Raven down! Mechanical failure :(

[zohare]

Originally Posted by Skurge

owned an 04 STI that had an intake for 90K,no tune, all stock otherwise, no issues, other than one of my cats letting go somehow(covered by subaru)

Cats are expenssssivvve. Good thing they covered it Did you get to keep the old one? they're good money to recycle, contain some heavy metal. Platinum I think.

[cys19]

This is about the fifth FRS I've read about with engine failure due to a manufacturing defect. (Note that not all FRS/BRZ owners are members of this forum, so there is a high possibility that there are more.) It's getting a little ridiculous. Looks like I'm not buying an FRS anytime soon.

[DAMotorsports]

Originally Posted by zohare

Ugh... file size limits. I have no clue how to upload these

Looks like what happens to the TC motors. They use the same rocker are design. What happens is the rocker pops off the lifter causing damage to the lifter. Then it takes out the head. The frs only have a valve spring rate of 30lbs so if your boost you start to lose pressure. The oil leak was from the rocker arm hitting and breaking the valve cover. Have heard of several cars in japan having this problem and They are looking into ways to solve the problem. For now they are upgrading spring rates to help this issue until a true fix is found

[strat61caster]

Originally Posted by cys19

This is about the fifth FRS I've read about with engine failure due to a manufacturing defect. (Note that not all FRS/BRZ owners are members of this forum, so there is a high possibility that there are more.) It's getting a little ridiculous. Looks like I'm not buying an FRS anytime soon.

5 engine failures, figure only 1/10th (reasonable number right?) of owners are on this site so extrapolate that to 50 failures, hell lets go for 100.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10766

100 failures, 36,000 units sold, so that's a failure rate of < 0.3%

If that scares you away I wonder if you'll be driving anything at all... every car has catastrophic failures. Most of these are getting covered under warranty so even if you are that unlucky 1/333 you'll be out of a car for awhile until it gets fixed. And you're not accounting for usage, the repeat failures are almost all heavily tracked and several are modified. Sit on any car forum long enough and there's stuff that'll scare just about anyone away if you treat it like the sky is falling.

[jamesm]

it's 'the forum effect'. makes people think they need a bunch of shit they have no real use for and that every problem anyone else has will be theirs in due time. gotta love it.

[zohare]

Originally Posted by cys19

This is about the fifth FRS I've read about with engine failure due to a manufacturing defect. (Note that not all FRS/BRZ owners are members of this forum, so there is a high possibility that there are more.) It's getting a little ridiculous. Looks like I'm not buying an FRS anytime soon.

Don't let this scare you away at ALL. My car was purchased July 2012, so very early off the assembly line. And to be totally fair, I'm as hard as almost anyone on it. Read down some. Even on a pessimistic side of things, less than .3 % isn't a lot, it's unusual for Toyota, yes. Given they average 7 defects total for 100 cars of their assembly line, it's very high. Most companies have 100+ defects per 100 cars. (All inclusive, so trim gaps, anything.) But this car isn't built by Toyota, so there's that. Honestly, I'll leave it totally to the fact that it's a first model, first gen, early production, and a huge plethora of off the shelf parts, some of which weren't designed specifically for use on this car. So some failures are expected. The difference is, Toyota learns from them, and fixes it to make sure it won't happen again. You should most certainly buy one of these cars. I drove a million and one before buying it and I love it. The only cars making me consider ever changing, would be the new IS, or the IS-F, Possibly the new WRX, we'll see how that goes, and a bunch of other SBC project cars, like a 4.8 turbo silverado etc, but that stuffs been done, old news. I love my FR-S.

Originally Posted by DAMotorsports

Looks like what happens to the TC motors. They use the same rocker are design. What happens is the rocker pops off the lifter causing damage to the lifter. Then it takes out the head. The frs only have a valve spring rate of 30lbs so if your boost you start to lose pressure. The oil leak was from the rocker arm hitting and breaking the valve cover. Have heard of several cars in japan having this problem and They are looking into ways to solve the problem. For now they are upgrading spring rates to help this issue until a true fix is found

Wow great info! Thanks for this. I was curious what exactly was going wrong. Not sure obviously, but it's a good explanation. I am honestly expecting them to either rebuild the heads, or send it off as is since it's still sealed up and there's no holes in the block... -.- and put a new FA in. I'm very much hoping for the latter. I don't particularly like the idea of a dealer mechanic opening up an FA. Not to badmouth them, this isn't quite like Porsche, but still, I think they're very underqualified. Hell, if the dealer can't diagnose the issue and is calling out a Toyota engineer to look at it and decide what to do, why the hell should they be rebuilding it out of a book? Ya know? No offense to any Toyota techs here... just saying. I would prefer a sealed case/heads. But if it does need to be pulled apart... Ported heads? hm. Just thinking here.

[zohare]

Oh, and if anyone is interested, here's a video of what it sounds like. Perhaps this could help somehow maybe down the road if they tell me what went wrong for diagnosis reasons?
OP, did yours even sound like this at all before it died, like did you have any time to hear it?
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHUuQ-b-25E"]Scion FR-S bad motor noises, lifter noise, no CEL - YouTube[/ame]
Sorry for the poor video. Framerate glitches are from my dumb phone.

[20valvewynn83]

Originally Posted by Pete156

So we've had at least two catastrophic engine failures?

