valve spring issue?

[Kodename47]

Originally Posted by drm

<-- Another victim

Anybody know if they are required/willing to work around engine mods (JRSC) during recall work?

It's a recall. They can't deny you the work. However they may require you to remove anything that changes the book process or pay them for the extra labour to do it. I think dependant on the FI kit, one option may suit better than another and speak to the dealer to see what they can do. If it's minimal extra work and they're nice they might just suck it up, but I can see that being a rarity.

[CatDaddysBBQ]

Same here, J. My car fell into the list of possibly affected, but I have almost zero desire to have the same dealer that repeatedly screwed up my wheel studs the first 6mo of my ownership to re-assemble the top of the engine.

I haven't looked into it yet, but if you can have an independent shop do it and be reimbursed, I MIGHT have it done - but i'm at 77k miles of DD/Track/AutoX and so far it's been great. I kind of feel like i'd be LESS confident about the car after the local Toyota dealer (who honestly have zero clue what's going on with this car) did the work.

I haven't totally made up my mind yet, but i'm leaning towards NOT getting it fixed.

[96z2]

Originally Posted by RallySport

This is what worries me. Is it out of the question to bring an FRS to a Subaru dealer for this recall?

When I had my valve spring failure I thought about that. The Toyota dealer where I got it repaired actually said that Toyota would be getting reimbursed for the repair by Subaru but that I could not take my FR-S to a Subaru dealer for the repair. Your mileage could vary, so it wouldn't hurt to ask a Subaru dealer, though I suspect the answer will be no.

[MuseChaser]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

They are not going to give whole blocks. They will replace the springs and that is it. They may warranty the springs for a bit but not extend the whole warranty. The handful of FRS/BRZ involved appears to be a drop in the bucket of the whole thing so if they started replacing engines it would break them. Replacing valve springs is pretty basic and any half decent tech should be able to do it just fine.

I'm late to this party.. .just started reading this thread today, and have only made it through the first five or six pages. The first I heard about this recall (possible or otherwise) was from the service manager at my Toyota dealership. I like him a LOT. I don't have as much confidence in his techs, and at times I'm not sure he does either. My car has a manufacture date of July 2012, I've got about 75K miles on it, and it's "Certified" engine/drivetrain warrented until 100K/July 2019, whichever comes first. So far, his techs have resealed my cam coverplate twice (and it leaked both times afterwards, so with the service manager's blessing I installed the Raceseng plate and it's been dry ever since.. at least there) and the timing cover once. When they did the timing cover, they didn't clean up any of the gunk that was coating the bottom and front of the engine (by the dipstick), and the car still smells like crazy in the cabin whenever I come to a stop. I've had it back for a little over a month since they did the reseal, and I have no way of knowing if it's still leaking or just still burning the huge amount of crap they left on the car. The service manager and I talked for a long time a week or two ago, and he INSISTED I bring the car back; he was very bugged that they let the car out of the shop like this. At the time, we discussed the recently developing idle bounce even with A/C off (including defrost off) and my increasingly poor gas mileage, possible direct injector seal leak, and HE brought up the recall.

I'm at odds with how to feel about taking my car in and letting his crew open up my engine, given their semi-incompetence at simply resealing covers. One of the TSBs, S-TT-0074-13, mentions requiring Three Bond 1217b sealant on FA20 engines, and that it is NOT compatible with toyota part #00295-00103. My guess is that the techs probably missed that and used the wrong sealant all three times.. who knows. I know a lot less about this stuff than many here. However... it's tough to trust guys who have probably never worked on this engine before to do internal engine work, especially when they can't seem to seal covers.

I guess I'm in the camp that, at the very least, a further extended warranty is necessary after this recall.
Thoughts?

[MuseChaser]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

The VIN matters more than the date. You are three months off the FRS/BRZ dates.

The others are different models of Subarus. The BRZ and FRS vins are in the same date range.

I'm confused. My build date is July 2012, but my last six Vin# starts with 7.. ?!?

[MuseChaser]

Originally Posted by strat61caster

Based on Subaru and Toyota's history with modified cars, even cars that were stock and driven hard - depends on the stealership.

This ain't Mazda who was prioritizing new transmissions for club racers and autocrossers so they wouldn't miss events.

FYI for anyone unsure about VIN's the recall is already live on NHTSA's website
https://vinrcl.safercar.gov/vin/vinLookup

Thanks, Strat. Plugged in my vin on that site, and my car IS part of the recall. Sigh. Well, maybe this'll help the other issues.. poor(er) gas mileage due to partially open valve?!? Just a guess... hope springs eternal. Get it... springs? See what I did there?

[davesrave]

Subaru replied to my inquiry today.

"Dear David,
Thank you for contacting Subaru of America Inc.
We are experiencing a concern with the website and working to correct this issue.
There is one open recall on your vehicle, WTY-84. You will receive a letter with more information regarding this recall.
Should you require any additional assistance, please feel free to contact us at 800-782-2783.

