Oil Starvation a Known Design Flaw?

[new2subaru]

Originally Posted by 7 skulls

My anxiety is loving this thread. How hot is too hot? No one knows. How low is too low? No one knows. Too hot bad/too low bad.
Walking out to the garage now to open the box on my oil cooler, unpacking it piece by piece, looking at the aluminum An10 wrenches I bought, rattling the packages of flare savers, maybe this is the year I actually install. Or maybe not. Is worrying about oil leaks worth the cooler oil?
Ok back to worrying about aftermarket camber bolts.

One owner chiming in to say I have had "not-one-single-problem" and it's seen some track.





Where's the knock on wood emoji? Oh, here it is...

[MuseChaser]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

I have read many car forums and participated on 3 but have never seen such a group of guys that seemingly go out of their way to find things to worry about as the crowd on here. This continuous quest for problems goes back well before the recall so people can't even say that they have a right to be worried. They will totally disregard stories like this yet fall in line to support some guy that spun a bearing but didn't even bother to check his oil for a year.

The corollary, of course, is that I've owned a LARGE amount of vehicles in my life, and taken almost every one of them over 200K miles. This is the first car that hasn't made it to 100K because of engine issues. There is that. I don't go looking for problems.. this one found me.

[MuseChaser]

Originally Posted by DarkPira7e

Have you been on the E36 section of Bimmerforums?

I had an E36 and miss it terribly... salt ate it. Best driving, most reliable car, and best bang for the buck I've ever purchased. Never NEEDED to find a forum for it.

[ermax]

Originally Posted by MuseChaser

I had an E36 and miss it terribly... salt ate it. Best driving, most reliable car, and best bang for the buck I've ever purchased. Never NEEDED to find a forum for it.

Ah. So I bet you are one of those super ridiculous people that find the dip annoying.

[MuseChaser]

Originally Posted by ermax

Ah. So I bet you are one of those super ridiculous people that find the dip annoying.

Not in the least, on any count. Just curious why you wrote that? I'm all stock, and have always enjoyed driving my FRS very much. Only issue has been the recent engine/recall mess. I've routinely and glowingly praised the car here in many threads over the years. Can't a guy love two (or more) cars?

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by MuseChaser

The corollary, of course, is that I've owned a LARGE amount of vehicles in my life, and taken almost every one of them over 200K miles. This is the first car that hasn't made it to 100K because of engine issues. There is that. I don't go looking for problems.. this one found me.

Wasn't you I was talking about really. It is the guys that are paranoid of every little click or squeak and feel that catastrophic failure is inevitable instead of the rarity.

[PWBRZ]

Just another one chiming in - totally stock engine and have tracked many times, including a few 100+ degree days at Buttonwillow and have no issues or problems. My only complaint would be that the recall is mandatory in CA.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[max20s14]

Theres a link to the OA I had done looked fine:

silicon: 19
Magnesium was high but they didn't mention it : 783
Iron: 9

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=122925

[poisonsnak]

I just signed up to post in this thread, because I have to agree with the title. I'm pretty sure I spun a rod bearing with 56,000 km (about 35k mi) on the engine. I have not had the valve spring recall done, and I don't think it applies to my car.

I did this to my Supra by running it low on oil, so on my BRZ I have changed the oil every 6 months (about 6000km or 3500mi), used Mobil 1 0W20 and the black Tokyo Roki oil filter. I checked the oil every Saturday morning and it has never been below the 3/4 mark on the dipstick.

It's a 2014 so I don't think it would have the bearing packing issue. The car has never been tracked or autocrossed, it's my DD, I admit that I sometimes drive like a maniac, but as a DD it does spend probably 95% of its life around 2000 rpm.

I've owned it since new and the car was 2 days older than 5 years when it happened, it was on a Saturday night so by the time I could contact Subaru it was 4 days past. Subaru Canada and my dealer both pretty much told me to f--- off. They also (both!) basically told me that unless you have your car in at the dealership for service at least once a year, even if it's within the 5 year warranty they are going to find a way to void it anyway. I did all my own scheduled maintenance and oil changes, kept all my receipts.

Took it to a shop I trust (the guys who replaced the engine in my Supra...) and they sourced a used engine from a wrecker to get me up and running, total cost was about $5500 CAD installed. So for those of you in my situation, looking at these short block costs scared, find a good independent mechanic. As a side note, my mechanic had a heck of a time finding that engine. He made that comment to the wrecker. The wrecker said "I know. I guess they didn't make many of these cars, so I don't get many in, and as soon as I do, I have someone calling me wanting the engine out of it"

They let me keep the old engine so I will be taking it apart in my spare time to confirm the issue. If anyone has any requests I'd be happy to comply, but it will take me a fair while to do I think. I also know this is my first post and the story is a bit unbelievable, if you guys really want I can post my receipt from the mechanic or a pic of my old engine in the back of my pickup right now or something

[ermax]

Nah, it’s not unbelievable at all. These cars eat bearings. Sorry Subaru screwed you. Back in the day they didn’t void warranties because you changed your own oil. Such a scam. Car guys refuse to let others change their oil and it never crosses our mind that we are voiding our warranty. They may as well put a sticker over the drain plug warning that you are voiding your warranty it you remove the plug.

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by ermax

Nah, it’s not unbelievable at all. These cars eat bearings. Sorry Subaru screwed you. Back in the day they didn’t void warranties because you changed your own oil. Such a scam. Car guys refuse to let others change their oil and it never crosses our mind that we are voiding our warranty. They may as well put a sticker over the drain plug warning that you are voiding your warranty it you remove the plug.

So, are you saying that if we change the oil in our own oil and keep the receipts for the oil and filter purchase and document in writing when and where the oil and filter were changed, a dealer may not honor the warranty if the engine has an oil related failure?





humfrz

[Ultramaroon]

I think it's just build quality versus cost effective manufacturing tolerances. Maybe I've already posted in this thread and forgot but I know plenty of people that beat the piss out of theirs and daily them. UOA says "meh." At least mine does.

[OwlDance]

Question, has anyone had a UOA predict a long term sign of failure? As far as I can tell there are plenty of failures just end up "happening." Few people also talk about how they drive besides a base adjective like "spirited" or "babied" or what have you, though it's understandable not everyone would be running telemetry like a maniac, and I've yet to see previous mentions of UOAs in failure threads.

Most of the UOA reports I've read here mostly boil down to "X is a little high but everything looks great despite track/autox/ extremely high oil temperatures/low oil pressures, go for [more than manufacturer recommended 7500 miles]." It's hard (for my untrained eye anyways) to get a clear picture of what are the safe limits of the car under most circumstances. It's also disconcerting to hear people who have tracked their car without oil coolers and have thus far been totally fine.

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by OwlDance

Most of the UOA reports I've read here mostly boil down to "X is a little high but everything looks great despite track/autox/ extremely high oil temperatures/low oil pressures, go for [more than manufacturer recommended 7500 miles]." It's hard (for my untrained eye anyways) to get a clear picture of what are the safe limits of the car under most circumstances. It's also disconcerting to hear people who have tracked their car without oil coolers and have thus far been totally fine.

That's because failures happen between UOAs. Friends of mine run a lemons car with a sub-par v8. They just replaced the inserts, gave the crank a quick once-over with some sandpaper, and started taking samples at every event. IIRC, it's been like


trace metals
trace metals
trace metals
copper through the roof
bang


I think they have it down to where they can catch it in time.