Engine Reliability

C

Colm Mc

Sunday Drivers
I went to my local friendly Jap Import Specialist on Saturday to see if he had anything interesting in stock. This guy has been in the business for 20yrs or more & he tells me that they don’t sell Imprezas anymore because of the amount of warrantee claims he has had to deal with for blown engines.

There are a lot of things that could cause a turbo’d engine to fail: mapping, poor maintenance, not warming up or cooling down, using low octane fuel, revving the nuts off the engine etc. But what this guy is saying ties in with a lot of ads I’ve seen for classic STi’s & P1’s. A lot of them have rebuilt engines on cars that have relatively low mileage. It seems once the 2.0L unit is putting out over 250bhp it can get very fussy about how its ran.

So, after all that, I’m back to looking for the lower powered Irish/UK market WRX (225bhp) rather than the higher output STi (270bhp+). The way I’m thinking is that the WRX engine isn’t working as hard & so should run with less issues?

What do ye reckon???
 
The reason why a lot of dealers have warranty claims in Ireland is because you have lads coming from Hondas and similar cars, getting into Imprezas and driving them on the limiter as if they were still in Hondas. Theres no need for it in a turbo car. If you buy one and its mapped, treated accordingly and serviced as it should be then there should be relatively few problems IMO.

If you are on the look out for a car the best place to look is in our For Sale section. Some bargains to be had these days. :thumbsup:
 
I think you're spot on there, Turbo'd cars dont need to be rev'd hard to extract the power. But fellas will do it regardless!!

Ive read so many stories of blown STi engines that its really putting me off the JDM stuff.

Im scanning the for sale section here regularly, Im still at the research stage though. I hope to buy in the next few months, but Im not in a rush to buy, cos Ive lots to keep me entertained with the car Im running at the mo :smile:
 
As someone who has only aquired an sti over the weekend, i can understand what your saying. its enough to be investing in a new car without wondering why a car whose engine was only re-built 2k or 3k miles ago is being sold on already, and why was it re-built in the first place? and if you buy a car that hasn't been re-built, is the engine fooked??
What I done is had a drive of a few cars with all sorts of history for comparison. I found that if an engine was re-built there was a reason behind it, bad fuel, not serviced or had the ring drove out of the car. and even freshly rebuilt engines didnt feel as they should.
I found a nice sti for sale on this site that was well maintained, never abused or re-built and christ it goes better than any i've driven previously. as mark said, if its been cared for and driven the way its meant to and not like a v-tech you'll be fine. :thumbsup:
 
Hmm, this is my second WRX and I can still say I dont trust the engine. I am what you consider a sunday driver. Its the very very rare time that i blow off the cobwebs for a rip up the road and back but i can honestly say i dont think i could ever trust them. My first WRX the bottom end went but this one has given nothing more than age problems but am still very warey. I think it mainly down to the layout of the boxer engine and poor distribution of oil but thats just my 2cents worth.
I reckon if i had money to invest in the car i would go with a larger oil cooler and a baffled sump and a decent prayer :subaru:
 
this question comes up so frequently as regards to scoobys,i took my version 4 in 3 years ago from japan,a week later the dreeded knock came along,honestly think it was filled with gear oil in japland,anyway 3years on i can say since the engine was done it has been run on e5 99octane,it isnt mapped and i can say i havnt had any problems since ,thank god,love scoobys but it does seem to be a common fault,but i honestly think its due to neglagence. :subaru:
 
ej20inside said:
this question comes up so frequently as regards to scoobys,i took my version 4 in 3 years ago from japan,a week later the dreeded knock came along,honestly think it was filled with gear oil in japland,anyway 3years on i can say since the engine was done it has been run on e5 99octane,it isnt mapped and i can say i havnt had any problems since ,thank god,love scoobys but it does seem to be a common fault,but i honestly think its due to neglagence. :subaru:
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Oil is cheap, engine rebuilds aren't! Its worth changing it early & often :thumbsup:
 
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