Spun Rod Bearing Warranty Service

[Reprobate]

I'm getting caught up on all the stories about Spun Rod Bearings which is all new to me. Here is my contribution for what it may be worth.

2013 AT original owner here, no mods, no racing. My only sin was that I didn't change the oil for 12,000 miles once (yes, I know that is terrible and wont be doing that again). I also regularly do 2 quick paddle downshifts at freeway speeds, I'm not sure if that is a big deal but that's all I can think of to mention.

At 79K miles in May, I got a spun rod bearing. Luckily, Toyota has been covering it under the 100K mile extended warranty. All previous service had been done at a Toyota dealer and the last oil change was only about 2 thousand miles ago.

Toyota had it for 6 weeks and ended up comping a car rental for most of that time. There were a few set backs with the repairs and they had to take the engine out a second time because the timing was off. Without the warranty, the bill would have been about $12,000, not to mention a car rental for 6 weeks and a couple of tows. I was told that a lot of the delay was due to parts being shipped from Subaru.

I got it back, drove it a total of 80 miles over 2 days and it died on the road smelling like gas. Toyota repaired a "high pressure injectors seal and O rings". Got it back 3 days later, drove about 180 miles over 3 days and today, it died again with the smell of gas (coming from the drivers side of the engine). I will hear from Toyota tomorrow about what went wrong this time.

I love driving this car and had planned to keep it for the long haul. At this point, I'm thinking my best option is to sell it once it's "fixed" with the remaining warranty (until next July or 20,000 more miles) and basically new engine. I also put in about $800 of parts for general maintenance while they had the engine out and they didn't charge me labor.

The Mechanic Foreman at Toyota stated that 1) I should be fine to keep it (of course!) 2) He did not know this to be a common problem, and 3) I should change the oil every 3000 miles because "people that take their FR-S to the track have less problems with the engine because they are always changing their oil".

I will continue to research around here but some of my questions are:

Are the newer versions of the car considered to be significantly more reliable now?

Have they given me updated parts that actually improve reliability?

Why didn't Toyota just give me a used engine and save me and them a ton of time and labor? (My conspiracy theory is that they assigned this free warranty work to a new or less skilled mechanic).

Any feedback or thoughts are appreciated.

[HKz]

wow that is a pretty rough series of events to go through, sorry to hear :s



i assume your 2013 was an early build in which case reliability seems to really be hit or miss..but some of that is expected with an absolutely new chassis & engine platform. i had a '13 AT as well that I was banging off the redline going to work everyday and I never ran into any issues before it got totaled ^^


from my personal experience reading up on the forums & using consumer reports data, 2014-2016 (& AT '17+) do appear to have slightly better reliability while MT 2017s+ seem to have valve float issues which I don't think ever really came up prior to the MT engine updates...but keep in mind, reliability is still pretty solid overall for this platform...last year, consumer reports rated the twins as having the second best overall reliability stats out of all the non-lux cars. think you were a bit unlucky



as for their reasoning behind fixing the engine and fucking it up, not really sure but oddly enough that is a pretty common story & outcome among folks who have had to take their twins in due to engine failure..

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by Reprobate

I'm getting caught up on all the stories about Spun Rod Bearings which is all new to me. Here is my contribution for what it may be worth...…..Any feedback or thoughts are appreciated.

UGH! What a string of "bad luck" …

Ya know, with over 80,000 miles on the car and your car's history, I have a feeling that you best sell (trade in) that car and get another (maybe new) one.


humfrz

[dutchman1]

This is why a lot of people hate taking their car to dealers. Sure, dealing with the manfacturer can be nice. But you never know which tech you're gonna get, and most of them suck. There are good ones out there, but the vast majority of competent mechanics go into heavy machinery or hydraulics or something similar because that's where the money's at.


Sound like they screwed up timing, then the injector seals, and now injector seals again. The good thing is you have 20k miles warranty remaining, so if they screwed anything else up you'll find out while it's still covered. I'd keep it, to be honest.

[EddieZ2]

Looking at this thread and owning a 2013, I’m concerned with this spun bearing issue. Is there any place in the forums where this is tracked? Is it common for all FRS/86 or just earlier ones and is it coming up in stock as well as modded?

[ermax]

I just rebuilt my engine and as of now have about 120 miles on it and all is good so far. I have read about people messing up the timing on these things. I just don't get it. It is down right dummy proof. There are color coded links on the chains that line up with marked teeth on the sprockets. It isn't like a belt were they can easily slip and not be totally obvious. You can still jump a tooth on the sprockets before you release the chain tensioner but you should never turn the crank until you release the tensioner and then double check to make sure the color coded links still match up. I suspect this step is what people are failing to do. They release the tensioner and then go directly to turning the crank without double checking the links. I am a software developer not a mechanic. If I did this crap for a living I would for sure know not to make this mistake.

Long story short, sounds like the tech(s) working on your car are careless. I can see them messing up the DI seals. They are kind of a pain. When I did my DI seals I borrowed a seal tool that was made for the Miata which was much easier to use than the official Toyota tool. It took me about 6 weeks to rebuild mine too. But that was because I wasn't actively working on it the whole time. If I added up the actual time I spent on the project I would say it was a solid 10 days of work. Again, I am a software dev!

