Did I get Scammed??

[kohlstr]

Hello all, 

So I have an 05' legacy GT wagon with 82k miles. I recently went on vacation down in central Oregon from northern Washington (~ 460mi each way). I made it down and my car was running great the whole trip until a check engine light popped up on my last day there. Car was running perfectly so I drove it carefully to autozone to borrow an OBDII figuring that it was just a loose gas cap or something. BOOM P0021 code (intake camshaft position over-advanced bank 2). Without any of my own resources - being that I was on vacation - I went to the Subaru dealership in town. The tech worked on diagnosing my problem from 7:30am to 4:00pm when he finally "found the fix." 

This is what he told me: "The ECU is communicating with the solenoid at the OCV. I swapped the OCV's (driver to passenger, passenger to driver) and the the issue was still on the driver side. Your problem is the camshaft gear actuator, it must be sticking so we need to replace that. Unfortunately it is a special order part and will be three days out. Also while I'm in here anyways it may be good to just do the timing as well." 

I was supposed to leave that day to go back home so this news was very unfortunate, but that's life. So I got an air bnb, and spent three days wallowing and waiting for my car. I got a call later that week that he had finished up and that the car was running great. 

Diagnosis + Timing components + Cam gear replacement = $2800 (OUCH!)

I get in my car the next morning and start driving. 200 miles into my drive and I see my dash light up yet again. After some heavy swearing and a quick ride to the nearest autozone, I had the same p0021 code. I called the dealership back up and the tech said I had two options. Go to the Subaru near me in Portland or carefully drive the car back up to where I live (260mi away). Portland was backed up for about five days, so I bit the bullet, kept my car far far away from boost and drove 50mph all the way home. 

The next morning I go into my local Subaru and talk to a friend there and he was astonished after looking through my receipts that they had not done anything with my oil at the Subaru in Oregon. They didn't even bother changing the oil to see if it took care of the p0021 code, which he said should have been their very first step. 

I bought some genuine subaru engine flush, flushed my motor, and changed oil with some 5w-30 Mobil 1 full synthetic and I have had zero codes pop up since. 

Do I have a case here to maybe get some money back from that dealership?

 

[silverton]

You should get in touch with Subaru of America. That dealership should be on the line for not fixing your car.