Results of the Valve Spring Recall Work

[gravitylover]

Originally Posted by Mitch-frs

Has anyone had the recall work done and not had any problems afterwards? I hàd mine done and have probably drove around 5 to 10 thousand miles with no issues. Iv dropped a lot of money into mods and plan on doing a lot more soon, just wanting to make sure I'm not putting money into a lost cause. Thanks

There are a few positive outcome stories but yours is the
highest mileage one I've seen so far. Mine is in for the work now and I do 4-7k miles a month this time of year so by Labor Day hopefully I'll have a similar success story as you do.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by gravitylover

There are a few positive outcome stories but yours is the
highest mileage one I've seen so far. Mine is in for the work now and I do 4-7k miles a month this time of year so by Labor Day hopefully I'll have a similar success story as you do.

As of this AM, I'm right at 14,000 miles (149,506 miles total) since the work was done. No issues at all to this point.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by gravitylover

There are a few positive outcome stories but yours is the
highest mileage one I've seen so far. Mine is in for the work now and I do 4-7k miles a month this time of year so by Labor Day hopefully I'll have a similar success story as you do.

There are probably a couple of hundred or more positive outcome stories for every failure. We just don't hear them.
From the little data we have it would appear that even the majority of the failures were covered at no cost. It just looks bad because the few that were not covered keep bringing it up in different spots making it appear they are the majority.

[Magoo]

07/24/2019

FINAL UPDATE:

The personnel at the BAR collected all the info I wrote on this post and some pretty damning info from other posts, receipts, pictures from the engine tear-down. They talked to Toyota of Santa Cruz and got their side of the story, and after some mediation I got a refund.

It is over and I'm glad. I put the money back into savings and I'm putting this behind me.

Thanks for the support and thanks for shedding a light on how dealerships and corporations deal with each other and their customers.

Say all the negative crap about California all that you want, but I'm glad we have this resource available to us.

I have a new block, rebuilt heads, new components installed by a qualified SUBARU mechanic at Garage One in Campbell, and they guarantee their work for 3 years. The car runs perfectly and I have no issues with putting another 130k miles on it again.

Cheers,

[gravitylover]

Grrr this Forester keeps frustrating the shit out of me. This morning it caused an accident! The dumbass collision avoidance jammed on the brakes when I was still about 150 feet from the car in front of me and brought the car down from ~35mph to less than 5 in what felt like no time and the car behind me didn't expect such a radical maneuver and barely missed rear ending me and ended up in someones front yard instead. The car it was trying to avoid was turning left (slowly) but there was no other traffic so I knew it was going to be out of my way in plenty of time so I only had my foot hovering over the brake pedal. Apparently I'm too dumb to handle suburban driving at 7:15am

Another thing that I really can't stand is you can't downshift. I was coming down a 2+ mile descent (drops over 1k feet in the first mile and a half) and had to ride the brakes to keep the car within 10mph over the speed limit. I kept pumping them but when it got to ~70 I had to just ride them. Before I got to the bottom of the hill the pedal had nearly sunk to the floor and it felt terrible. In any other car I would have dropped it a gear and let the engine do the work but in this car you only have D or L with no option in between and there's no way even though it's not my car I was throwing it in Low at highway speed. It's not like I was cruising going into the hill either because I stopped at the top to take a picture.

Unless you turn the lane control off completely every time the car gets to the edge of its lane it beeps and gives a subtle tweak to the wheel to let you know you're not perfectly in the lane. Sometimes you do drift around the space or need to avoid bad pavement or whatever but the car punishes you for that. Bullshit...

I'm getting used to the nose heavy handling, I drive like my dad now The upside to that is I got 33mpg on a 700 mile road trip yesterday

Good points - It's quiet, the tunes sound pretty good, it has a huge sunroof and it doesn't scrape going in and out of parking lots or on dirt roads. It also takes care of itself pretty well in traffic, it's quick enough and is really quite easy to control (until the nannies take over) and the visibility all around is very good. Most people would probably love it...

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by gravitylover

The upside to that is I got 33mpg on a 700 mile road trip yesterday

How is that an upside? I get more than that in my FRS on the highway.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by gravitylover

Grrr this Forester keeps frustrating the shit out of me. This morning it caused an accident! The dumbass collision avoidance jammed on the brakes when I was still about 150 feet from the car in front of me and brought the car down from ~35mph to less than 5 in what felt like no time and the car behind me didn't expect such a radical maneuver and barely missed rear ending me and ended up in someones front yard instead. The car it was trying to avoid was turning left (slowly) but there was no other traffic so I knew it was going to be out of my way in plenty of time so I only had my foot hovering over the brake pedal. Apparently I'm too dumb to handle suburban driving at 7:15am

Another thing that I really can't stand is you can't downshift. I was coming down a 2+ mile descent (drops over 1k feet in the first mile and a half) and had to ride the brakes to keep the car within 10mph over the speed limit. I kept pumping them but when it got to ~70 I had to just ride them. Before I got to the bottom of the hill the pedal had nearly sunk to the floor and it felt terrible. In any other car I would have dropped it a gear and let the engine do the work but in this car you only have D or L with no option in between and there's no way even though it's not my car I was throwing it in Low at highway speed. It's not like I was cruising going into the hill either because I stopped at the top to take a picture.