Here are the parts I ordered:
Short block
rebuild gasket kit
4 DI seals
4 DI stoppor rings
1 DI backup ring
4 OCV filters
TB1217H (from Amazon which took 4 days)

I had all of these parts the day after the order with the exception of one OCV filter. That took an additional day.

I suspect they just suck at their profession.

I wouldn't stress out too much though. Sounds like they just need to redo the DI seals again which isn't a big deal. I also suspect they ordered a shortblock so at least you know they didn't mess up the internals. The only other concern I would have is weather they properly indexed all the valve train parts so they could put them all back in the right places. This car is known to throw rocker arms so if they didn't get the valve lash right then you will be at risk.

Hang in there.

[ermax]

Originally Posted by EddieZ2

Looking at this thread and owning a 2013, I’m concerned with this spun bearing issue. Is there any place in the forums where this is tracked? Is it common for all FRS/86 or just earlier ones and is it coming up in stock as well as modded?

I know people will disagree with me but I firmly believe ALL years will run into this as they age. I say that because these problems are due to oil pressure and the oil pressure problems have not been resolved. I know there is this theory that they were blocking oil galleries with FIPG in the early builds but my engine (MY2013 built 11/2012) had no blockage yet it still spun #3. #2 and #3 share an single feed off the crank where as #1 and #4 have dedicated feeds off the crank. Compound that with the fact that these engines have shit oil pressure and you're bound to spin 2 or 3. All 4 of my bearings looked seriously worn though, it was only a matter of time. I've opened up cars with way more miles than mine and the bearings were spotless. I think there is a misconception about rod/main bearings. They aren't actually the bearings. Think of the bearings as shims that are there to create the proper clearance for a perfect layer of oil (the actual bearing). If you have proper oiling then the bearings never make contact with anything other than on cold starts.

[EddieZ2]

I believe your on the right track with all of these engines have a problem. Fantastic work on that engine by the way. If there’s so many engines crapping out due to oil pressure perhaps this issue should be taken up via a legal avenue. I’ve driven numerous big block, small block high performance engines and they’ve been driven daily and a few really beaten on the 1/4 mile. Never had a bearing or oil issue. Now at work, we had a Dodge. The bearings crapped. It was directly due to bad oil pressure due to fowling caused by the engine getting too hot and cooking the oil. Dodge knew about it and after having all sorts of Dodge techs come in from out of town, they rebuilt the engine. I’m looking for more of either a recall, notice to owners or a TSB with engine rebuild to address an obvious flaw in engine design. I may be reaching here but Subaru, who builds these things, needs to admit and address they have issues. There’s lots of people that put out many $ that have no mods and the engine crapped. Sure there’s some good happy endings out there but this shouldn’t be happening for the $ spent. These aren’t Yugos.

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by EddieZ2

Looking at this thread and owning a 2013, I’m concerned with this spun bearing issue. Is there any place in the forums where this is tracked? Is it common for all FRS/86 or just earlier ones and is it coming up in stock as well as modded?

Hi ya, EddieZ2 ….

I'm ah feared that you are worrying about something you have little control over, as long as you keep oil in the engine.

I suggest you just drive the car and enjoy it … if it spins a bearing, deal with it at that time. If you can't stop worrying about a spun bearing, sell the car.

I would speculate that if you had never joined this forum … you wouldn't be thinking about this now …


humfrz

[EddieZ2]

Originally Posted by humfrz

Hi ya, EddieZ2 ….

I'm ah feared that you are worrying about something you have little control over, as long as you keep oil in the engine.

I suggest you just drive the car and enjoy it … if it spins a bearing, deal with it at that time. If you can't stop worrying about a spun bearing, sell the car.

I would speculate that if you had never joined this forum … you wouldn't be thinking about this now …


humfrz

Yes but now I know..... Toyota/Subaru sells cars with free anxiety installed.

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by EddieZ2

Yes but now I know..... Toyota/Subaru sells cars with free anxiety installed.

Heck, all mechanical things sold come with free anxiety installed … that don't mean you have to take them up on their free offer ….


humfrz

[EddieZ2]

Originally Posted by humfrz

Heck, all mechanical things sold come with free anxiety installed … that don't mean you have to take them up on their free offer ….


humfrz

[Reprobate]

Originally Posted by Reprobate

I got it back, drove it a total of 80 miles over 2 days and it died on the road smelling like gas. Toyota repaired a "high pressure injectors seal and O rings". Got it back 3 days later, drove about 180 miles over 3 days and today, it died again with the smell of gas (coming from the drivers side of the engine). I will hear from Toyota tomorrow about what went wrong this time.

Thanks for all of the feedback, well wishes and information. It turns out that it was the same problem again but a different injector seal and O ring. They are taking more time to test drive it and I should get it back tomorrow. I'm told that they don't know why this is happening. The only theory is that the seals are defective.

[ermax]

Originally Posted by Reprobate

Thanks for all of the feedback, well wishes and information. It turns out that it was the same problem again but a different injector seal and O ring. They are taking more time to test drive it and I should get it back tomorrow. I'm told that they don't know why this is happening. The only theory is that the seals are defective.

The seals are $3 each. I don’t know why they wouldn’t have replaced all 4 of them in the first place. I seriously doubt they got defective seals. They are just hard to install without damaging them. You can damage them putting them on the injector and then you can damage them when putting the injectors back into the heads. I did a dry compression and leak down on mine before putting the rest of the engine back together to be sure I didn’t damage a seal when putting it back in the head.