bakabon Posted March 15, 2008 Posted March 15, 2008 I've been reading posts on this forum since purchasing my car back in '05, but have never needed advice until now. I initially took my car in to the Subaru dealership because I smelled a faint burning smell coming from the engine. Turns out its leaking coolant, and the left-side gasket needs to be replaced. My car just turned 36,000 last month, so luckily it is still covered under the extended warranty, but given all the gasket issues I've read about, this was not good news. (Leak was external - no engine damage) Get a call today that the gasket was replaced, everything looks good and I should pick up the car. Great! I get the car, pull out of the dealership, and while at a stop light I hear a faint knocking (kinda like tick-a-tick-a-tick-a...) coming from the engine while idle. I drove around the block a few times to make sure the sound was coming from my car, and my bad luck, it was. I immediately take the car back to the dealership and alert them to the problem. Initially the tech thinks it has to do with slack in the timing belt. I leave it with them all day and get a call this afternoon that it is not the timing belt, and instead the issue seems to be related to knocking on the engine's right side. WTF?!? I have driven this car problem free for 3 years and now this dealership has single handedly given my car the kiss of death?!? HELP! Needless to say, I'm freaking out. The dealership will have the car over the weekend and hopefully will tell me more on Monday. Any ideas what the knocking could be??? Also, if the problem requires major engine work/rebuild, do I have any recourse with SOA since the "work" was done by an authorized dealership? Any suggestions, comments would be really appreciated. Thanks.
CodyItaliano Posted March 15, 2008 Posted March 15, 2008 does it sould like its comming from the crankshaft or does it sound more like a flat lifter? my LGT had started knocked from the crank due to low oil pressure. and ended up ruining the crank. i would think the dealership would be the best place to take it, but from what you said maybe not. you live in a large city that should have plenty of specialty shops that deal with exotic cars and whatnot and shoud be able to pinpoint a problem easily. but i dont really know. if i were you i'd have the second opinion of another technician from another shop. until you find the problem exactly, i'd recommend not to drive the car. but if you feel its not a problem, then do what you feel is right.
bakabon Posted March 19, 2008 Author Posted March 19, 2008 So here's a brief update: They sent the right head to a machine shop for more testing, turns out it is problem free. They still can't figure out where the knocking is coming from so now they are looking at the short block. The Subaru area rep "happened" to visit the dealership today and they are keeping him apprised of my car's status. I don't know anything about motors...but any issues with the short block sound bad. How could the engine turn to sh*t overnight? Guess I'm stuck with my rental for another week.
Bdubs Posted March 20, 2008 Posted March 20, 2008 At least it is still under warranty or else you'd really be pissed off. Good luck.
CodyItaliano Posted March 20, 2008 Posted March 20, 2008 well, mine did. over night too. due to low oil pressure! that happened pretty fast.
bakabon Posted March 21, 2008 Author Posted March 21, 2008 Seriously? Sorry to hear that... I got a call today from the dealership. They reexamined the left head (the one they originally replaced the gasket on) and no problems found there either. The Subaru Rep requested that they do an oil pressure test before they take the whole engine apart to get at the short block. We'll see if they come up with anything...
bakabon Posted March 21, 2008 Author Posted March 21, 2008 does it sould like its comming from the crankshaft or does it sound more like a flat lifter? Actually, the dealer described the knocking sound as coming from the "flat lifter" today which made me think of your earlier comment. What does that refer to? Guess it's not the crank shaft?...
CodyItaliano Posted March 22, 2008 Posted March 22, 2008 as flat lifter would mean that the hydrolic lifter that almost all of newer cars use, isnt getting enough oil pressure or has some defect that doesnt let oil pressure expand it. hydrolic lifters are oporated by oil pressure to keep them at a constant bit of adjustment, unlike a solid lifter. solid lifter is just that, solid and has to be manually adjusted. here's some pix to give you a better idea of what the part looks like(not an exact subaru part) but similar, very little change of what we have as far as looks go. http://img.alibaba.com/photo/51634536/Hydraulic_Lifter_for_Audi_Ford_Skoda_Opel_Seat_and_Volvo.jpg here's a good illustration of what you would likely find in most current subaru engines. i havent taken these apart so it may be a little different but not much. (this picture shows a vvt type cam similar to what we also have) http://www.2carpros.com/images/variable_timing_camshaft_lifter.jpg on a final note, do have them do an oil pressure test as it could very well be a defective oil pump. could also be the pressure relief valve inside the oil pump, i've found that to be a problem a lot of times on various engines. but it could be a defective lifter, so this pressure test should show whats going on with the oil pressure.
bakabon Posted March 22, 2008 Author Posted March 22, 2008 CodyItaliano, thanks for the detailed post. Very helpful visuals! So, they found the problem! Turns out excess "fuji bond" epoxy used during the initial gasket replacement had clogged up one of the channels. Good thing they did the oil pressure test! Both heads were tested and showed no damage or warping, but they re-replaced the head gaskets on both sides just to be safe. After clearing the channel they ran the car for 20 miles without any noise, and they said the car is OK to let go. I think I can pick it up tomorrow. Seems like the channel clog/noise issue resulted from sloppy tech work. I have the contact info for the SOA area rep that oversaw this whole fiasco. Is there any reason for me to give him a call now that the problem has been resolved? Let me know what people think. I'm still freaked out by the blown gasket at 36K miles...
CodyItaliano Posted March 22, 2008 Posted March 22, 2008 i would give that guy a call and tell him what they found and if you were happy with the way you were treated at this dealership. well good to hear you problem was resolved fairly easily. although this was somewhat major work. well good luck with your car man.
WhatV8 Posted March 26, 2008 Posted March 26, 2008 Bakabon, I would give the SOA rep a call and thank him for his assitance in resolving your issue. I have a feeling he pushed the dealership a bit to get to the real root cause. It is a shame that the tech that worked on your car went a bit heavy with the sealant, good thing it didn't cause any permanent damage. I would also suggest getting an immediate oil/filter change, if the dealership didn't do it after the 20 mile test drive. That way you can be somewhat certain that anything that found its way into the oiling system should be out of the engine.
Power4 Posted February 19, 2010 Posted February 19, 2010 Hey bakabon, when you noticed this problem did the sound and smell start as soon as you started the car or did it take a while before they would resume?
bakabon Posted February 19, 2010 Author Posted February 19, 2010 Hey bakabon, when you noticed this problem did the sound and smell start as soon as you started the car or did it take a while before they would resume? It's been a while, but as far as I can remember the knocking sound was immediately noticeable after starting up the car (this was after they replaced the gasket). The original smell was from the leaking coolant, which just sorta lingered around but became more apparent after driving for a while.
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.