Potential Cause of rumored GR86’s blown engine? Seal packing(RTV) was peeled off

[Angrypuppy]

Going to throw this here as a place holder. 2022 BRZ, oil change with metal found at 3,900 miles at dealer. Dealer dropped pan and says bearing failure.

Waiting on word if it will be covered by warranty.

More to story, but that’s it for now.

[FrickingReallySlow]

Sorry to hear that dude, hope you get straightened out.

what do you guys think about this theory for early bearing failure: Engine break in for first ~1000miles generates a bunch of metal in the oil. Buyers happen to do this in the winter time and cold starts open the bypass valve for a short period of time every morning which lets a small amount of metal into the oil passages. Bearing wear begins and once the smooth wear layer is gone its just a matter of time before you get spun...Opinions?

Originally Posted by Angrypuppy

Going to throw this here as a place holder. 2022 BRZ, oil change with metal found at 3,900 miles at dealer. Dealer dropped pan and says bearing failure.

Waiting on word if it will be covered by warranty.

More to story, but that’s it for now.

[Angrypuppy]

Originally Posted by FrickingReallySlow

Sorry to hear that dude, hope you get straightened out.

what do you guys think about this theory for early bearing failure: Engine break in for first ~1000miles generates a bunch of metal in the oil. Buyers happen to do this in the winter time and cold starts open the bypass valve for a short period of time every morning which lets a small amount of metal into the oil passages. Bearing wear begins and once the smooth wear layer is gone its just a matter of time before you get spun...Opinions?

I changed oil at 1,000 miles.

[AndyRC]

Does anyone know what the split is between engine failures on Manual and Automatic transmissions? Reason I ask is from what I understand there are far more Automatics than Manuals sold in US / Canada and the Auto has more ability to control Maximum RPM and prevent a Money Shift , if that is the/a cause?

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by FrickingReallySlow

Sorry to hear that dude, hope you get straightened out.

what do you guys think about this theory for early bearing failure: Engine break in for first ~1000miles generates a bunch of metal in the oil. Buyers happen to do this in the winter time and cold starts open the bypass valve for a short period of time every morning which lets a small amount of metal into the oil passages. Bearing wear begins and once the smooth wear layer is gone its just a matter of time before you get spun...Opinions?

None of the oil analysis show any elevated metals or other signs of abnormal wear.
If you have enough break in metal in the oil to cause damage something went horribly wrong in the manufacturing process. I mean really, REALLY, wrong! Break in metals are on an almost microscopic level.
Cold start bypass applies all year round not just in winter. It refers to engine not ambient temperatures. Most failures to date have been in hot weather. The wear metals are introduced after the filter anyway so they will always exist in the system someplace before being filtered. This is the same in all new engines.
This does bring up the possibility of bad bearings but with what we know I would place that way way down the probability list.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by AndyRC

Does anyone know what the split is between engine failures on Manual and Automatic transmissions? Reason I ask is from what I understand there are far more Automatics than Manuals sold in US / Canada and the Auto has more ability to control Maximum RPM and prevent a Money Shift , if that is the/a cause?

Very little data on that but we know that at least two were ATs. Even having just one AT fail is enough to eliminate over rev as the single or even a major cause. It certainly could be a contributing factor in some but the database can be skewed since MT drivers may push the cars a little harder or be the majority that are tracked.
The other related data point we are missing for most of these failures is what driving was being done when the failure occurred. I haven't dug but to the best of my memory all cases where we do have details were tracked cars with no reported failures on the street. I will need to go back and confirm that.
Let's keep in mind that we have very little detailed info on most of these failures. The majority just say "engine broked". The numbers also get confused by the many pictures and videos of people showing the clogged pickups but they didn't have a failure. There are about twice as many of those as detailed failures!

[arjunkc]

Originally Posted by Angrypuppy

Going to throw this here as a place holder. 2022 BRZ, oil change with metal found at 3,900 miles at dealer. Dealer dropped pan and says bearing failure.

Waiting on word if it will be covered by warranty.

More to story, but that’s it for now.

Any tracking/autocross in those 3900 miles? Any money shifts?

[Ernest72]

Just have to wait and see. I remember with the EJ and Mobil 1 5w30 spun bearing issues there were virtually no AT that blew. But the 4eat had no manual mode. The AT in the twins has a manual mode so far easier to hit higher rpm’s on purpose or by accident.

And then there were people who used dyno oil 5w30 and went 200k miles of hard driving on an EJ, so who knows.

[Robertw]

Bad batch of bearings? We'll probably never know what was going on.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Ernest72

Just have to wait and see. I remember with the EJ and Mobil 1 5w30 spun bearing issues there were virtually no AT that blew. But the 4eat had no manual mode. The AT in the twins has a manual mode so far easier to hit higher rpm’s on purpose or by accident.

And then there were people who used dyno oil 5w30 and went 200k miles of hard driving on an EJ, so who knows.

Even in manual mode the AT will not do an over rev downshift.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Robertw

Bad batch of bearings? We'll probably never know what was going on.

Possible. Very very remote but possible.

[Ultramaroon]

Should ask ichi to change the title.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Ultramaroon

Should ask ichi to change the title.

Some is thought out. You may not agree with the thoughts but doesn’t make it wild speculation. Just speculation.

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Some is thought out. You may not agree with the thoughts but doesn’t make it wild speculation. Just speculation.

Some of it is backed with experience. Some is just...