Unless you turn the lane control off completely every time the car gets to the edge of its lane it beeps and gives a subtle tweak to the wheel to let you know you're not perfectly in the lane. Sometimes you do drift around the space or need to avoid bad pavement or whatever but the car punishes you for that. Bullshit...

I'm getting used to the nose heavy handling, I drive like my dad now The upside to that is I got 33mpg on a 700 mile road trip yesterday

Good points - It's quiet, the tunes sound pretty good, it has a huge sunroof and it doesn't scrape going in and out of parking lots or on dirt roads. It also takes care of itself pretty well in traffic, it's quick enough and is really quite easy to control (until the nannies take over) and the visibility all around is very good. Most people would probably love it...

Strange that the wife's Impreza has radically different actions taken by the Eyesight system. The collision avoidance doesn't even trigger until you are well within 150 feet of something and still accelerating. Even when it does it just gives an audible alarm before taking any action. In all the miles I have driven it I have only had it alarm once (where I didn't make it do it on purpose) when I was going up a ramp and the car thought the moving traffic on the cross road was a bit to close. It did activate once when a car stopped suddenly in front of me and it's reaction time was .001 seconds faster than mine in hitting the brakes. The lane departure on hers just gives a single beep if you cross a line without signaling. No steering twitch or other action occurs. When she bought it I thought the system would be a pain in the butt but it actually is not intrusive at all unless you really really screw up. I would have thought they would all be about the same but I guess not.

[ka-t_240]

I have eyesite in my daily, works good. The auto brake does not apply until it really needs to. Never "way too soon".

The auto steer/lane keep is too aggressive IMO. It will put you in the opposite ditch when it tries to steer you back into your lane from being over one.

[gravitylover]

@Tcoat it's more intrusive than the earlier model I had driven. The braking part is terrible. When it's in full protect me mode it actually leads into a gradual turn which is an interesting feeling. You can also together with the adaptive cruise control almost let it go in semi autonomous mode for very short periods. The screen lights up with a picture telling you to put your hands on the wheel but it will keep going for a bit until as @ka-t_240 says it gets too aggressive and the car is swinging around in the lane.

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

How is that an upside? I get more than that in my FRS on the highway.

I can in my BRZ too but the first 2 trips in this driving normally without paying attention it was at ~27/28. Driving gently, which very few people do, got it up that high. It's work to do it though but hypermiling always is. I have another big, 1k+ miles, trip next week so will play with it on the flat sections and see how far I can push it.

I'm really breaking in this brand new loaner they gave me but I want my car back real bad

[FRS.808]

So, I'm researching about the recall before I buy my FRS. I'm planning on buying my FRS through Carvana but judging by the recall horror stories, I'm thinking about backing out. Should I not buy my FRS? It's a dream car of mine. I've always wanted one. But I'm really scared of going through the recall. Help?

[FRS.808]

Or should I just save for a newer year FRS?

[nextcar]

Originally Posted by FRS.808

So, I'm researching about the recall before I buy my FRS. I'm planning on buying my FRS through Carvana but judging by the recall horror stories, I'm thinking about backing out. Should I not buy my FRS? It's a dream car of mine. I've always wanted one. But I'm really scared of going through the recall. Help?

For what it is worth:

1) The valve spring recall only affected early cars. Anything after 2014 is not affected. Mainly 2013... and i THINK a small number of early 2014s.

2) Most people have no issue with the recall. You only hear the horror stories, not the "I had no major issues". The only issue I had was a slight oil leak from the dipstick after the recall, and that was fixed while I waited when I brought it back.

3) As far as I know, California is the only state that forces you to do the recall to register the car. Most people outside California do not bother with it if they are worried. Looks like you are in Alabama - just don't do it!

[ChrisChan]

Originally Posted by FRS.808

So, I'm researching about the recall before I buy my FRS. I'm planning on buying my FRS through Carvana but judging by the recall horror stories, I'm thinking about backing out. Should I not buy my FRS? It's a dream car of mine. I've always wanted one. But I'm really scared of going through the recall. Help?

I did the recall and my car is completely fine just make sure you ask them to have a senior tech to do the work and ask if they dealer has done the recall before

[rande]

Originally Posted by FRS.808

So, I'm researching about the recall before I buy my FRS. I'm planning on buying my FRS through Carvana but judging by the recall horror stories, I'm thinking about backing out. Should I not buy my FRS? It's a dream car of mine. I've always wanted one. But I'm really scared of going through the recall. Help?

Check the VIN of the car you are interested in to see if it is subject to the recall.