P0018 - what a disappointment this car has become
 

I have had a long love and hate relationshit with this car. While I may not feel it today, my relationshit has been mostly love and a little hate.

The hate stems mostly from the cars lower power and being unpractical. The car being unpractical i ignored and made do. I purchased a 2015 WRX to resolve the capacity issue and I use snow tires on the FRS during the winter.

The car has always been down on power but I tried hard to never let that ruin the experience. I love the cars driving feel, the steering, the flat cornering and I love the engine. It loves to rev and its all the bliss to redline regardless of the lower power output.

But, of course like most of you I dreamed of 280 whp. I take the cautious and beginner steps towards greatness by adding a full header back exhaust with custom tune. I buy high performance tires and light weight wheels to add to the drama. The modding helps my mind and helps me to admire the car more.

I dream, research and fantasize about forced induction. I could tell you every FI option available and its cost. Its pros to cons. supercharger or turbocharger. But alas, the costs, uncertainty, maintenance and fear of going this route has kept me at bay. I have read and seen too many horror stories in which some dude/gal puts 6k into their car and experience nothing but crap. Cams are not working, boost cuts off, shit over heats, oil starvation, engine explodes into a fiery scene! Was it some guy in Australia representing AVO who showed us that the car will eventually fail if you go FI due to this cam seal cover. It needed the update.

In the end I decided that if I wanted a lightweight, crisp feeling rock ship then I should buy a bike and not go FI. My bike can go 0 - 60 in 3 seconds. Is it safe and do I worry when I ride? of course. But I now have visceral and fast.

Welp, 2 weeks ago from Today my cars check engine light came on. The car is 5 mos. shy of its 5 yr limited power train warranty and only has 44k miles. Certainly this car is too young to experience a whirlwind of shit manufacturer mistakes. or is it?

I baby this car. Sure I have put some mods on it but I baby it. I dont red line often. I dont autocross and I have never take it to the track. I enjoy the spirited ride. I love backroads at 35mph with twisties. I also like long walks on the beach.

When this check engine light came on I thought surely it was a gas cap.. Nope. I thought surely it was something minor. The OFT (great device and for sale) reads the code and gives me the error P0018. In the back of my mind I say "this sounds familiar and familiar isnt a good thing". Sure as shit, i get online and read the horror stories associated with such code.

I remove the exhaust, reflash and bring it to the dealer. Immediately he tells me none of this will be covered under warranty. I explain that this is an engine related issue and should be covered under my power train warranty but he persists that it could not be. All this discussion simply from a check error code. He didnt even look under the hood.

The bottom line here is it was a push and pull with this son of a b. A heart wrenching moment for me.. why wouldnt it be covered?

1st he replaced or swapped the cam sensors and that didnt work. Code came back. Toyota reps guided him on the next step of the process. They needed to replace the valve drum assembly? as well as the ECU. week goes by and he does the work. Wouldn't you know that the check error light came right back after driving from one of their tech guys.

He contacts the toyota rep and the rep tells him to replace the same parts over again. I guesses the valve drum assembly came from a bad batch and some manufacturers got the product..Also he had to replace the ECU.. again.

2 weeks go by and I am paying for a rental and worrying that they will deny me warranty coverage. Warranty coverage for something that is manufacturer defect. Their is fucking volumes of information on this error code easily found with a search and still he is trying to tell me that at 44k miles I would have to foot the bill.

in the end he explained that the toyota rep from corporate would allow their dealer to bill for the services. The bill? $6,000. Yes, $6,000 fucking dollars for a car with 44k miles on it.

Why am I bitching? It was covered under warranty?

I am bitching because I didnt push the engine with a turbo or a s/c. I babied this goddamn car. I bought every other fucking device I could afford (wrx a bike) to respect this engine and give it a chance.. And still, this piece of shit has destroyed my faith in the platform. I no longer will ever feel safe owning this car. The warranty is over in August.. will this code come back? read up on the error.. its a goddamn rats nest of problems. People can never find the solution. THe code comes back and back and whose fault is it? the owner who puts on an exhaust or uses a canned and common tune? ?? no.. its the goddamn manufacturers and your stuck footing the bill. Thank god I managed to keep my warranty. I had to fight with that asshole day after day explaining why it was covered.

