popngear Posted November 28, 2004 Share Posted November 28, 2004 So I've had my Legacy GT Ltd for 6 days now and I'm driving to the theatre in it. As I come close to the parking lot it gets a little foggy inside the car and I see smoke coming out of the hood! Immediately I park the car and shut off the engine and call the Subaru CARE line. At this point, there is a TON of smoke billowing out from the hood and if I turn on the car it pours in through the vents. Upon opening the hood, I see that there is a something on the passenger side down below that is burning orange (but no flames). Called for security to come with a fire extinguisher but by the time they came the tow truck guy had disconnected the battery and the burning ceased. Am I the first to experience this problem?! It is absolutely ridiculous to have this happen to a brand new car let alone a supposed "luxury" Subaru. I am going to demand a new car altogether from the dealership. I do NOT want to deal with annoying problems down the road which is one of the reason i bought the new car in the first place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Driver72 Posted November 28, 2004 Share Posted November 28, 2004 What was it? And yes, I'd demand a new car from the dealer and SOA too. You don't know what other internal damage was done to the car's engine or any other part by this faulty whatever it was? Plus you could complain that the interior now reeks of smoke instead of the "new car smell" that should be there and lasts for MONTHS. Of course, the dealer and SOA will probably try to convince you otherwise and refuse you a new car. But I'd stick by your guns, and don't let them push you around. On a brand new car, little things are bound to happen, but something like that...no way...that particular car is bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sde Posted November 28, 2004 Share Posted November 28, 2004 sorry to hear about this, but please keep us updated. i'm very interested in seeing how they handle this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xenonk Posted November 28, 2004 Share Posted November 28, 2004 uh, there shouldnt be anything burning regardless.. demand a new car and find out was burning. Keefe Keefe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
popngear Posted November 28, 2004 Author Share Posted November 28, 2004 At first I had no idea what was burning. The only thing I knew was that it came from the engine bay. Actually, now that I remember, when I turned the car on not only did the smoke enter through the vents, It was coming out from underneath the car as well! After it had been smoking for a while we could see that there was something burning amber on the passenger side down low. The tow truck guy thinks it was something electrical (that's how it smelled) and it stopped smoking once the battery was disconnected. Soooo choked. I sold my Impreza for this? :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SBT Posted November 28, 2004 Share Posted November 28, 2004 Down low on the passenger side, possibly the first O2 sensor melting down? I guess if it was hot enough to start smoking it would continue to do so with the key in the off position but that wouldn't explain the cessation when the battery was disconnected. Did the tow truck driver suggest what it might be that prompted his disconnecting the battery. Haven't known anything like this to happen before and I too would demand a new car. Keep us posted and especially how it's resolved. SBT - Pro amore Dei et patriam et populum - Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BacDoc Posted November 28, 2004 Share Posted November 28, 2004 Lemon Law:mad: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deer Killer Posted November 28, 2004 Share Posted November 28, 2004 [quote name='BacDoc']Lemon Law:mad:[/QUOTE] Uhm no, in order for that to happen he has to bring the car to the dealership and they have to fail to repair the problem X times. Don't worry about what it is. Have the dealership take care of it. That's what warranty is for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PGT Posted November 28, 2004 Share Posted November 28, 2004 POPNGEAR - Those symptoms sound like something electrical was arc'ing to the body. When current is passed through something metal, it will get hot and glow orange. Disconnecting the battery broke the circuit and the problem ceased. Maybe the car wasn't assembled properly? Or, maybe the car had some body-work prior to purchase. How many miles did it have when you bought it? One of the dirty little secrets of car dealers is that they don't have to disclose body work to you prior to purchase. Many a new car has been damaged in transit or spirited test drives and then fixed prior to being sold as 'new'. Definitely let us know what the cause was. That's pretty scary and good to know you stopped it before anything caught fire or that you weren't left stranded on the side of the road. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest *Jedimaster* Posted November 28, 2004 Share Posted November 28, 2004 ^^^I have to agree^^^ I once allowed a wrench I was taking a battery cable off with to touch the alternator bracket on a Buick. Zapped me a little and as I jumped back, the car started smoking! I jumped back in there and grabbed the wrench- but it burned through the battery cable almost completely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PGT Posted November 28, 2004 Share Posted November 28, 2004 [quote name='jedimaster']^^^I have to agree^^^ I once allowed a wrench I was taking a battery cable off with to touch the alternator bracket on a Buick. Zapped me a little and as I jumped back, the car started smoking! I jumped back in there and grabbed the wrench- but it burned through the battery cable almost completely.