Collection of motor failures! Please help compile to help everyone!

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by N1rve

Correct, no hassle.

Thanks! There are not enough good dealer stories out there to counter all the horror stories because it is a rare breed that comes on and posts "they were great".

[Cross]

I can add to it I guess.

@Cross
Failed at around 18k Miles
STS Rear Turbo Setup on E85
Failure in line with the TSB Regarding Cam Position Sensors.
Was on the interstate did a few runs everything was fine, coasting down and the car just lost it. Upon pull apart found a broke rod and bent valves on the drivers side I believe it was.

In the middle of a lawsuit with the dealer as everything was fine until it decided to lose control of cam timing basically tune was perfect.

More when I get back from lunch.

[Swift]

^^I hope you have verification of tunes being correct and datalog of everything when it happened. Otherwise you may lose.

I know of a more that one STS failure.

[Cross]

Originally Posted by Swift

^^I hope you have verification of tunes being correct and datalog of everything when it happened. Otherwise you may lose.

I know of a more that one STS failure.

Have all that and an ASE Master Tech's Statement as well as the over 250+ that have had the issue here most not turbo but a few that were.

It's been going on for over a year now I have just not been that vocal about it on here because as seen with other threads some would feel I was being a jerk while others would agree. When it's all over with (Maybe this year...) I will tell everyone about it.

[Astro]

Ok so I have some experience with dealing with warranty (I work for Mercedes and its like half of the crap we do because they cover nearly everything) and Id have to say its really dissapointing to hear that this happens at all, that there is any hassle but I have been through it too, when the motor went in my dads impreza( wrist pin ) I went in with him, he was riding back with me, sat there didnt say much as they tried BS'ing there way to not cover it...Long story sort I popped up and told them what I do for a living and that not only were they questioining him but me (he was and is amazing with maintaning it) and what he said really threw me. That unless you have records of a mechanic changing it we wont cover it (I had every receipt for oil over the last 5 years) now in my case I called my GM and told him what was goin on and to tell him what hes acusing me of (I got real mad real quick the guy was trying to BS his way out of covering it and me no stand for that) Now that did resolve it because the guy did a 180 and ended up covering other maint when they replaced the motor (being well connected saved me here). I dont get why do they try to get out of it? do they get bonuses for not filling warranty claims? In my dealer warranty is a daily thing if the customer wants it done (now there is a limit) we do it Benz want the best possible why dont others?

[ScoobsMcGee]

Originally Posted by Astro

Ok so I have some experience with dealing with warranty (I work for Mercedes and its like half of the crap we do because they cover nearly everything) and Id have to say its really dissapointing to hear that this happens at all, that there is any hassle but I have been through it too, when the motor went in my dads impreza( wrist pin ) I went in with him, he was riding back with me, sat there didnt say much as they tried BS'ing there way to not cover it...Long story sort I popped up and told them what I do for a living and that not only were they questioining him but me (he was and is amazing with maintaning it) and what he said really threw me. That unless you have records of a mechanic changing it we wont cover it (I had every receipt for oil over the last 5 years) now in my case I called my GM and told him what was goin on and to tell him what hes acusing me of (I got real mad real quick the guy was trying to BS his way out of covering it and me no stand for that) Now that did resolve it because the guy did a 180 and ended up covering other maint when they replaced the motor (being well connected saved me here). I dont get why do they try to get out of it? do they get bonuses for not filling warranty claims? In my dealer warranty is a daily thing if the customer wants it done (now there is a limit) we do it Benz want the best possible why dont others?

I can't speak to the motivation, but I would say it depends upon the dealer. Although not Subaru, I went through similar experiences with Nissan and a 2003 Sentra Spec V. The thing went through two engines in under 50,000 miles. The first dealer took two weeks looking over the engine bay for signs of modification, examined the clutch, tire wear, service records, and then still put up a fight about getting it covered. The second called the same day I dropped it off and said "Yeah it needs a new.... engine. Yup, engine. No cost, but it will take awhile. Want a loaner?"

Another thing to keep in mind is the sample set from a forum. Usually people who have had bad experiences are looking for some way to vent frustrations and will use the Interwebs. Meanwhile people who had no hassle are satisfied and move on. Not to trivialize the complaints as many to all are valid, but when you mostly see the complaints it may look worse than if you can see both sides equally.

[Luckrider]

Time to revive the thread.

