Reliability concerns after major warranty engine repair?
 

Hi Everyone

The purpose of this post is the find out if my FRS will be reliable for the foreseeable future after a major engine repair. In this case, it's a Short Block assembly replacement done under warranty by a Toyota dealer. I would like to hear everyone's perspective on this matter, as it will help me make the decision to keep or sell my FRS. (I cannot afford to make a similar repair out of warranty and out of pocket)

Background of this incident:
I was driving on the highway, during stop and go traffic. I was in 2nd gear doing around 30 km/h when I heard clucking noise from the engine bay, it grew progressively louder over 5 seconds or so before the car shut off. Luckily I pulled off to the shoulder safely. The car was able to start in idle, but with severe clunking noise. I turned off the car quickly and had it towed to a large Toyota dealer. The technician was not able to determine the exact cause of the problem, but the problem was isolated to cylinder #2.

The following item was replaced under warranty:
Short Block
Gasket Kit
4 Engine O Rings
4 Fuel Injectors
Oil Gasket
Threebond 1280B (not sure what this is)
And of course filters and fluid flush

Background on my FRS:
The car was purchased in 2015 brand new. It was properly broken in, and all the oil changes/maintenance work was done on schedule at dealer. The car is currently at 78k km. The car was driven with a fair balance of city and highway driving (I work in the city with bad stop and go traffic, but also has to drive long highway distances for business trips as well)

The car has seen a couple of track-days over the past 3 years (1-2 per year) and a few autocross sessions (1-2 per year). And the incident happened more than 3 weeks after an autocross event.

There are no major mods to speak of, just a cat back exhaust (Perrin).

I got the car back a few days ago, it seems to be in proper running order.

With power-train warranty expiring soon (78k/100k). What is the out look on my FRS's future reliability? Should I sell or keep? This is my daily driver, and I do want to track/autocross the car a couple of times a year. But I probably cannot afford a major repair like this out of warranty.

Love to hear everyone's thoughts, thanks!

Interesting that they used TB1280B because the manual calls for TB1217H.

Just curious, what was your oil level like when it failed?

I would think (though I will say up front YMMV since I don't know Canadian law) there has to be some sort of warranty on the work they did to repair the engine that could be separate from, and possibly extend past the factory warranty. Read all the fine print of all of your paperwork and ask them the questions.

All machines inevitably fail, and no manufacturing process is perfect, so bad parts can and do make it through and into cars. If not, warranties wouldn't exist. But anyway, I think you should just try to drive and enjoy your car as worry free as you can. I know that's tough after already experiencing a failure while quite literally just puttin' along down the road, but if they did the repair right, you should be fine. Keep up with your maintenance and put the "is today the day?" crap out of your mind.

Now, if we're talking doing track days and that stuff, you'll do well to do some research on here and see that it doesn't hurt to do some proactive modding of the car to protect it from the hard work of a track day. Opinions and experiences differ, but I'm of the opinion that the car can't handle typical track duty in stock form (I'm not saying I'm right or the only advice you should take; as I said, read up and make your own decisions based on what you find). I'd say if you're going to track the car, make sure you equip the car with an oil cooler (there's an OEM Subaru option out there), use some 5w-30 oil, and give yourself a means of monitoring oil temp (and preferably also oil pressure) so that if temps start climbing and pressure starts dropping, you can pull out of the session and protect the car. And none of that has anything to do with you having a rebuilt engine, it's just good insurance against the extremes of track duty. Several folks have proven that the car can't just go from the showroom to the track and survive the experience. Others have proven that it indeed can survive in stock form, but the way I see it, if it's not a dedicated track car, meaning you'll need it for getting to work the next day, and if there's a chance that it could go south, you should do a few things to protect the car.

Track chatter aside, your car is back together and running fine. Don't give yourself any grey hairs fretting over whether it will fail again and just drive it. You could get T-boned by an inattentive teenager in a Highlander tomorrow, and suddenly you've got a very different problem where the engine condition doesn't even matter. You're (hopefully) not stressing out about that every day when you go to work, so don't stress about the engine.

TB1280B

what is that even? A binding agent? why would that make a difference if that's the case?

Thank you for the detailed reply. Reading over the fine print again, it does suggest the newly installed parts comes with a 24 month/40k km warranty. I will call to confirm the details

p.s. I didn't monitor the oil levels at the time. I guess I will keep an closer eye on that

Threebond is the sealant used between metal parts to ensure the engine doesn't leak oil.

This is something you need to give yourself time to do, and it takes no time at all. At least once a week after you get home from work, the car will have had plenty of time to get up to operating temp, unless work is 5 minutes away. Anyway, when you park (as long as you're not at some funky angle and it's more or less level ground) shut down and give the car 5 minutes, then check your oil level. I'm sure you can find a rag/towel and less than 10 minutes once a week to check your oil and make sure that it's within the two notches on the stick.

Could save yourself a future headache. For all you know your oil level was at or below the low point after your autocross, and you were driving the car without enough oil in the system, but one of those weeks you could have caught the issue and addressed it because you check the oil every week.

Not a lecture, just saying, you can make that time and save yourself a lot of time, money, frustration, lack of car, and stress by doing it. :cheers:

Toyota loooooves to dream up excuses to deny claims on this car. I suspect your oil level was fine or else they would have blamed you for a car that consumes unreasonable amounts of oil between regular change intervals.

I figure that if the work was done properly, that engine may be … better than new.

If you like driving the car, I'd suggest you keep it and enjoy it … :)


humfrz

It should have warranty. But if you do all your maintenance at the dealer and can prove you’re a good customer they can give you one good will and you only pay either a percent or it’s free. All depends on how they want to handle it


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They have to get it right under warranty. Don't worry, if they screw something up like cam timing, head gasket etc. it won't last long and they'll be at it again.