My engine failed while autocrossing
 

My 2017 BRZ engine with only 36k miles failed while autocrossing last month.
It's prepped for DS.
Car has never seen the track.
No warning prior to failure.
Oil leak at crankshaft, smoke after autocross run.
Car and Engine still ran but immediately shut off car and towed to subaru.
Just received car back yesterday with my engine rebuilt.
10k repair from subaru.
Out of warranty, but no help provided due to autocross prep??
Besides bent crankshaft, subaru found rust in cylinder walls.

Bought the car used in 2020 with 27k miles.
Driven 3k miles annually.
Oil changed annually by me.
Oil checked seasonally.

I'm obviously aware of BRZ 86 failures on track but never suspected it for autox.
I've autoxed for more than 20 years in a variety of cars. Never had an issue prior.
I've heard a variety of other BRZ / 86 have failed while autoxing including this past summer but no thread tallying this disheartening drama.
So i just wanted to start a thread for those with similar engine drama while autocrossing.
Sad for me and my son who really loved autox until this.

And if anyone has any suggestions how to get some help from subaru, I'm all ears. I'm pretty sure autox didn't cause rust in cylinder walls.

Are you sure Subaru is looking at the right block? There's no way you'd have rust in the cylinder walls and a bent crank. I just don't see how that's possible

Why would you expect, or even ask Subaru about "help" for a car out of warranty?

Flood car.

The powertrain warranty is 5 yr / 60k miles
The car is barely out of the 5 year window and clearly in the mileage window.

Subaru helped cover costs on a similar low mileage 2017 wrx at the same dealership whose engine also failed a few months ago. Not an autox wrx however.

Its not.

Sad that you’ll pay Subi that big money for an OEM fix. You could have had a built short block done for less outside Subaru.

Warranties are whichever come first.

Also lost an engine autoxing

117k miles, 12/12 build date, engine died 9/22, spun a bearing.
Similar situation, stalled when getting a time slip, was able to get it started, upon driving back heard the rod knock. No engine codes. Upon tear down found rod #2 with a spun bearing. The other bearings looked reasonable. Car was setup for stx so it was tuned with a higher redline.

Bought a new oem shortblock through Toyota, currently about $2k, cleaned and reused original heads. 8k miles, we will see if it lasts.

Besides, usually warranty will be denied for any timed competition, including autocross.

Every build is different. Sometimes we end up with one that's a little bit too different. Shit that was eventually going to happen, happens sooner when we beat on them.

Accept responsibility. Rebuild or replace. Get back to having fun.

Your signature says you have a 07 GT3... What in the world were you doing autoXing the economy car? Hop in the purpose-built Porsche racecar and dust everyone at the event. You don't often hear of Mezgers having these problems. Even your RX7 would have held up better than the Subaru economy car.
I understand that many people track and autocross BRZs and 86s because it's all they own/can afford. However, you apparently own a 997 GT3 and RX7. Those are much better cars for performance events; you picked the wrong car out of your garage!

lol, stfu.

As someone who also autocrosses a ton (...and has a 2017 prepped for DS also) this stands out to me.

I usually change my oil in the spring, new oil and filter. Then in fall before storage put in fresh oil, drive 200-500 miles, but keep the old filter when stored. Repeat in the spring. This year, I'm opting for a mid-season oil change at 3k miles.

As far as "checking"... do you mean pull the dipstick and checking the fluid level? I do this prior to every event and do about 20 events per year. I'll check it many other times in there too. Learned this habit from having an older WRX and basically needing to check it at every fill up or about 200-300 miles of street driving.

Did you confirm at all if the oil level was full?

Usually the FA20, especially the 2017-2020, hasn't had a ton of failures. I can't say I've seen or really heard of any facelift ones having failures actually. A few 2013-2016 ones nationally who autocross.

The bent crankshaft could have been done during the knocking event. The rust could be if the prior owner changed the coolant with something non-OEM, used non-distilled water, etc. Who knows. This seems odd, but unrelated.

We have a handfull of first gen cars in DS, SSC, and STX. They've been running for years and we've never seen a failure. We now have four second gen cars, two of which (mine included) on their second season with no issues.