I reckon and dccd one's will be around 1200-1400

 

And if that happens ill be buying a dccd box to replace my 6 speed, they do seem to be dropping, paid 1k for my complete 6 speed setup 5 months ago

 

Parts dealers are like ******* vultures on here! I guess it's a step up from scrap metal scavenging......