Morale of the story. Do not void your warranty in a way that it can be found and do not keep this piece of shit past is warranty period.

Maybe newer models dont have to worry? But me, I am not convinced the headache wont come back. Also, I am not convinced that the error code didnt cause some internal engine block issues. We are talking about improper valve opening and closing.. missed timing. Surely these malfunctions decreased the life span of my engine.

I dont like uncertainty, I dont like gambling. When I go to Vegas I go for the shows, the food, the view. I dont gamble. When I purchase stock I dont go all high risk, I go a combination of bonds and other low return but low risk investments.

For this time my caution paid off. Imagine if I went FI and KAABOOOM! See ya.. I know still owe 5k on a goddamn car that blew up.. not because i boosted the engine but because some manufacturer defect.. some pathetic intolerance spec on a hole or screw misplaced everything to death.

I have convinced myself that I must rid of this car before the warranty period is over simply because I do not trust it. such a shame.. or perhaps I have a panic disorder. you tell me?

Wow. Hate to see what happens when the ringlands go in the wrx.

Could it be that you got a lemon possibly?

Shit happens, then you die.


This affected the early build cars, was resolved by late 2013 and up.

Theit shouldn't be pikes of shit dished out to someone with a 13 model when things go wrong. Those pieces of shit néed to own up when they fuck up and not stick it to enthusiasts of their product.

That is a large part of my bitchy rage. So my powertrain warranty runs out soo. What if their he problem comes back? Their fault. I'm stuck wdealing with their mistakes. It sickens me. 50k miles, repairs exceeding 6k and I have to pay for it.

I was going to get a used M3 but I said "no, reliabilty, cost of repair" now this.

Price? link to ad?

At almost 5 yeas with 44k miles? I bought it new

Then again, you should never buy the first 2 model years of a car, I'm sorry this is happening to you

Thanks

I truly am fortunate enough to get my car back in working order. I'm just livid that I now feel pressured go sell it to prevent further headaches.

I just want other owners to read this and be careful. Do something before your warranty expires or take the gamble.

I haven't had much serious problem yet with my 13, but I'm only at 35k kms, but I do have a couple of things go down last fall. A gas tank gage is 3/4 at full tank, I've seen discussions on it; and a coil code 351 or something. All known/common things that happened to other people. Not to mention horrible crickets, which are gone now I believe and all other weird noises and squeaks. Not to mention half-assed quality all around. Reading along some of the disasters on here, my conclusion is, it would be really hard to convince myself to buy another Subaru. With the low mileage I do with this car, I could probably deal with older 911 and not feel bad dumping money maintaining it. I also made peace with the fact that if car fucks up big time, I'll deal with it as much as I can, maybe 5-6k tops for engine stuff, beyond that I'm dropping it like a hot potato. The fact that engine problems are often (or maybe I percieve posts this way) solved by replacing expensive parts or many parts at a time does not give me much faith, like you said.

I totally get your point and anything major that happens will put me on the same page, time to get rid of it and move on. It would be much more sad and expensive if you'd buy a car twice as expensive and have to shell out for expensive repairs.

Well, now Boofneenee, that's a shame your car is acting up......:(

It sounds like you bought the wrong car (for you) at the get go.

When you first decided to buy this car, did it have more power and was it more practical ..?? ..... and then something changed after you bought the car ... ??

Well, let's see ...... you did "mess with the engine" (header and tune).....:sigh:

So, now you have a car, that always was a disappointment, because it wasn't a WRX or a quick motorcycle ...... plus you have had some relatively major problems with it and you no longer feel it is dependable.

I suggest you sell it and move on to a car that better suits your needs.

humfrz

PS - Just for the record, readers, my 2013 FR-S hasn't been back to the shop in four years (except for oil changes).

How many miles are you at now?

About 17,000 miles, mostly short, around town trips.

Going to do some long hauling, if I can get grandma away from her grandchildren for a week or so at a time ..... :sigh:


humfrz

Oh interesting, we're at about the same, I'm at like 18,400 on my '13.

My commute to work is super short (~2.5 miles each way), so although it gets driven every day during the week, it's those dang super short extra wear inducing short trips. The ones that the owner's manual describes as "severe use" or whatever.