Subarus - are they any better these days??

[Emperor]

Out of all the Subies i've owned or known of.. Only modified ones have trouble.

My Forester has done 120km, and is falling to bits, so is my mates.. But another guy I know has a RA STi and its done like 170km, dead stock, and still pulls 18psi every day all day

[johndoe1025]

my mates foresters 113,000k. has the death rattle

[johndoe1025]

dead stock, and still pulls 18psi every day all day

DEAD stock?

[Emperor]

Yep. Only thing it has after markt is tuned length headers.

But nothing to turn boost up. Stock turbo. Stock bov, stock intake. Possibly the filter it came from the factory with too! haha

[Twolitre]

What exactly in the modification process is detrimental to Subaru's? Does the extra power from say an exhaust or a boost up kill diff's gearboxes etc or the fact that modified examples are more likely to be given a harder life?
perhaps it's our fuel that they don't like as subarus seem to have earned a good rep overseas afaik.

[Emperor]

Fuel is one issue, detonation is a major killer in Subies.

Gearboxes are notchy (mostly older WRXs and Foresters) so have to be treated nicely, when you get someone who thinks they can shift them like a dogbox it hurts.

[Lloyd]

Yeah I haven't had mine that long, but I've seen enough through work. And yes mine is non turbo. Wouldn't touch a turbo one with those kms lol

And yeah the head gaskets dont just happen for no reasons, but when things do get warm (and they do have a habit of having coolant leaks especially the turbos, oh and the radiators have a habit of leaking on a lot too) then thhey tend to do gaskets very quickly.

Have seen a few melt the earth wire for the fuel pump. And fuel pumps dying randomly also.

[Adamal]

My flatmate has a 2003 WRX STI. Gearbox is rooted.

Brad's WRX is broken already??

Yup! Was actually like that before he got it. Sent it off to a place to get repaired under warranty, and they didn't fix it!

[Jdawg]

I think most problems occur through wrongly installed/poorly tuned mods and dropkick owners.
STI i got was a victim of a dumbass owner. Forester is stock and has had piston slap for the 30k kms I've owned it. Both cars dropped their fuel pumps this week, but Walbros (from Driven ) were an easy fix.
You just have to wait for the engine to warm up before thrashing.

[Emperor]

^ did you try hard wiring the fuel pump plug? It's usually just the plug not the pump.

[Dell'Orto]

dead stock, and still pulls 18psi every day all day

DEAD stock?

Later STi's do run heaps of boost from factory.

[Emperor]

It only a Ver 2...
They are 16 factory, so i'm guessing the headers may cause boost creep to 18psi. But no controller or anything to run 18.

[bluemaumau]

mate whos a engine builder gets alot of subaru dealership business, many engines run bearings sub 10kms

another friends legacy, gets abused and i cant beleive its survived.
unreal. he had a warenty on it and the diff and gearbox $&#$% out twice, but since it run out its been sweet, cant beleive it really

touchwood

[quick6]

I have a '97 WRX I have been hacking around in for a while, and I love it. They do have their weak points, but imo these are usually made far worse with thrashing when cold, lack of maintenance, gearbox abuse, poorly thought out modifications and crap fuel. Mine is on 160km and has had slight piston slap when cold for as long as I have owned it (15000km) and as long as the previous owner can remember. Regular oil changes at 5000km intervals and inspecting the coolant level every second day keeps it on the road (although it uses no fluids still). The only problem I have had was a dead AFM (common). I ended up with a tank full of 91 at one stage and it would barely run, couldn't go full throttle at all due to knock response which says it all really on that matter. They are a fantastic A to B highway car if you can afford the fuel consumption and are prepared to be fairly fastidious with your maintenance, these are no Corolla (thank god ha ha!).

[Leon]

Had a Version 3 Sti. Didn't like it, sold it. Couldn't get better than 10km/l no matter how nicely I drove it. Power delivery was gruesome [lag lag lag lag lag oooooogod gear gear gear], did feel like a heavy car on the road.

