Subaru trying to deny my warranty please help!

[Jordan Silveira]

Hey there FT86 family,

Admittedly, I have been holding back from writing this because I feel like an idiot for even finding myself in this predicament and more so, because I undoubtedly expect some people to doubt my story that I know as truth. Not to mention, the internet is full of those who take joy in watching others pitfalls. Anyways, here it goes. I am looking for any help, support, advice, or knowledge that can help me get out of this situation as intact as possible. I have been in major stress since Monday and figure it’s worth taking a shot seeing what type of responses this post will garner.


I bought a 2016 BRZ Series.Hyperblue for 2,000 off MSRP from Subaru of Glendale with 193 miles on it. I was told the car would still maintain all factory and manufacturer warranties (which still seems to be the case). However, I was sold the car as used. I was told the car was an unwind vehicle and while being asked to keep this information quiet, the car was purchased by a salesman in order to hit the monthly sales quota and then unwound. Unfortunately, upon purchasing the car something with this story seemed to be shifty as from what I know now, that all may be true but there also seems to be an owner who purchased the car in late January. Anyways, I dismissed it because the car ran perfectly and rest assured, I had manufacturer warranties if anything was seriously wrong. With that said, I had driven the car with absolutely no issues for three months until I took the car to be tinted and upon picking up my car, the car failed to start. I tried everything from forum searching, to attempting to jump start the car, and to no avail, nothing worked. The vehicle had full electricity from alarms, stereo, lights, etc. However, the engine would not turn over (crank). The steering wheel was locked and I was being shown a blinking immobilizer light on my cluster. In conjunction with this, when I would press on the clutch it would recognize my key fob was in range (per the light on the cluster). Finally, I gave up and had the car towed to Puente Hills Subaru {PHS} (Subaru Roadside wouldn’t assist so Geico was my only option and they towed the car to the nearest dealer).


From this point, I initially received a call from a service advisor at PHS stating that my ECU was producing readings (ignition count, etc.) with all values indicating “0”. He then told me he had not seen anything like this and that despite the unusual circumstance he would keep “prodding”. However, before he let me go he asked if I had ever “tuned or flashed” my car. I told him no because to my knowledge the vehicle never had been. I know at the very least I for sure did nothing of the sort. The next day I received a call from the Service Manager at PHS asking me for a full detailed history of the car and I gladly obliged telling him everything from the time I bought it up until it arrived on their lot. At that point, he told me he noticed the tint stickers saying the windows should not be rolled down and I confirmed the car head been tinted the day it stopped working. He then told me either I or the tint shop was being dishonest (insinuating I was lying) and that according to him my car had been “flashed or tuned” with a “2015 STi profile using a COBB Accessport”. He then proceeded to tell me that was the reason my car would not start because the ECU was locked up with a profile it didn’t recognize. After staunchly denying his allegations, he told me he had already spoken with a Subaru of America technician to have my car flagged as modified for this alleged “flash or tune”. He then told me I had two options, to find this accessport that my car was married to, or pay for a new ECU as my warranty would be denied for this repair and more than likely any other future engine or powertrain problems should they arise.