What failed (if you know): The motor hasn't been torn into yet. It sounds like a spun bearing.
Mileage: 38,000
How it failed Driving down the highway doing about 50mph. It started to make a funny clunking noise. It was driven maybe a mile. The motor stalled on the exit ramp. Cranking twice, the motor died on startup and killed the battery. I picked the car back up from Subaru 3 weeks after the incident and when fired up, it made a loud rattling noise that smoothed out to a clatter when the idle came down. It was then shut right off. When on the highway, there was no oil light, no extra heat showing on the coolant guage on the dash
Circumstances when it went out- slow and gradual or just boom See above
Results of warranty claim? Denied. The car was blacklisted at a previous dealer for having a header which forced the dealership the car was brought to to call Subaru. The dealership looking at the car confirmed that if it wasn't for this note, the car would have been repaired already. SoA specified that modifications are not the cause of denial on the warranty. They state the one drop of oil on the outside of the drain pain (on the drain plug) was proof of failure of service. There was no oil spray anywhere under the car.
And of course... modifications to the car, your use of the car Daily Driver/Mountain Road carver/Toy. Modifications include an Openflash Header and Tune.
Last oil change 5,000 miles.The oil level was checked less than 3 days prior to failure when I added washer fluid. Oil showed on the dipstick after the failure. The service department says they added 4 quarts to fill.
List of services performed, IE, recent reflash etc. Nothing Recent. There was probably 3,000 since the last reflash running 93oct.

The car sat 75 miles away for 3 weeks before I had enough and rescued it. The dealership is still pushing Subaru to make good on the warranty but they do not want to. SoA has lied on multiple occasions. The worst was by telling me that an engineer and their regional head tech both looked at the car. The service manager has confirmed that while they did show, they did not look at my car. They were there for a last gen STI.

[Astroboy]

Originally Posted by zohare

Hi everyone, my second motor just failed at 26k miles, fresh oil, less than 300 miles on it. Toyota last serviced it at 21k, cam sensor, forgot to tighten a motor mount, etc etc (tech was an idiot) motor was replaced at 18k miles. I was found "at fault" and they covered 80% on "goodwill" (BS, statistically, it's their fault or mine... can't say, oh, well, it was only partially our fault, symantics, it's been fixed.) So now at 26k, same syptoms as last time, lift off throttle, rattling, gets worse, pulled off, while pulling off the road, feathered it in N at around 3k, definitely bearing failure. Car went to the dealer this morning. I am seriously in fear of another drawn out fight to get them to accept responsibility. I am also going after my $1100 from last motor repair, since oil is clearly NOT the reason they fail, or it is, but not regular oil changes at least. I would LOVE to be able to make this a clean, simple collection of catostrophic motor failures, and would appreciate any help!

Please state

What failed (if you know)
Mileage
How it failed
Circumstances when it went out- slow and gradual or just boom
Results of warranty claim?
And of course... modifications to the car, your use of the car
Last oil change
List of services performed, IE, recent reflash etc.
Some way to contact people would be cool? I am open to suggestions, but basically just so that the list isn't a bunch of BS, and has some actual significance- Understand that toyota techs/advisors hate knowitall forum junkies, and that isn't my intention to throw this info in their face, just make sure the problem doesn't continually get ignored!

Thanks everyone, this could be very helpful since they are claiming the number of failures is "statistically insignificant." I think we all know someone who's experienced one. That doesn't seem insignificant. Nor does two on the same car at less than 30k miles. I bought this car specifically because I needed reliability, and thought a Toyobaru would be a good choice and have been to hell and back, and simply want to drive my car and not fear random failures... There's a strong chance that the last tech messed something up that caused the second failure, but since it ran fine for 8k miles, I really doubt that... This could also help Toyota/Subaru fix the problem potentially, but I'll be honest, the main reason I want this thread built, is to support people who have failed motors from the warranty reps from corporate who act like insurance people and do anything possible to avoid fixing their cars. I know one guy was told that his CAI let water in and it "hydrolocked" after fighting it, they were unable to prove it, and it was indeed bearing failure. He was well within service intervals as well, with plenty of good oil... Best of luck, best wishes.

So it failed because of a lousy motor mount?

Sent from my LG-D850 using Tapatalk

[BRZnut]

Originally Posted by Luckrider

Time to revive the thread.