[/QUOTE] LOL - I did the same thing on a Chevy Cavalier Z24 I was doing an amp install on for a friend. GM sidepost terminals + close proximity to the unibody panel seam = TROUBLE :eek: That wrench welded itself to the body - we had to kock it out with the wooden handle of a hammer, quickly before it became permanent and blew the battery. One of the many things in life I have learned it's not smart to do a second time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fbi012 Posted November 28, 2004 Share Posted November 28, 2004 That sucks man, I say not only see your dealer, but call SOA as well, if they dont give you a new one, maybe you should request some free mods or whatever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c_hunter Posted November 29, 2004 Share Posted November 29, 2004 Glad to hear I am not the only person to have welded tools like that! The good news is, you usually only do it once! Hope they find the cause of the problem popngear. CRaig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xenonk Posted November 29, 2004 Share Posted November 29, 2004 [quote name='Deer Killer']Uhm no, in order for that to happen he has to bring the car to the dealership and they have to fail to repair the problem X times. Don't worry about what it is. Have the dealership take care of it. That's what warranty is for.[/QUOTE] 6 times within the specified warranty time. It has to be the exact same problem. Keefe Keefe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dv8ingvector Posted November 29, 2004 Share Posted November 29, 2004 ^[QUOTE]6 times within the specified warranty time. It has to be the exact same problem. Keefe [/QUOTE]X-times may very from st to st...u probably checked the book though:p i am to lazy :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Driver72 Posted November 29, 2004 Share Posted November 29, 2004 Do they know what it was yet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
popngear Posted November 29, 2004 Author Share Posted November 29, 2004 well i called this morning and they are saying it was just a plastic bag or something like that that got caught up in the engine bay. i'm skeptical because i think there was way too much smoke for it to be coming from a bag and it ceased once the battery was disconnected. they've been testing it and say everything works fine and are now de-odourizing the car. i know it is an honest service department (my friend works there) so they genuinely believe that was the cause. however, if anything should arise you can bet i will be bringing it back right away. i have no received the car back yet but when i am updated i will update the rest of you. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c_hunter Posted November 29, 2004 Share Posted November 29, 2004 Interesting; I was a little skeptical about the connection between disconnecting the battery and something burning down low on the passenger side -- the main thing that's down there and *HOT* is the turbo and associated plumbing. I do not know about the turbos in our car, but turbos can glow red from heat and that's normal. Again, not sure if our turbos do that. I have heard of fires and smoke coming from plastic grocery bags getting caught on someone exhaust, so this would not be out of the ordinary. There is definitely enough heat down around the exhaust manifolds and turbo to cook stuff! Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick360 Posted December 7, 2004 Share Posted December 7, 2004 But what electrical would cause a plastic bag to be burning? And there is definitely a different odor when plastic is burning and something electrical. Besides, if it were a bag, there would be some kind of residue where it was burning. I would be cautious about it for a while, but it would help better if you knew exactly where it was glowing orange, like on the heads, fuel rail, downpipe maybe. I have heard stories of older engine losing oil pressure and the block/heads literally burning hot orange. Either way, good luck bro. Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmcgliss Posted December 8, 2004 Share Posted December 8, 2004 One thought was a cable to the starter grounding against the engine or chassis? Or a fluid leak onto the exhaust. Any smell of antifreeze which produces white smoke. Odd that it did not start until day 6 for you...that might rule out an installation gaff. JC, Chicagoland bassist & opentracker 2005 LGT 5MT Ltd wagon 2005 LGT 5MT Ltd sedan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwiener2 Posted December 8, 2004 Share Posted December 8, 2004 [quote name='c_hunter']Interesting; I was a little skeptical about the connection between disconnecting the battery and something burning down low on the passenger side -- the main thing that's down there and *HOT* is the turbo and associated plumbing. I do not know about the turbos in our car, but turbos can glow red from heat and that's normal. Again, not sure if our turbos do that. I have heard of fires and smoke coming from plastic grocery bags getting caught on someone exhaust, so this would not be out of the ordinary. There is definitely enough heat down around the exhaust manifolds and turbo to cook stuff! Craig[/QUOTE] Turbos only glow like that when you're really running hard...like up in the 5 thousands rpm for the majority of the time. Because ours are water cooled, if you actaully got it that hot, it wouldn't stay that way very long. My Mods List (Updated 8/22/17) 2005 Outback FMT Running on Electrons Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GBY Posted December 8, 2004 Share Posted December 8, 2004 It gets really hot under the hood of turbo Subies, the something trapped catching fire theory makes sense to me, especially if you were able to drive the car normally after letting everything cool off for a while, or did you get it put on the back of a tow truck? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xenonk Posted December 8, 2004 Share Posted December 8, 2004 water cooled? I thought IHI/VF turbos for Subarus are oil cooled. Keefe Keefe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SBT Posted December 8, 2004 Share Posted December 8, 2004 [quote name='Xenonk']water cooled? I thought IHI/VF turbos for Subarus are oil cooled. Keefe[/QUOTE] If this is what's stock on the 05 Subaru Legacy and other new gen turbo models (Baja, Forester, WRX, and STI) they are both water and oil cooled. SBT - Pro amore Dei et patriam et populum - Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick360 Posted December 11, 2004 Share Posted December 11, 2004 Any word on what this could of been?? I want to know what kind of problems they are having with the Legacy before I get one. Thanks. Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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