5 Major Problems With The FT86

[ShiftingLanes]

I bought a 2013 BRZ with 93K miles on it at the end of March. Fast forward 6 days later and it broke! It has been at the dealership for a while now and what they tell me is that the valve rocker arms have broken. I haven't seen the parts for myself and I'm not sure if there are any other problems within the engine.

So during this downtime I decided to make an update video to my #drivermod build and list out 5 major (and not so major) problems that I've encountered. Please give it a watch (and if you can tolerate it consider subscribing!!! )

Episode 2:

I will most likely do another one of these videos in the future with updated problems and solutions. I'm curious to know if these 5 problems are in line with what you all have experienced (I did use FT86club as the basis for most of these) and just how often this actually happens. If you've experienced any of these please let me know how you handled it.

Here are the top 5 problems I talk about:
1. Valve Rocker Failure
2. Rod Knock / Spun Bearing
3. Coil Pack failure
4. Fuel Pump Chirping
5. Camshaft Position Sensor

[JohnJuan]

I wouldn't call the chirp major, since it has no apparent functional impact on the car.

[Tcoat]

A far more accurate title would be : Four major problems you need to know about a handful of the early production 2013 FRS/BRZ with two of them having TSB fixes on file, one of the others mostly showing up on boosted cars and one minor inconvenience that isn't a problem at all.

[HunterGreene]

Given that you bought a 5 year old car with over 93k miles on it, and then did the research to make a video that is informative yet bashing on the car, with problems that have been around long enough to the point of being "Well known," whats the point here?

[Qadthane]

Another 'pay attention to meeeeee on youtube' account...

[venturaII]

5 Problems with the Ford Pinto.

[8RZ]

Even buying a brand new car won't avoid some of these issues lol.

Good luck, buddy; you're gonna need it.

[ST185RC]

Originally Posted by ShiftingLanes

I'm curious to know if these 5 problems are in line with what you all have experienced (I did use FT86club as the basis for most of these) and just how often this actually happens. If you've experienced any of these please let me know how you handled it.

Never had any of the 5 problems and I own one of the earliest of the 2013s in the batch of 2013s.

Why? I was diligent in doing all the TSB updates and put in quality fuel.

Don't want these problems? Buy brand new and follow all the factory recommended things to do. Then you can no longer blame anyone but Toyota/Subaru. You're pretty late on complaining about problems on a 5 year old car out of warranty in 2018.

[reeves]

Originally Posted by ST185RC

Never had any of the 5 problems and I own one of the earliest of the 2013s in the batch of 2013s.

Why? I was diligent in doing all the TSB updates and put in quality fuel.

I've actually done the exact opposite (avoided/ignored all the TSB's since I bought my car new in 2012) and still don't have any of the 5 problems, except for the chirping.
I fill up with E85 anywhere I can find it, even several times at those shady run-down stations where the E85 pump is off to the side by itself, uncovered from the rain.

No track/autoX though, but I've been revving to 8K RPM for the last 60K+ miles.

[ShiftingLanes]

Originally Posted by HunterGreene

Given that you bought a 5 year old car with over 93k miles on it, and then did the research to make a video that is informative yet bashing on the car, with problems that have been around long enough to the point of being "Well known," whats the point here?

CLEARLY I should not have posted this video here lol I mean no offense but this is the place of people who are already in the know, and I intended this video for someone who's not really that familiar yet.

Seriously though, I didn't intend on bashing this car at all. If it came off as that then that is regrettable.

The whole reason I made this video is because I bought this car purely as a YouTube project car for my company. The purpose of it was to experience the DriverMod, keeping track of my progress to become a better autox driver, and also competing in the SSC class. Unfortunately, that didn't pan out almost immediately in the beginning. So this project took a left turn on misfire street and parked itself, at the time of this writing for 16 days and counting.

Originally Posted by Qadthane

Another 'pay attention to meeeeee on youtube' account...

I just want dem eyeballz. If people stop paying attention, I'll die.

Originally Posted by ST185RC

Never had any of the 5 problems and I own one of the earliest of the 2013s in the batch of 2013s.

Why? I was diligent in doing all the TSB updates and put in quality fuel.

Don't want these problems? Buy brand new and follow all the factory recommended things to do. Then you can no longer blame anyone but Toyota/Subaru. You're pretty late on complaining about problems on a 5 year old car out of warranty in 2018.

That's a really good point about the TSBs and everyone should bug their dealers about it. Again, I think this thread is the wrong audience for this, I really wanted to inform those that are currently thinking about buying these cars (the young'ns, considering used versions can be found relatively cheap) that may not know everything there is to know. It would suck for them to get into it not knowing the consequences.

[wbradley]

I've had my car since May 2012 and its boosted and my only warranty issue was moisture in taillights.


I sealed the rear cam plate myself with Permatex as this car kinda became a new hobby.

You totally missed the issues that truly did occur in significant numbers!! LOL.
Sorry, but if you wish to inform the public then get your facts straight. Some of us have been around the vehicle a while. There are thousands of possible points of failure and in the 150000 or so units built to date there have been many different issues. Similarly in the Subaru WRX and STI community. These are also popularly modified vehicles. Despite these incidents still amazing resale value and huge following.

Perhaps you ought to focus on issues pertaining specifically to your purchase.

Trying to gain a subscriber base on YouTube inaccurately bashing the vehicle and asking people on THIS forum to subscribe is kinda funny. Fortunately people can get their facts straight on the forum.

Good luck.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by ShiftingLanes

CLEARLY I should not have posted this video here lol I mean no offense but this is the place of people who are already in the know, and I intended this video for someone who's not really that familiar yet.

Seriously though, I didn't intend on bashing this car at all. If it came off as that then that is regrettable.

The whole reason I made this video is because I bought this car purely as a YouTube project car for my company. The purpose of it was to experience the DriverMod, keeping track of my progress to become a better autox driver, and also competing in the SSC class. Unfortunately, that didn't pan out almost immediately in the beginning. So this project took a left turn on misfire street and parked itself, at the time of this writing for 16 days and counting.



I just want dem eyeballz. If people stop paying attention, I'll die.



That's a really good point about the TSBs and everyone should bug their dealers about it. Again, I think this thread is the wrong audience for this, I really wanted to inform those that are currently thinking about buying these cars (the young'ns, considering used versions can be found relatively cheap) that may not know everything there is to know. It would suck for them to get into it not knowing the consequences.

This makes it even worse. You made a video for people that don't know the reality that makes the car seem far worse than it is. I doubt that even 1% of the cars had those serious issues yet you are talking like it is still a problem with the new ones. It is crap like that which misinforms people and gives a car a bad rep. If you want to be a journalist (even a Youtube one) then get your facts straight before making videos.

[guybo]

FT 86? FT? Your Location says NJ, not Jamaica or Nicaragua

[bcj]

Oh wow. This is sad enough to deserve some blowback on youtube comments.
Yes, the HPFS makes noise. der.
The rest are extremely low occurrence early run things that were fixed.
Under warranteeeeeee.

This doesn't help. At all.