Engine Failure

[pbroome]

Some of you may have seen my thread on Scoobynet - for those who haven't. June 2000 reg, 45k miles, no mods, not ragged (honest), FSH, and bottom end has failed shortly after last service. The responses on Scoobynet have surprised me as I would have expected, what appears to be, a common problem to have hit the press by now. I made my choice of a P1 largely on the strength of Subaru's reputation for reliability. What is going on here - do we not have a voice as a group to deal with Subaru or have people found them accommodating in these situations?

Paul

[marky mark]

i read your post on SN mate, and i feel for you. unfortunately i was not suprised at the response, as it has to be said P1's and there owners are not particularly well liked on there. we are all stuck up ars*s with the best car ever made apparently........

would have stuck up for you but already had a few arguments over there this week :?

as for the blow up. well yes i suppose they do have a good reputation for reliability from the outside, but the STI5 / P1 engine seems to suffer a little more than other scoobs, particularly with big end failure.

in the last few weeks there has been a couple on here including mine. i know you are gutted at the moment, but just think of how much you enjoyed the car. look on it as a chance to upgrade the engine with more up to date parts out of the newer cars.

hope you get it sorted soon. i have just rebuilt mine using a new age bottom end that i got for a very good price from powerstation. i think they are running a bit short now but it is a cheap way of doing it.

[p1prodrive]

Some of you may have seen my thread on Scoobynet - for those who haven't. June 2000 reg, 45k miles, no mods, not ragged (honest), FSH, and bottom end has failed shortly after last service. The responses on Scoobynet have surprised me as I would have expected, what appears to be, a common problem to have hit the press by now. I made my choice of a P1 largely on the strength of Subaru's reputation for reliability. What is going on here - do we not have a voice as a group to deal with Subaru or have people found them accommodating in these situations?

Paul

How lomg have you had the car ? or how many miles have you coverd in the car ?

matt

[Jad]

Sorry 2 hear it mate - good luck in sorting it :o

[Viv]

Sorry to hear of your problems.
It seems that, of the engines that have gone boom, most have done so either at high engine/road speeds or shortly after a service.
You might be interested to read this (http://www.p1woc.co.uk/postnuke/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=5447).
Good luck with sorting things out.

[Chavsrus]

MMMMMMMMMMMMMM This is my first post on P1woc. I am/was seriously considering buying a P1 as a second car, but this seems to be becoming an all to common problem with these engines. Marky Mark having read your thread re replacing your short engine I have come to two conclusions A. you are a top bloke 8) !! who is in the privileged position of having the knowledge and ability to rebuild his own engine and you are to be commended for this, however the other 99 % of owners won't be in this position and will thus find themselves at the "mercy" of garages who will look to make a profit on the repairs to these cars. and B. you are an optimist who sees his glass as being half full rather than half empty!!! hence the comment this is an opportunity to upgrade to newer parts, however to somebody that relies on their car for every day transport and has had to scrape together every penny to pay for the car in the first place (and it's insurance) this may not be music to their ears!!
Having spoken to Mark at Lateral performance a couple of days ago about this problem, he recommended the fitment of a "proper" remote oil cooler to help keep oil temperatures down to sensible levels, has anyone gone this route ?
PS sorry my first post was so long !!!

[Jad]

Apologies for going off topic but welcome to the site fella :) pbroome included :D

[marky mark]

if you have a warranty, then subaru seem to be very good at honouring these things. if you dont you will be a lot better off financially going to a specialist like API engines / scooby clinic etc, as opposed to the dealers. you will most likely get a beter job as well. as vivs link shows, soggsters oil change procedure is far over and above what you will get in a dealers, and its probably no co-incidence that yours and others have failed shortly after a service IMO.

unfortunately our cars are 4-5 years old now. any approach to subaru is likely to be met with short shrift, if not a raised middle finger.

chavsrus, welcome mate, excellent first post :D and thanks for the kind comments.
somewhere in that thread i have mentioned that if you are reasonably mechanically minded then sorting your own engine out is not a task to fear. i have put in there most of the pitfalls you will come up against. Of course i understand not everyone will be able to do it, but i am sure it will be a lot more than 1%. dont let these things put you off buying one. there are many people on here who have been long term P1 owners, some coming back after buying a hairdressers beemer etc, for a second P1. the main reason mine went bang is that i was driving it like a complete idiot, and short of holding one flat out on a motorway for 10 miles i think it would be harder to give an engine a more extreme time.

if you drive any performance car like that you are asking for it. i asked for it, deserved it and got it!

oil coolers are avaliable but not cheap. there are other problems associoated with them such as air in the system after oil change, which is exactly what soggsters oil change procedure is trying to avoid, but if you can make sure they fill properly then they are a good mod. i am considering fitting one to mine.

[Prodrive]

Hi matey,

I saw your thread on Scoobynet and replied pointing you in this direction (Stu Smith is my username on there)

I have recently just bought a warranty on my car to cover me if it does go bang!

Hope you get it sorted pal! Good Luck

Stu

[j healy]

there are many people on here who have been long term P1 owners, some coming back after buying a hairdressers beemer etc, for a second P1.

looks like you may have got away with that one mark :wink:

[marky mark]

:wink:

[Dave]

I read your post. I know some people mentioned about the dealership not filling the oil correctly but I have taken my car there a few times and I never had any issues.