Nope I had the short block replaced took 1 month for parts and install

[20valvewynn83]

Wow great info! Thanks for this. I was curious what exactly was going wrong. Not sure obviously, but it's a good explanation. I am honestly expecting them to either rebuild the heads, or send it off as is since it's still sealed up and there's no holes in the block... -.- and put a new FA in. I'm very much hoping for the latter. I don't particularly like the idea of a dealer mechanic opening up an FA. Not to badmouth them, this isn't quite like Porsche, but still, I think they're very underqualified. Hell, if the dealer can't diagnose the issue and is calling out a Toyota engineer to look at it and decide what to do, why the hell should they be rebuilding it out of a book? Ya know? No offense to any Toyota techs here... just saying. I would prefer a sealed case/heads. But if it does need to be pulled apart... Ported heads? hm. Just thinking here.[/QUOTE]

FYI Toyota doesn't send out engineers they are field reps and they do that for any major problem that deals with warranty issues FRS or not. This engine is so easy to work on so don't flatter yourself by thinking Subaru tech's are some how more capable. As a tech I have already diagnosed electrical problems with no issues. Just saying majority of the technician are highly trained in the FRS and other cars.

[zohare]

Originally Posted by 20valvewynn83

Wow great info! Thanks for this. I was curious what exactly was going wrong. Not sure obviously, but it's a good explanation. I am honestly expecting them to either rebuild the heads, or send it off as is since it's still sealed up and there's no holes in the block... -.- and put a new FA in. I'm very much hoping for the latter. I don't particularly like the idea of a dealer mechanic opening up an FA. Not to badmouth them, this isn't quite like Porsche, but still, I think they're very underqualified. Hell, if the dealer can't diagnose the issue and is calling out a Toyota engineer to look at it and decide what to do, why the hell should they be rebuilding it out of a book? Ya know? No offense to any Toyota techs here... just saying. I would prefer a sealed case/heads. But if it does need to be pulled apart... Ported heads? hm. Just thinking here.

FYI Toyota doesn't send out engineers they are field reps and they do that for any major problem that deals with warranty issues FRS or not. This engine is so easy to work on so don't flatter yourself by thinking Subaru tech's are some how more capable. As a tech I have already diagnosed electrical problems with no issues. Just saying majority of the technician are highly trained in the FRS and other cars.[/QUOTE]

Thanks. That is actually confidence inspiring. Heard back today- Local dealer, (not really, I'm out of town for work ,but where the car sits-) got the criteria for diagnostic stuff they need to complete first before Toyota makes any sort of decision. So we'll see I guess. They said probably Wed I should know something. I by NO MEANS think a Subie tech as more capable. I think Toyota techs are just fine, but as a whole? In Nashville. I don't think they've had an FR-S in for this failure before. They made spark plug pull sound like a 10 minute ordeal... We'll see. Don't let my forum nonsense and frustration with paying $400 a month for a car I can't drive translate to "I don't think you're a tech worth anything." I actually would really like to work for toyota one day. It's a long term goal of mine. Lexus or Toyota, industrial design specifically.

[20valvewynn83]

Originally Posted by zohare

FYI Toyota doesn't send out engineers they are field reps and they do that for any major problem that deals with warranty issues FRS or not. This engine is so easy to work on so don't flatter yourself by thinking Subaru tech's are some how more capable. As a tech I have already diagnosed electrical problems with no issues. Just saying majority of the technician are highly trained in the FRS and other cars.

Thanks. That is actually confidence inspiring. Heard back today- Local dealer, (not really, I'm out of town for work ,but where the car sits-) got the criteria for diagnostic stuff they need to complete first before Toyota makes any sort of decision. So we'll see I guess. They said probably Wed I should know something. I by NO MEANS think a Subie tech as more capable. I think Toyota techs are just fine, but as a whole? In Nashville. I don't think they've had an FR-S in for this failure before. They made spark plug pull sound like a 10 minute ordeal... We'll see. Don't let my forum nonsense and frustration with paying $400 a month for a car I can't drive translate to "I don't think you're a tech worth anything." I actually would really like to work for toyota one day. It's a long term goal of mine. Lexus or Toyota, industrial design specifically.[/QUOTE]

Trust me dude I know how you feel. I had my trans replaced and that took about a month, I had the short block replaced, the fuel pump replaced, the steering wheel replaced, window seal replaced, somebody backed up into my door and it was in the shop for a month and on top of that o had a body kit bonded to the car and that took a month or more. This thing has been down for maybe 4+ months in the past year and a half.

[zohare]

Trust me dude I know how you feel. I had my trans replaced and that took about a month, I had the short block replaced, the fuel pump replaced, the steering wheel replaced, window seal replaced, somebody backed up into my door and it was in the shop for a month and on top of that o had a body kit bonded to the car and that took a month or more. This thing has been down for maybe 4+ months in the past year and a half.

Dude.... That sucks. Steering wheel? Yeah mine's been hit three times already, only one was bad and guy left a note. Luckily, the rental place my insurance used had a Camry haha. I had a lot of fun in that thing believe it or not. But that was a door fender and hood, so that took a while. Oh, and a wheel. Can't compete with 4 months though. Oh, and my spoiler is literally falling off, and the clear (if they even used any?!) is peeling. Used the dealer recommended body shop... won't be doing that again...