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2015 WRX Blown motor at 39,000 Miles

23K views 41 replies 15 participants last post by  DGMWRX_72 
#1 ·
Hello everyone,
I am new to this Forum, I am seeing if anyone else has blown their FA20DIT? I was driving on the highway around 60MPH went to pass a car and then the ticking started. I made it to an off ramp and that's when it blew. The car shut off and the dash lit up, once I came to a stop smoke starting rolling out from the hood. This just happened Friday and my shop hasn't had a chance to really give it a full look over yet, But it seems like it shouldn't have happened that easy. Car has been running great up until this happened.

The car does have mods:
-TBE
-Cobb Intake
-TGV Delete
-EGR Delete
-Delicious tune
-AOS (this should not effect anything)
 
#7 ·
I wasn’t lugging the car at all, I was in 5th and down shifted to 4th RPM’s were around 4K to 45k when i felt it. The oil was full and halfway through its life, gas was around half tank. From what my mechanic said , all of these factors should not have caused a spun bearing. I’m going to reach out to my dealer this week and see what they say, if they can’t help I’ll talk to SOA. Thanks guy
 
#8 ·
Be sure to have a solid necropsy done. Unless you hit a wrong gear or something what you described on a healthy engine shouldn't be a concern. You'll want the issue identified so if it's a bad accessory part like pickup or pump it doesn't go back onto the new block

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#9 ·
curious when did you do the mods/tune? At what mileage and when year wise? In 2015 or Recently or?
 
#10 ·
Most of the mods were done over the past two years, the final tune was done a few months ago. Never had any issues up until Friday night. The car had new plugs installed and walnut blasting done recently as regular maintenance. I never beat the car, it was nice having the extra power but I’ve never been the kind of person to drive at red line.
 
#13 ·
forgive the poss obvious answer but you say it was done over 2 years with final tune done a few months ago.

Assuming you DID RE-tune every time you did an engine mod as you went along?
Was the final tune done after the walnut blasting etc?

Just looking for some reason it let go. If you did the final tune and then the walnut blasting that would be detrimental. Same with not tuning after an intake change or Jpipe or TGV delete etc.
 
#15 ·
Once they see your car was flashed you are screwed either way. Flashing it back is pointless because they can see it has been previously flashed. Especially if you got it tuned after each of those mods. They'll see 4-6 flashes done on the ECU and instantly deny your claim when the dealer has no service record of a flash getting done to the ECU.
 
#18 ·
Good luck with the dealership, but I wouldn't be optimistic. If you lie to them, they'll be more adamant about denying your claim. They can identify the wear on the bolts, exhaust components, etc, pretty easily to determine the car has been modified. The flash will be the smoking gun. Just be honest with them.

You can call SOA. They will be extremely nice and courteous to you, but after speaking with the dealership they'll likely continue to be polite and respectful as they tell you you're on your own.

My advice? Be prepared to take a chunk out of your savings. Hopefully you have enough to cover the spread.
 
#22 ·
It's also dealer prerogative to honor the warranty or not. just because the car is tuned doesn't guarantee they won't fix it.

fingers crossed they help you out OP.
 
#24 ·
Sounds like good news. basically saying as long as you actually kept up on maintenance they are willing to work with ya.
 
#28 ·
can I ask what your reasoning was behind the walnut blasting? a car with 39k miles and an AOS, I'm struggling with understanding the intent behind this.


Did you do it yourself?
 
#33 ·
Car is still at the dealer, I talked to SOA last Monday. The guy I talked to told me they were not covering the motor under warranty, his reasoning was I was driving the car to hard. When I question him on it he couldn’t give me a real answer on what caused the failure but instead just kept telling me I must have been pushing the car to hard. So if driving 50mph on a crowded highway is pushing it , then this will be my last Subaru. That afternoon I went to the dealer to look at the dismantled motor and found that Subaru’s report was missing a lot. Quick run down on what the motor looked like , piston #4 had a broken rod, piston #2 was melted, the timing gear on the crank had a crack in it, none of the bearing were to be found. I had my cousin with me who is a former Subaru tech and as soon as he saw it he said it was a bearing issue. When the service manager started to get questioned on it he blamed it on crank walk. SOA never said anything about crank walk or bearing failure. So I called SOA back and questioned them on the missing items in the report and why I was being told two different causes , I have yet to be told how anything i did was the cause of failure. SOA is looking back into the case cause “ parts might have been over looked”. I will say that the dealer and. SOA have been absolutely terrible during this whole process. I was told I would be contacted at every milestone and as soon as they receive the report. Not one phone call , I was the one who has to call them and I was the one who told the dealer SOA wasn’t covering it under warranty, and they never called the dealer after the fact to let them know. What I am getting out of this is Subaru does not care at all about customer relations. Calling SOA tomorrow to see what they could come up with. Keep you posted . Sorry for all the mistyping , on my phone and it’s junk
 
#35 ·
At this point, the cause doesn't matter. The car was modified.

You'll need to acquire a new long block.

This is the exact reason many of us do not modify under warranty.

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