Wish me luck. Going in for the recall job.
 

Originally I had been scheduled for October but got a call a few days ago that they have a spot this Friday.

So.... hopefully all things go fine. It's going to a Subaru dealer to get fixed.
Am I a bit worried, yeah can't lie. 92k on the clock, bone stock.

Hopefully in a few weeks I'll report back on that "good" recall thread. I wonder what kind of loaner car I'll get.

That's all.
:popcorn:

Good Luck!

May the valve spring gods be with you.

I wonder if they have any used Hondas? You can always ask...:iono:


Good luck.

Good Luck [emoji256]

Which Subaru dealership are you going to?



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

in for part out thread!

:slap: FRIDAY! You're taking your car in on a FRIDAY - :sigh:

Oh, I'm sure they will have a nice loaner for you - :confused0068:


humfrz

Good Luck! My car only took 3.5 days for the recall work. It's still running strong after a 1000 miles! Hopefully all goes well for you too!

May the gods of speed shine upon you

Thanks.
It's Rancho Grande Subaru of SLO.


Oh shit.... I didn't think about that...
I hope it's not a mini van.

You're in luck, they happen to have one left - :D

(it has strong valve springs - :thumbsup:)


humfrz

If it is a mini van go find your local twin owners and show them who is boss of the stop lights.

those v6 minivans arent slow anymore

If it's a grand caravan I don't mind. Especially if it's the supercharged V6.
My buddy back in high school drove the family van. It keept up with the mustangs gt's so it's not that bad.
No one expected a grand caravan to be that quick.

I'll be sure to do that with my co worker's '14 FRS. I'll even get it on video.

Monica!!!

Well it's in their hands now. Maybe by Tuesday or Wednesday I'll get it back.
Interesting note there was about 5 other cars doing in for the same recall.

As for the rental, they got Enterprise so I ended up with new base model Nissan Sentra. It's boring, slow but nice and comfy. Factory infotainment system is nice. Good sound till the rattles start.

TO: Mr ac,

This is the dealership, we have some bad news about your car's engine.

Call us ASAP.

:sigh:


The Dealer

Some things just aren't funny. Just spent another quality afternoon discussing my case with the master tech at the dealership. Very nice guy, more than willing to talk at length, seems quite knowledgeable and caring... and yet I've been without my car for about two months, still don't have it, and now find out I may need to escalate the case in order to get some issues with the direct injectors covered.



Basically, over the three year ownership, all by my dealership, who I still like very much; they really DO seem like they're trying to do right by me..


Two failed cam coverplate reseals. I finally gave up and, with their blessing, installed the Raceseng plate myself. No issues since.


Timing chain cover started to leak. Dealership resealed it, and I had them do new plugs at same time (60k).


Recall done at 70k.



Engine replacement OK'd and done 500 miles or so later, including new plugs even though I had that done 10K miles ago... because engine meltdown ruined new plugs.



60 miles and one day after finally picking up the car after engine assembled and installed, check engine lightand very loud ticking at idle, so back to dealership where it stil resides. Code identified as incorrect fuel/air ratio, leading tech to check direct injectors. Call from service manager saying injectors are not covered by my Certified warranty, nor by the one year/unlimited mileage shop warranty on the recent engine/recall/warranty work.



This, after they agreed to replace the plugs which were ruined by engine meltdown. Never replaced the seals on the direct injectors, because new seals "weren't included an any of the of recall or engine kits they ordered." Sooo.. they removed the injectors and replaced them, now more than once as they troubleshoot, without new seals.



So... yeah. I'm increasingly concerned and frustrated. It's been two months without a car, they've only been able to provide a loaner for half that time (currently without one), I've been very nice and appreciative throughout this entire mess, and THEY'VE been equally pleasant and good to deal with.



BUT... no car.. and potential issue ahead. One sad panda here.


Sooo.. yeah.... as a wise man once said, "Son, if you can't laught at it... maybe it's not funny."

Sorry - :sigh:

You sure have been through it with that car. - :(

I'd get rid of that puppy - :mad0259:


humfrz

Lol Knock on wood.
Let's see what happens.
@MuseChaser
Holy shit!! After a month I'll say it's a certified lemon.
I got a jerry can if you need it.
You know.... those Civic Si are hella cheap... just saying.

it's not funny, but it's reality

not to be mean, but u sound like you're letting the dealership push u around.. it's nice to be Mr. nice guy once in a while, but if they mess up that many times, i would either look for another place to work on my car OR escalate this waaaaayyyyy sooner

i haven't had the best luck in my own car, so i'm thinking the curse will continue and the recall will kill off my car.... that's the only way i can rid of this curse and get myself into a type R...

I'm new to this forum and not sure where to post this. Have there been any updates late march/early april from the Center for Auto Safety or Toyota?

I have a '13 FR-S with only 15,000 miles on it. I'm debating on whether or not to take it in. I don't live in the same state as where the car is parked, and I only drive it infrequently. Where can I go to make the most informed decision?

Everything is stock. Not really a car guy.

Just leave it as is. There is only one place (California) where it is mandatory. The failure rate of the repair is worse than the failure rate of the issue so why mess with things?