What failed (if you know): The motor hasn't been torn into yet. It sounds like a spun bearing.
Mileage: 38,000
How it failed Driving down the highway doing about 50mph. It started to make a funny clunking noise. It was driven maybe a mile. The motor stalled on the exit ramp. Cranking twice, the motor died on startup and killed the battery. I picked the car back up from Subaru 3 weeks after the incident and when fired up, it made a loud rattling noise that smoothed out to a clatter when the idle came down. It was then shut right off. When on the highway, there was no oil light, no extra heat showing on the coolant guage on the dash
Circumstances when it went out- slow and gradual or just boom See above
Results of warranty claim? Denied. The car was blacklisted at a previous dealer for having a header which forced the dealership the car was brought to to call Subaru. The dealership looking at the car confirmed that if it wasn't for this note, the car would have been repaired already. SoA specified that modifications are not the cause of denial on the warranty. They state the one drop of oil on the outside of the drain pain (on the drain plug) was proof of failure of service. There was no oil spray anywhere under the car.
And of course... modifications to the car, your use of the car Daily Driver/Mountain Road carver/Toy. Modifications include an Openflash Header and Tune.
Last oil change 5,000 miles.The oil level was checked less than 3 days prior to failure when I added washer fluid. Oil showed on the dipstick after the failure. The service department says they added 4 quarts to fill.
List of services performed, IE, recent reflash etc. Nothing Recent. There was probably 3,000 since the last reflash running 93oct.

The car sat 75 miles away for 3 weeks before I had enough and rescued it. The dealership is still pushing Subaru to make good on the warranty but they do not want to. SoA has lied on multiple occasions. The worst was by telling me that an engineer and their regional head tech both looked at the car. The service manager has confirmed that while they did show, they did not look at my car. They were there for a last gen STI.

So it was down 4 qts of oil at the time of the failure? Or the dealer made that up?

[Luckrider]

Originally Posted by BRZnut

So it was down 4 qts of oil at the time of the failure? Or the dealer made that up?

I can't tell for sure either way and I'm not sure there will ever be a way to fin out. The service manager confirmed that the motor was not leaking oil anywhere (not even the cam plate which is a known issue point... unless it was leaking there and it was covered up... but I don't think that's the case). I won't get a chance to do anything with the car until next weekend (the one after this coming weekend).

[sam69]

A guy I know builds lots of Subaru ej engines and he is in the process of doing a fa motor atm and he has told me that the amount of silicone inside the motor is just unbelievable.
The amount of bits on the oil pickup strainer was huge and he found the oil galleries to the VCT has strainers built into the block and these were almost totally blocked with bits of silicone .

Also a lot of bolts / screws weren't very tight at all and even some of the fixings retaining the oil pump weren't tight and he said you could see where the pump was starting to float/rub on the housing.

Oil starvation could easily become an issue with all the above.

Maybe some of these engine failures are as a result of how these engines are assembled like the swagging on the rocker arms in the earlier motors .

[BRZnut]

interesting observations and sounds like it could lead to oil starvation that has been reported. Doubt Subaru will ever come clean on the issue of the engine failures that have been reported here, and will continue to blame them on the owners.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by sam69

A guy I know builds lots of Subaru ej engines and he is in the process of doing a fa motor atm and he has told me that the amount of silicone inside the motor is just unbelievable.
The amount of bits on the oil pickup strainer was huge and he found the oil galleries to the VCT has strainers built into the block and these were almost totally blocked with bits of silicone .

Also a lot of bolts / screws weren't very tight at all and even some of the fixings retaining the oil pump weren't tight and he said you could see where the pump was starting to float/rub on the housing.

Oil starvation could easily become an issue with all the above.

Maybe some of these engine failures are as a result of how these engines are assembled like the swagging on the rocker arms in the earlier motors .

Purely anecdotal since I am not going through all the threads to compile data but many (most?) of the stories about these failures start with something long the lines of "I had just been on the highway a couple of minutes when...".
Now, I certainly don't know if everybody takes ramps like I do but I do know that I use them as very short tracks. I can easily be at or above the speed limit by the time I hit the highway on some of the bigger ones. There can be some pretty heavy lateral force involved and although I am not familiar with the oil pump orientation I would have to think that if it was floating or rubbing on the housing this could jamb it temporarily and reduce the volume considerably.


HMMMMM you may be onto something there.

[sam69]

Pic he sent me of an oil gallery half blocked with silicone and it doesn't take much imagination to think what would happen when this stuff starts floating around oil galleries/motor

Will see if he has pics of the oil pick up cause as said before he reckons the motor was just full of it