I then went to the place where my car was tinted and sat with the owner for upwards of an hour and a half watching surveillance footage of my car from the time I dropped it off to the moment the car was towed away. During this time, I could find no time where foul play could be insinuated. Moreover, I called the service manager who wrongly accused me and told him what I was currently doing and that I would like some proof of his alleged claims. He told me that he could do so as soon as I decided to pay for the service or towed the car off of their lot. He then told me he had “9 minutes to get to a meeting across the street” the moment myself or the owner of the tint shop wanted to speak with him. All he did was reaffirm his allegations that my car was tuned with the aforementioned “2015 STi profile using the COBB accessport”. He also claimed that this would have had to been done to the car right before it’s mechanical/electrical failure based on his ECU readings printout of all zero’s for the values listed. Later in the day, the service manager called me to tell me that he was mistaken in his allegations regarding the “2015 STi profile/COBB Accessport” but that he remained steadfast in his claims that my car was “tuned or flashed” but that upon further research with a Subaru of America technician my car was producing these zero readings with the profile of a 2015 BRZ and that the calibration ID’s and numbers were not matching the VIN of the vehicle. He then told me he found two previous owners on the history of the car prior to me (an owner who originally purchased the car in late January, and “one of those Glendale names” (WOW prejudice much?!?!). I told him I had no idea and never did anything he was claiming. He told me frankly it didn’t matter what I was claiming because he had proof saying otherwise and regardless of whether or not I did it, the “tune/flash” whenever it occurred would still allow denial of my warranty repair and a “flagging” of my vehicle for future servicing needs. I then was asked by the same guy to deliver my second key as he was going to try and make the car operate/run with the current profile system of a 2015 BRZ. I then obliged and gave him the key and during my time there he showed me a printout of my vehicle and readings with values of “0” while also showing me what it would otherwise look like by comparing my readings with other customer’s readings of the day. He even went so far to tell me that he had seen so many people come in pleading for mercy and bailout and that Subaru of America would even sometimes provide up to 75% of the repair costs if they would just come clean on the alleged modifications. I told him I had nothing to come clean about because I honestly did nothing to the vehicle. He then told me he would be rich if he had a dime for every time someone lied to his face about modifying their vehicle. He then told me he would try his best to get the car working on its current situation but couldn’t guarantee me anything because of the alleged “tune/flash”.


I then opened up a case with Subaru of America detailing the aforementioned events for the gross lack of professionalism, wrongful persecution despite my staunch denial of his allegations, amongst many other issues. I was then told they would look into the matter and within the next day I received a call from the Service Manager asking if his conversation with a Subaru of America regarding my displeasure of the case was accurate and I told him yes. He then told me to come pick my car up and tow it away indicating he was refusing service to my car from here on out. I called SoA and they told me they gave absolutely no directive for such measures to refuse service but that all authorized Subaru Retailers were independently owned and could do as they wished regarding service but that they would note this on my case and further investigate. The story goes on and on but rather than elaborate on an already longer series of events than most will even read through, as it currently stands my car is still in PHS’s service lot and starting next week SoA will be sending a warranty/district rep to inspect and investigate all the findings and determine if whether or not my car will be covered by warranty for this repair and going forward if indeed the Service Manager’s allegations are true.


In short, I am wondering if any of you who have stuck around long enough to read this would have any idea if any of his allegations are even possible, if you have any advice to save me from what seems to be the inevitable consequences for something I did not do, or any other further information/comments.


Thank you so much,


Jordan

[Initial_RD]

Wow, long read. But good info.

First it was very unprofessional of the service manager to assume you did something without any proof. He even said it himself that there were previous owner(s). It could've been them that did that.

My advice: go back and talk to the the guy/dealer you bought this from and confront them. Chances are he lied to you about the vehicle history simply because he wanted to make a sale. Since you were sold the vehicle as "used" with 193 miles on it, you should buy a carfax report and see if there's any history w/ the vehicle that you're not aware of.

From your story, I'm assuming the first owner probably tried to do a COBB flash of the ECU, even though COBB doesn't support the BRZ platform as of yet.

With the vehicle being relatively new still, I'd open a case with the BBB if Subaru denies you full warranty. Also, you could talk to the local news station where you were denied service from that dealership. Bad press is always bad for business.

Lastly, if you're planning to modify your car heavily in the future, then I would just pay for the new ECU reflash and get on with life. Most mods you do to the car will pretty much void the warranty anyways. Enthusiasts know this when we do major installs (like turbo etc) and we pretty much kiss our warranties good bye the minute we take the car off the lot.

[Initial_RD]

In the meantime, your priority should be getting your car up and running again. And having the ECU recognize your key fob should be top of your list.

Get the ECU fixed at a different Subi dealership (pay 'em if you have to) and from there continue working your warranty coverage issue w/ SOA.

[ZionsWrath]

Sucks bro but nothing we can do to help at this point. If the Subaru guy comes and says the car wont be covered under warranty then post back. But it sounds like its a shit dealer and subaru is looking to take care of you if your story is true.