If I were in CA I honestly think I'd sell and buy a newer model before submitting to this recall....

Sort of a viscous circle in that plan though. If you try to sell it without the recall you will take a big hit on the price you will get. If you get the recal done and then sell and all is good you still took a loss since you paid for a newer car that you didn’t need to buy. Not even sure that you could sell it with the recall outstanding?

Well that is a pickle. The horror stories all come from Toyota mechanics working on Subaru engines. But since Toyota released new procedures for their mechanics it might be ok now.

I would call around different dealerships and just ask them up front how successful their recall work has been.

It's easier than you think it is...you just have to _______ and make sure ________ that your insurance can __________. Then ________ with a big smile on your face when you get ________.

See? Oh for legal reasons I can't say what exactly. :laughabove::popcorn::happyanim:

Do you honestly think that a dealership would say “Oh man! We have done a terrible job with this recall... let me tell you how many engines that we have destroyed!”?

Depends. if your lucky you'll get the over worked under paid customer rep, they would gladly tell you.

If you get a "manager" on the line maybe not.
But I usually call the parts department guy. Sales/service reps at the front door don't know what a lug nut wrench is or where it's located.

There are plenty from Subaru's dealing with "horror" stories too. About 20% of the post recall issues on the spreadsheet are Subaru's, 1 in 5, which is about the same as the 2013 BRZ's to FRS ratio.

I am NOT convinced it's a mechanic issue.

Except that the publicly available recall procedure updates quite clearly indicate it is.

Updates are an attempt to mitigate the failures, but I'm still not convinced it it 100% mechanic related. After watching everything that was done with my car, and the lack of excess sealant, there is something else going on as well.

You mean, like, applying tri-bond in areas where it can block oil flow out of the timing cover? Or having pieces of old gasket material make their way into the oil pan where they later block oil flow by clogging the strainer or oil passages?


That's all covered off in the procedure updates as well.

'After watching...' You actually watched them reassemble your motor?

Beyond just that. In my case, one piece of sealant was found partially blocking one passage in the cam carrier. Oil pan was dropped to check the pickup, and the pickup tube was boroscoped from the timing cover side, and nothing was found. Error codes were for the RH intake timing area, and they replaced cam sprocket (twice), ecm, intake cam, cam carrier, head...and the problem remained.

But is this not all related to technician error?

Getting sealant into the oiling system is a technician fault. Having that sealant blocking oil flow up by the cam carrier could easily have disrupted oil flow to the variable valve control system, right?

And I believe that would cause the VVT system to malfunction since it operates off of oil pressure, doesn't it? And that chain of events would trigger the CEL cam timing codes since the cam isn't doing what the computer thinks it should be doing and likely damaged the VVT system inside by running it dry.


I would think they should have just replaced the VVT unit itself instead of everything that they did.


As an aside- Personally, if I had the recall done and afterwards they found sealant blocking (or partially blocking) an oil passage in the heads I would demand a new engine, and involve a lawyer if necessary. There is a 100% chance that lubrication failure did permanent damage that will (at best) shorten the lifespan of the engine a bit and at worse cause a major failure just far enough removed from the recall fix that you will be shit-outta-luck having them cover the repair when it does happen.

I'm only basing my thoughts, on what I have personally seen. i believe there is something going on, beyond just technician error.

There is. It is a poor design choice to use sealant so close to oil passages. Even a contentious tech that applies just a small dollop to the wrong place can partially block a passage. It wouldn't take much. The removal of the old sealant is more on the techs but even then all they have to do is miss one piece about twice the size of a pin head for it to block a bearing orifice and run it dry. The techs are taking the flake but in reality the design, use of the sealant and initial very poor instructions were setting them up for failure.
If you think it is something beyond the sealant I would be interested in your theory since there is piles and piles of evidence pointing at the removal and/or improper installation of the new stuff to be disregarded in favour of some mystery cause.

Easy

This ^

I’ve been glueing engines together since 2006, Mercedes has been doing it a whole lot longer than that. I’ve never blown one up, never wiped a cam, nothing like that. Never even seen it happen to someone else.

Plenty of bulletins out there for over application, warnings in work instructions to clean thoroughly and not drop pieces down holes. You try to be as careful as possible, but I’m sure I’ve left plenty of strips of the stuff in there.

If it drops to the pan it will either get stuck in the strainer, not a big deal until there’s a lot of it there. Or blown though the pump to the filter, also not a big deal until there’s a lot in there.

The concept isn’t the problem. Engines that haven’t been worked on aren’t blowing up going down the road, and they’re all glued together the same way before and after the recall. Or at least they should be.

Sorry wasn't clear. It isn't the basic concept it is the application of it to that particular engine. The methodology appears to be different from others and that is what is messing with them.
And yes engines that were not worked on HAVE been blowing up for the very same reason going right back to 2013. It is well document on here way before the recall was ever even announced. In many of the factory fresh engines that blew they found sealant blocking passages so even the robots applying it couldn't do it right for a period of time. I am not saying that "gluing engines" together is bad overall just that this particular engine seems to be abnormally susceptible to even the slightest error. This is a result of some poor engineering not just careless or "dumb" techs.