[Chavsrus]

Not so fast Marky mark !!! No prizes for guessing what my everyday car is............................LOL It is however a 330 diesel sport saloon auto. so more of a hardworking office than a poof chariot :D :D many thanks for the welcome. I spent many a happy hour reading your thread about your engine build. you are obviously a patient bloke !!!
Are you going to put the car on the rollers once you have had it mapped ?
if so what sort of HP and Torque figures are you expecting to see ?
What mileage did it have on it when it ran it's bearings ? The reason I ask is, there seem to be plenty of cars on the market at the moment, is it worth paying a premium for a lower mileage car ?
Once a car has run out of it's warranty period is it possible to get an approved Subaru warranty again? ( I know they are not cheap, but neither is an engine build :( )
Sorry for all the questions !!

[marky mark]

Not so fast Marky mark !!! No prizes for guessing what my everyday car is............................LOL It is however a 330 diesel sport saloon auto. so more of a hardworking office than a poof chariot :D :D many thanks for the welcome. I spent many a happy hour reading your thread about your engine build. you are obviously a patient bloke !!!
Are you going to put the car on the rollers once you have had it mapped ?
if so what sort of HP and Torque figures are you expecting to see ?
What mileage did it have on it when it ran it's bearings ? The reason I ask is, there seem to be plenty of cars on the market at the moment, is it worth paying a premium for a lower mileage car ?
Once a car has run out of it's warranty period is it possible to get an approved Subaru warranty again? ( I know they are not cheap, but neither is an engine build :( )
Sorry for all the questions !!

lol.
i had a preminition(sp) you had a beemer :lol: ....but the comment was aimed at a.n.other on here :lol:

yeah, i will put it on the rollers. all the stuff is on there for 360-370 bhp and 320-330 ft/lb but im not to fussed so i will see. be dissapointed if its under 350 if i was being honest.

it had 63K on it which seems a mileage they can let go at it, but as i say dont let it bother you cos if i was driving it with 25K on the way i did it would prob do the same. i would say its worth paying extra for the low miles though for sure. the one on here with 6k miles on deserves a look.

dont think you can restart the warranty, especially over 60K miles but i think someone who has looked into it more will confirm this!

[Launchmotorsport]

echo marks comments,and welcome to the club :)

[Chavsrus]

Should be quick then :shock: Do you use the car for track days or just as a ahem ground based missile on Her Majesties highways :D I've lived in Birmingham all my life, but have moved up to North Wales 18 months ago, it's a bit too quiet, but the roads......................... possibly the best in the world. I notice someone on here is selling his P1 and emigrating to New Zealand, the roads over there are awesome too but the police are a bit over zealous. Spent 9 weeks over there a couple of years ago and got done for speeding twice :D :D
When is your car due to be mapped? any chance of taking me for a thrash when its done? i'd be interested to see how it feels ( from the safety of the passenger seat of course!!)

[Scutch]

This sounds a bit dodgy, but a mate of mine got his warranty from www.warrantiesonline.co.uk shortly after his engine failure in a Mazda RX7 and simply made a claim from them to have it repaired. I dont know how this works but apparently when he took it to his local garage for the estimate they phoned the number warrantiesonline provide and they authorised the repair under cover. Maybe talking out of his **** but there you go! I know if I bought a P1 without warranty, that website would be the first place I went to get it covered. Only £232

[northsnumberone]

I was with them BEFORE my P1 blew after owning it for 2 months, and guess what, didn't cover wear and tear, as the garage said absolutely everything to go wrong on a car could be attributed to wear and tear

[pbroome]

Scooby is fixed although I haven't picked it up yet, which now makes me nervous as it has sat at the dealer for a week, the exact circumstances most people's engines seem to go pop after :?

Anyway - it's up for sale now. It was going up for sale the week it broke, which makes it even more annoying.

Sensible offers invited - June 2000, 46k miles (zero miles on new engine!). Bog standard apart from P1 backbox and AP Racing 330mm front brake upgrade. 6 CD changer and full dealer history. All invoices since I bought the car around November 2001. Brand new MOT & Tax.

Cheers

Paul

[Chavsrus]

Glad to hear you've got it fixed, would you mind telling us what it cost to fix ? what did they replace ? and lastly, why are you selling. Not that I'm nosey !!!!!! :D

[pbroome]

Sparshatts have installed a Subaru supplied recon P1 engine at a cost of around £4k. From other replies I appreciate I could have taken an alternative route and saved some money. As I had intended to sell the car I felt it was important to maintain the dealer factor and use Subaru supplied kit. In addition I have spent most of the last few weeks working away from home and have had to do most of this by phone. I got the car to Sparshatts to investigate the original 'rattle' and would have incurred considerable time and inconvenience getting it back from them and getting it to somewhere else to do the job.

As for selling it I have had the car three and a half years so it was itchy feet time. I also have a 3 month old baby so the P1 is not ideal and 2 more doors are the order of the day. There was a strong chance of moving to a current model STi. The timing of the engine failure sucks. The ad for Top Marques was already enveloped but fortunately not sent. That said I wouldn't have been happy shifting it and finding out days later it had failed - that's not my style. Depending on ongoing discussions with Sparshatts/Subaru this has left a big dent in my confidence in the Scoob's reputation for reliability. I would want about £15k for the car.

Paul

[Chavsrus]

pbroome

Sorry to hear all this, especially as you have a liitle 'un to feed and clothe now as well.
The later or UK cars seem to have a better reliability record, but I can understand your confidence being shaken, not to mention the large dent in your wallet when you least expect/need it.

[vindaloo]

Pbroome, If you want more understated family transport you could do a lot worse than look at a WRX PPP wagon. 5 doors, roof bars and more practicality than you could ever need.