I contacted SoA once when dealer said i was not allowed to wait for a warranty repair and they offered to pay me a rental vehicle. Hope it works out for you.

[Jordan Silveira]

Thank you! It just seems very unlikely to me that someone would try and flash or tune a car with such little mileage, I don't know it just doesn't seem plausible! I tried explaining to the service manager that any electrical device that is responsible for tracking metadata in numerical values (such as my ECU, calculator, clock, etc.) if it defaulted to just zero's that would indicate to me at least it was faulty or malfunctioned. He completely dismissed that and said that it couldn't be any of that if it was still producing those readings.

[ZionsWrath]

If they do continue to try and deny based on it being tuned or flashed. Ask them how they know and ask them if they checked that before the car was certified used. If not how can they definitively say it was you? Thats a big reason i didnt tune my car though my warranty is about done and id probably be denied at this point anyway. Maybe next year.

[Sportsguy83]

I am fairly certain a BRZ ECU CANNOT be flashed with COBB, because as part of the flashing protocol, the Accesport will identify the ECU and will determine if it's compatible with the tune and it would NOT allow it to be flashed.

BRZ ECUs are not able to be flashed by Cobb accesport. It's a really weird situation honestly.

[YMAA]

Originally Posted by Sportsguy83

I am fairly certain a BRZ ECU CANNOT be flashed with COBB, because as part of the flashing protocol, the Accesport will identify the ECU and will determine if it's compatible with the tune and it would NOT allow it to be flashed.

BRZ ECUs are not able to be flashed by Cobb accesport. It's a really weird situation honestly.

This. I would send the Cobb people an email and ask specifically what would happen if someone hooked up an Accessport to a BRZ ECU. If it's not even possible from a technical standpoint, I'd say you have your evidence that:

1) You cannot have an AP married to your ECU because an AP CANNOT be married to a BRZ's ECU
2) Because point 1 above is true, you clearly cannot flash a tune with an AP onto a BRZ

[Jordan Silveira]

@Sportsguy83 @YMAA


As for the COBB stuff, the service manager called me later in the same day to say he was inaccurate and upon speaking with a SoA technician about the readings, it was a 2015 BRZ profile and that the calibration ID/numbers were off which is why he still claims the car was "tuned/flashed"

[Initial_RD]

Originally Posted by Jordan Silveira

@Sportsguy83 @YMAA


As for the COBB stuff, the service manager called me later in the same day to say he was inaccurate and upon speaking with a SoA technician about the readings, it was a 2015 BRZ profile and that the calibration ID/numbers were off which is why he still claims the car was "tuned/flashed"

Wow, this service manager should be fired from his job. How is he still employed even after giving FALSE information to customers? From everything you've told us thus far I honestly think he has no clue what he's doing and he's just spitting out garbage before 'verifying' his claims.

[Jordan Silveira]

Originally Posted by Initial_RD

Wow, this service manager should be fired from his job. How is he still employed even after giving FALSE information to customers? From everything you've told us thus far I honestly think he has no clue what he's doing and he's just spitting out garbage before 'verifying' his claims.

Well I won't give him the slightest bit of attention by blasting his name but naturally, searching through PHS's staff would tell you quickly who I'm referring to. Believe me I plan on making business an annoying venture once I am officially done dealing with PHS.

[XanRules]

Originally Posted by Jordan Silveira

Well I won't give him the slightest bit of attention by blasting his name but naturally, searching through PHS's staff would tell you quickly who I'm referring to. Believe me I plan on making business an annoying venture once I am officially done dealing with PHS.

Putting this online for all to see under your government name while all this is going on is a bad look, my dude.

[Jordan Silveira]

Originally Posted by XanRules

Putting this online for all to see under your government name while all this is going on is a bad look, my dude.

Believe me I thought about that many times ahead of even posting to start. However, I am not sure the harm it will cause me considering all I've said is the actual truth (to my knowledge) and a real accurate timeline of events that have occurred.

[XanRules]

I'm not worried about the veracity of the overall story, I'm talking about your pledge to make their lives difficult regardless. Bad look in my opinion, is all.