Smoking Subrau

[20VTurboJetta]

My wife has a 2003 Forester. I would post this in a Forester group but I don't think one exists. Anyway, from day one her car has been smoking. It drips this greasy crisco like substance on the exhaust and it smokes. It has been going on for about 1,000 miles. The dealer says it is "normal" but used some degreaser to clean the engine up a bit. It is getting better but it still smokes from time to time. Did your WRX smoke when new? If so how long did it take for you to burn off all of the grease?

[gryphon]

I know they use a greasy substance to prevent salt-water corrosion on the trip overseas. That may be it.

[20VTurboJetta]

Did yours smoke for the first 1,000 miles or so?

[bedabi]

My WRX has never smoked in the 25,000 miles I've driven it.

I've smoked Winston lights for at least 10,000 of those miles.

[turbonick]

Originally posted by gryphon
I know they use a greasy substance to prevent salt-water corrosion on the trip overseas. That may be it.

hmm, I've never heard that before. That would sure explain why my intercooler end tanks are "tacky" to the touch. I couldn't figure out why the heck it was sticky, but now I know.

[gryphon]

Mine didn't smoke, but some people have had that issue. I guess it just depends on how much they put on and how much the dealership takes off (if any!)

[thechickencow]

My car smelled for the first ~250 miles, if that helps. I'm not sure if there was smoke, but it smelled like something was burning.

[Pug]

The Forester forum on Edmunds might have some answers for you. I'd take it to another dealer for a 2nd opinion though.

[20VTurboJetta]

Thanks for the help guys! I brough the car back in for a 3rd time and it turns out that it was leaking. My wife went to pick it up today and they said they couldn't believe that it was leaking oil from _________ (I will fill in the blank when I have the paperwork that tells me. My wife wasn't sure what it was called) The said that they have not seen a Subaru with under 100k miles on it with the same problem.... not off to a good start. I hope this is the only problem we have with the car. We went to Subrau to get away from all of the VW problems we have had.

[Retro]

Hehe, I can't believe the number of VW people (myself included) that went to Subaru to get away from the continuous VW problems. It's not that VW was a death trap (it's actually quite sturdy), but it became a pita waiting for the next little thing to break.

It doesn't seem that lots of little things on the Subaru break, but it does seem that some more important things go wrong, or it lasts forever. Oh well, you just can't win.

[gryphon]

Hmm... I wonder what it uses that is a greasy crisco-type substance? That is really odd... what color was it?