A sad hello....

MARTINGTI

Octane Boostaholics
Hello Everyone,

My name is Martin and I am from West Limerick. I really hoped my first post here would have been a happy one but my god did luck let me down with a bang yesterday!

To get started I bought my very first Subaru yesterday! Delighted I was! Note the word WAS!!!

The car I bought is a 2000 reg Legacy B4. Picture attached! (I hope) And I am sure some of you will know the car as it has ISDC stickers on it!

Well I bought the car yesterday in Roscommon and what an eventful drive home I had… I really don’t know where to start! Im close to tears as I type this!

I left Roscommon and headed for Limerick. And absolutely fell in love with the car on the 2 hour drive down! All was going sooo well, until I got to the Ennis bypass. Now I was not driving the car hard, I can’t stress that enough! I was at around 140kph in 5th gear when the car just died, like I clicked my fingers. I pulled straight over into the hard shoulder and rolled to a stop. Engine dead at this stage! Got out and I could see I had a lot of smoke coming from under the engine. I opened the bonnet and down under the radiator cap I had a fire! Thanks god a guy pulled in who had an extinguisher and I got it put out! Only for him I would now own a burnt shell! You can imagine how I was feeling at this stage. My lovely new car, smouldering on the hard shoulder of the motorway and destroyed with fire extinguisher dust!

To shorten the story a bit I got it loaded onto a truck and into my garage man. A well experienced Subaru man. From a quick visual inspection he can tell me that something, maybe the crankshaft, broke loose and came out through the rocket cover and was now protruding! This caused an oil leak which dripped down onto the exhaust and started the fire which also burnt some cables and a coil pack!!!!

Im just beyond shocked and sickened! I am really lost for words! He is going to get the rocket cover off today and try to get a full diagnosis of damage etc but its not sounding good at this stage.

Has this happened to anyone else? Is it anyway common? Any advice would be great!

Cheers lads,

A seriously depressed B4 owner! (for only 2 hours)!!!
 
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Sorry to hear about your troubles....
 
i own those wheels now i believe .

wow thats the second badluck story iv heard this week . of a owner breaking down within a couple of hours of ownership .

cant offer any advice
 
I didn't actually but I'd know if a car was in bad shape myself. There wasn't a knock or rattle from the engine and it ticked over lovely. My mechanic reckons it could even be something like an over torqued nut on assembly that eventually gave up and let go. No way if ever knowing it was going to happen! Will know more when he does a bit more ripping!
 
Thats the risk of Subaru ownership unfortunatly.

Where seller sold in good faith. As you sounded and drove fine?

Dave
 
Ok, forgive my lack of knowledge but this is my best explanation of what happened - A cap came off the top of a valve, the value dropped and hit the cam shaft and damaged that and the cap thing came out through the rocket cover. Something like that! Hopefully there is no piston damage but the engine has to come out now anyway for repair! :icon_cry:
 
A sad start to subaru ownership for sure. Hope you get it sorted without too much expense. Welcome anyway :thumbsup:
 
Hammie said:
Martin
Your not originally a Monaghan man are ya?

God no, never up that side!

At this stage lads I'm looking for an engine, any ideas of places that might do them etc???
 
This was my legacy that I sold to Martin . And trust me I was as shocked as he was when he rang me with the news . This car has alot of history with the ISDC an was well kept . Even before I let it go to Martin I spent a few hundred on her getting her going right . I feel bad for Martin as he was a really sound lad an like he said, neither him nor me could hav known this would happen . Me an Martin are staying in touch over this matter an I'm willing to help out in anyway I can .. My brother In law had a similar scenario with selling his wrx recently. Jesus its a bad few weeks for subarus :(
 
bull68er said:
This was my legacy that I sold to Martin . And trust me I was as shocked as he was when he rang me with the news . This car has alot of history with the ISDC an was well kept . Even before I let it go to Martin I spent a few hundred on her getting her going right . I feel bad for Martin as he was a really sound lad an like he said, neither him nor me could hav known this would happen . Me an Martin are staying in touch over this matter an I'm willing to help out in anyway I can .. My brother In law had a similar scenario with selling his wrx recently. Jesus its a bad few weeks for subarus :(

Hi Colin,

I'm looking for an engine at this stage. Mechanic reckons I could do a lot of ripping only to find out there is piston damage. Waste of a lot of labour money! Might be cheaper and hassle free to get an engine and just do a straight swap!
 
Funny that i have a thread up about Dave in jap performance in wicklow but he quoted me €690 for a b4 engine, circa 80k kms and compression garunteed...worth givin him a shout
 
:subaru:
DarrenC said:
Funny that i have a thread up about Dave in jap performance in wicklow but he quoted me €690 for a b4 engine, circa 80k kms and compression garunteed...worth givin him a shout

Hi Darren,

Tried a google search for him, have u a website or contact details?
 
mtierney5 said:
:subaru:
DarrenC said:
Funny that i have a thread up about Dave in jap performance in wicklow but he quoted me €690 for a b4 engine, circa 80k kms and compression garunteed...worth givin him a shout

Hi Darren,

Tried a google search for him, have u a website or contact details?

Was that a replacement engine all in price.

Welcome along, that is a bad luck story.

Things can only improve.
 
I found him and just spoke to him. €690 for the bare engine. No turbos etc... They do fitting too, €500 to fit! Christ it's a lot of money!
 
A bare engine should suffice, id imagine your turbos are ok

You could possibly find someone local to fit it cheaper and just collect the engine from JP on a pallet
 
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