The good bits of the car were in the detail stuff, like tie downs in the floor of the boot, how the back seats folded and gave you a place to fit the headrests (it was a wagon).

Even with big whiteline rear sway bar fitted it did feel like an understeer machine.

Plus, I was always terrified of a $5k engine rebuild, it overheating, or somebody nicking it.

Went back to a sub $1000 Charade POS, that didn't use gas, nobody would ever steal, and if anything went horribly horribly wrong, I'd only lose sub $1000.

Although, joke was, third party insurance on Sti and Charade was the same price

My conclusion: Subaru's are ok if you've got deep pockets, otherwise avoid, because things can get very expensive if you're not a mechanic, and something bad happens.

[Top Secret]

Well, a few of these comments are a little unfair. Sure you get some Subarus that blow up in no time at all, but I ask you, how did these people service it back in Japan? Probably not very well, and as soon as they got sick of it, they flicked it off to the auction houses for unlucky sods (like us) to buy.

I'm 18, I've owned 2 subarus (Had a legacy GT as my first car), and while the first one was an absolute piece of shit, because it's had 17 owners, and the last owners were dodgy-wof Indians, it never ever EVER stopped going. It didn't give any trouble at all. Nothing. It was modified.

Then my second one, was another Legacy GT (1992), with a lot of work done. STi turbo, extractors, wastegate, split fuel rails, fuel pressure reg, possumlink ecu etc. That also, gave it a thrashing day in day out, and the only thing that went on it was the gearbox which was $&#$% when I got it. Put a WRX box and diff in it for $300 all up, and we were in business. Awesome, awesome cars. Good on gas too

Just find a clean Suby and you won't regret it. Buy a nugget, and you'll be cursing subarus for the rest of your life.

Have fun!

[Timmo]

I definitely think its a mixture of drop kick owners and subaru engineers who, in order to extract the most performance in the standard cars, don't allow the extra strength that is needed when modifying (i.e. Toyotas seem to be manufactured with this extra strength....which makes them heavy and slower in stock form but very tolerant of modification.) They are very capable cars in stock form.

You cant expect a highly technical machine to work 100% when an ignorant owner puts a $50 BOV valve on it, ups the boost to some crazy level and thrashes the crap out of it on 91....something has to give.

I've seen people (mostly of the 'bro' persuasion) fill up their WRX with 91 'Cause its cheaper eh!'

I got a ride back from town in a WRX wagon.....it was knocking like crazy! Asked what fuel he was running- just 91!...nor wonder they melt pistons.

Ignorance and owners with no respect for their own cars is the biggest killer IMO.

[darkwolf]

Mate of mine owns a Legacy RS-B. He'll tell you it's the best thing since sliced bread. We always give him heaps about the fact that its a Scooby and will die. But so far it hasn't. It has leaked oil onto one of the turbos which was a bit worrying think it cost him bugger all to fix through winger anyway. And it blew the radiator. Can't remember the price he's had it about 10 Months+

Fly's through warrants easily.

Only thing he was warned about is don't buy the light coloured ones. Subaru's weren't properly rust protected from factory. So the light coloured ones don't get hot enough to dry out the water properly. Leading to huge rust problems usually just behind the rear seats.

[Heylin]

+1 on the B4, my partner drives one, 150,000 Kms (had 80,000 when we got it) had it for 2 and a bit years.

Great power, 4WD, sounds mean with Blitz Nurspec Exhaust.

Major items that needed doing since we owned it

- Brake rotors $800
- Cam belt $800
- Re seal oil sump and replace diff seal $500

Main things to look after

- Transmission fluid (semi or full synthetic) every 30,000
- Oil (semi or full synthentic) every 10,000
- Coolant flush every 2 years

The tiptronic model is 190KW
The 5 speed manual is 205KW

Some good buys out there in the $9000 - $12,000 range for 1999 Models.

[repowered]

know someone that had the newer shape station wagon and it just turned off all of a sudden in the middle of the manawatu gorge all the dash lights came on and wouldnt restart. i think it was brand new and subaru couldnt fix it for ages, they had a loan car for a good few months.