Sincerely,
Martina Brown
Subaru of America, Inc.
Customer/Retailer Services Department
1-800-SUBARU3 (1-800-782-2783)


From: xxxxxx@gmail.com
Sent: 11/8/2018 01:19:36 PM
To: <Customers@subaru.com>
Subject: My Car Recall

Hi.
I used the VIN lookup tool on your website. The results came back as follows:
“The VIN entered is not a valid VIN or could not be found in Subaru systems. Please try again or contact Subaru Customer Support with questions.”

The VIN I entered is: “xxxxxxxxxxxx00367”. I know it’s correct, because I took a picture of it, and I bought the car new. Can you elaborate on why this VIN is not in the Subaru system? Thanks in advance.

Dave

The early post that translated from the Japanese website originally had excluded my car because it was below the 2002 VIN.

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by MuseChaser

Thanks, Strat. Plugged in my vin on that site, and my car IS part of the recall. Sigh. Well, maybe this'll help the other issues.. poor(er) gas mileage due to partially open valve?!? Just a guess... hope springs eternal. Get it... springs? See what I did there?

WOW!



Now, get back to work!


humfrz

[strat61caster]

Originally Posted by MuseChaser

Thanks, Strat. Plugged in my vin on that site, and my car IS part of the recall. Sigh. Well, maybe this'll help the other issues.. poor(er) gas mileage due to partially open valve?!? Just a guess... hope springs eternal. Get it... springs? See what I did there?

Not sure, recall makes it seem like there's a catastrophic failure or it's fine, but broad replacement does imply that there could be degraded performance, time will tell, hopefully the spring supply is ramping up hard and we're not just waiting for parts throughout next year.

I wouldn't mind a bump in performance, a degraded spring could certainly lead to a hit to fuel economy and power.

[mswbrz]

Originally Posted by mrha

I've been checking daily and today my VIN suddenly is no longer valid. The last update was on 11/1/18 and the latest is 11/5/18.

Same here bro, let me know when and if your pops up as valid again .


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mswbrz]

Originally Posted by incriminati

I'm not sure what's going on now, but I'm getting invalid VIN like others.

When it did work I wasn't part of the recall, but I've been checking again just to make sure.

If the recall websites start working again please let us know in here.

https://www.subaru.com/vehicle-recalls.html

https://vinrcl.safercar.gov/vin/vinLookup

Same here bro.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by strat61caster

I wouldn't mind a bump in performance, a degraded spring could certainly lead to a hit to fuel economy and power.

Might even break.

[Mr Nerd]

I've got noticed that the search tool will copy anything you have typed if you switch between letters and numbers, as far as typing in your VIN. That is likely why it is telling you it is invalid.

Sent from my LG-H872 using Tapatalk

[gravitylover]

Mine is still saying 'invalid' so I'll probably pop into the dealer some time this week and see what they have to say.

Originally Posted by MuseChaser

I'm late to this party.. .just started reading this thread today, and have only made it through the first five or six pages. The first I heard about this recall (possible or otherwise) was from the service manager at my Toyota dealership. I like him a LOT. I don't have as much confidence in his techs, and at times I'm not sure he does either. My car has a manufacture date of July 2012, I've got about 75K miles on it, and it's "Certified" engine/drivetrain warrented until 100K/July 2019, whichever comes first. So far, his techs have resealed my cam coverplate twice (and it leaked both times afterwards, so with the service manager's blessing I installed the Raceseng plate and it's been dry ever since.. at least there) and the timing cover once. When they did the timing cover, they didn't clean up any of the gunk that was coating the bottom and front of the engine (by the dipstick), and the car still smells like crazy in the cabin whenever I come to a stop. I've had it back for a little over a month since they did the reseal, and I have no way of knowing if it's still leaking or just still burning the huge amount of crap they left on the car. The service manager and I talked for a long time a week or two ago, and he INSISTED I bring the car back; he was very bugged that they let the car out of the shop like this. At the time, we discussed the recently developing idle bounce even with A/C off (including defrost off) and my increasingly poor gas mileage, possible direct injector seal leak, and HE brought up the recall.

I'm at odds with how to feel about taking my car in and letting his crew open up my engine, given their semi-incompetence at simply resealing covers. One of the TSBs, S-TT-0074-13, mentions requiring Three Bond 1217b sealant on FA20 engines, and that it is NOT compatible with toyota part #00295-00103. My guess is that the techs probably missed that and used the wrong sealant all three times.. who knows. I know a lot less about this stuff than many here. However... it's tough to trust guys who have probably never worked on this engine before to do internal engine work, especially when they can't seem to seal covers.

I guess I'm in the camp that, at the very least, a further extended warranty is necessary after this recall.
Thoughts?

I've got this idle bounce going on all of a sudden too and mine just went over the 100k limit on the CPO warranty a few weeks ago. I'll have to look into that further. When my timing cover reseal was done they did a pretty poor job of cleaning up too but I got it cleaned up satisfactorily that it didn't keep burning off after that. You bet I'm going to ask about a further extended warranty after they open up the engine!