Powertrain Durability/ Longetivty

[regal]

Being a Toyota owner with a Yaris. I kind of expected this car to have the typical Toyota/Honda engine life.

I was in the market for an econo-car when clash for clunkers was going and bought a new '09 Yaris, been following this guy:

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2010/...le_cars/5.html

Basically just changed the oil with Walmart Synthetic every 4k miles and now he has a 400k mile engine with good compression. Its kind of expected with Toyota.

I'm not worried about the Azin gearbox at all, or the torsen rear diff.


But this car's engine is really Subaru. I don't have a lot of knowledge about Subaru as far as long term durability, I've heard it can be amazing with the natural balance of the horizontally opposed, but I also hear complaints of Subaru boxer engines in general with track racers. One track racing member here has reported already going through two engines.

I've wanted a lightweight rwd coupe for years so jumped on the FR-S last labor day breaking my rule to never buy a first year model . Mines been fine except for the CEL reflash, but I plan on keeping it I long time.


Researching Subaru boxers in general finding threads like these pop up:

http://www.trackhq.com/forums/f2/pro...08/index2.html

Googling I'm finding that hardcore track guys seem to have very mixed opinions on Subaru boxers.

On the other hand, we have a vendor here with over 400hp turbo on the stock long block which is encouraging. We have folks tuning the redline to 8k supposedly successfully.

Nothing public has been announced as far as quality tweaks/improvements for the 2014 which is Good.

We are at the one year mark now and should have some indication whether this boxer is going to be a bullet proof workhorse or a troublesome first year design.

Would like to hear opinions from others.

[Justin.b]

I believe the hardcore track guys can have issues because of oil starvation. I'm not sure if that's because the horizontal engine's oil drainage gets messed up under high-g turns or if it could be solved with a better oil pan with baffles.

In any case, there's really no way to judge the long-term reliability of this motor yet since it hasn't been around long enough for anyone to have any idea how well it will live through 100k miles put on as they would be on a normal street car.

I have to think that if it is oiling issues, they can be solved. It will probably be an aftermarket solution, but there will be a solution of some sort.

-Justin

[Rayme]

From what I've seen. NA subie engines are great as long as the headgaskets don't leak. I see alot of subarus with close to 180 000 miles for sale.

[Mikem53]

Too early to tell about the longevity of the FA20..
I'm not too concerned.. As Toyota had its hand in the development of the car and owns a large share of Fuji heavy industries..
The scion brand was started to attract young and new buyers.. So Toyota knows that reliability and dependability is crucial to the scion lineup and its success..
So I would rest easy knowing that the big T had its hand in the development and is over seeing production..

[Lonewolf]

All speculation at this point...no one knows how durable these motors will be if left N/A...

[FRiSson]

It is a new engine, or mostly new, so longevity is an unknown. However, both Toyota and Subaru's have excellent track records on longevity. Turbocharging or supercharging the engine will definitely reduce the life.