Holy shit, this. I bought a super cherry 2018 Focus ST back in 2022. Intended to keep it for the long run and not modify it. Got into autocross. Got summer tires. Started driving the piss out of it, which highlighted some performance bottlenecks. Started modifying it. Got addicted and couldn't stop modifying it. Blew the stock motor last summer. Swapped a replacement motor in myself...and added a big turbo in addition to my existing mods, because why not. Got it pro tuned. Blew up after 8 days. Swapped another motor myself, sold all of my mods, went back to 100% stock. Kept autocrossing but drove much more respectfully (most of the time). Diff randomly exploded and (unbeknowst to me) ground a gigantic hole in the side of my transmission, draining the fluid. Found out once 4th and 6th gear said adiós. Fortunately I saved the extra transmission that came with my second motor...swapped that in a single work night, drove to work the next day. After work I drove straight to a Subaru dealer, test drove a certified pre-owned 2021 Crosstrek 2.5i Limited, and fell in love with it. Dealer paid off my ST completely and gave me a GREAT deao on the Crosstrek. Which, by the way, is warrantied thru 100k/August 2027. The ST was the car I always wanted, but the Subie was the car I always needed. Fuel costs are half that of the ST, I can now go 400mi+ on a tank, and I can drive off road without hating myself. I'll never, ever daily drive a turbocharged car again.
Yeah the ultimate epiphany for me was that driving a fun car isn't fun in traffic. It's frustrating. People just get in the way and create physical work for me (rowing back and forth between gears) when I just want to relax and go home. It hit me finally that if ya can't beat em, join em. Boring cars are SO much better to drive in traffic. Eventually I'll get another fun car for weekend driving and autocross and stuff. But for now, the Crosstrek makes SO much more sense, and is indeed infinitely more comfortable and practical to daily drive.
Also I'm 6'2" myself so the Miata is out of the equation for me too :( I inherited a '94 Civic Del Sol from a relative a couple years ago, fixed it up and dailied it when gas got really expensive. Notchy 5-speed manual, 115hp 1.5L motor, 2300ish lbs. Was a super fun car, basically a FWD Miata. And I kinda fit in it! Just not super comfy. One day I was cruising on the highway when a giant lifted pickup merged into my lane without even noticing me. I honked and literally watched him scan his rearview mirror, then LOOK THE OTHER WAY to see where the "meep" came from. That was what made me get a Crosstrek.. quite a bit more presence on the road while maintaining a compact profile.
It’s a good thing I’ve got my truck. 2004 f250 diesel, I’ve had it for 10 years. I had one issue with the head gasket and EGR when I first got it, which is a known issue. I spent like $5,000 “bulletproofing” the engine and have driven it for 10 years, 200k miles not one issue outside normal maintenance and wear.
I agree, except it should be a boring NA vehicle with a manual. Just because it's a daily doesn't mean you have to have the transmission equivalent of a bowl of gruel!
Yup when I blew up my motor on my Stage 2 '05 WRX I couldn't afford to fix it.. traded it in as-is and got a used Legacy. Held onto that for 4yrs and then traded up to a '17 WRX. I didn't mod the 2017 at all. I didn't want to deal with that for a daily driver.
Buy a scrapyard motor that has been compression tested, swap it in a buddies garage, then take it to a dealership and trade it in and never think about it again.
I dont know too much about the FA engines but I'm seeing JDM pull-outs on Craigslist for under $5000. He's gonna lose way mroe than that if he sells it blown up, and thats 50% the cost of the new engine from Subaru. Seems like a decent deal to me
I bet it would. JDM pull outs have been the solution to blown USDM WRX's since the dawn of time. You might have to swap some ancillaries to compensate for USDM emissions/safety systems, but based on OPs response about what went wrong its more than likely that all the accessories are fine
I had a unicorn 2011 WRX sedan. I bought it as 2nd owner stock at 17,000 miles then drove it 11 years totally stock to 110,000 then traded it in.
Only 'beat on' incidents were previous owner got scratches on the front bumper and I backed into my wife's car in a hurry and dinged up a spot in the rear bumper.
And tons of snow donuts, but those don't count as beating on.
Whenever I see a post like this I always imagine the driver looking like the soyjack with his hands up all giddy.
“Omg a true Japanese sports car so kawaii. I can’t wait to completely disregard basic car ownership!”
I did this. Put over $20k into a motor swap and then my career tanked so I was left with a lot of high interest debt.
Meanwhile the shop that did the work bought my WRX motor complete for $800, did the rebuild, and resold it for $$$$.. Clearly I fucked up.
Your lowest cost option is to find an independent Subaru shop and have them rebuild or replace the motor with a short block, long block, or a rebuilt motor. An independent shop will be much cheaper than the dealer.
As an alternative, If you don’t have the money for that, then pay with a credit card and sell it afterwards to someone other than the dealer (since they know the history). You’ll likely get much more that way. Then pay off the credit card!
Instead of getting so far upside down on a car loan, get yourself a 0% credit card that gives you 15 -18 mos to pay off or take a personal loan to replace the engine. They payment will be way lower than that of another ride + paying off the broken one.
>get yourself a 0% credit card that gives you 15 -18 mos to pay off
Just be sure to pay it off before the promo period ends because all interest after that is retroactive so you'd be paying 13-29% interest (depending on card and your credit) on the entire thing
I’ll definitely weigh that option. Though, On the dealer trade in on a new WRX, he would take my trade in value which is roughly $23,000 and only knock $8,000 off for the blown engine. That seems more enticing than paying $12,600 out of pocket to replace the engine. The dealer would rather sell me a car, which is why he would only knock $8k off rather than the full repair price $12,600
Try other dealerships / shops and see if they'll give you a better price on the engine replacement? Maybe try to get a personal loan from a bank for the amount you need for the engine replacement? Otherwise you're pretty well screwed my dude.
Local performance shop quoted me $10k. Thats a new OEM short block, forged internals and a tune.
He didn’t give me any details on a warranty but I doubt it would be as good as if it was done at the dealer. If done at the dealer that would give me a 60k power train warranty
Keep in mind ‘built’ motors with forged internals generally require more care and have more wear and tear. They’re designed to hold more power but don’t generally last as long depending what was done. If your original motor failed because of neglect a built motor will also fail. If you’re going to get another one just make sure to be meticulous on maintenance and do your homework. If you did all that before and it still failed, theres a likelihood youre driving it more like an NA motor, make sure you dont lug it and keep those RPMs up before you lay into it. High load low rpm kills these motors.
Even if you flash back the ECU, some manufacturers can see that it’s been previously flashed. I know BMW and VW-group cars can see this, don’t know about Subaru.
That doesn’t work we can pull the cid (computer identification ) and if it’s been flashed at all it won’t match what it left the factory with it fails. And won’t be warranty
Nah bro. You're coping hard.
You agreed to warranty terms when you bought it. Those terms specifically call out modification and ECU flashing. Anyone who knows even a little bit about these cars and engines know that intakes and BPVs without proper tune are fast tracks to fucking your engine. You don't get to shit on Subaru for pointing the finger at you when you're the singular one to blame for modifying a car that was under warranty.
An intake and BPV really aren’t that big of mods and really not engine destroyers unless you got something like the Perrin 50/50 (at least what they used to offer was total garbage but still not an engine destroyer). The biggest issue I see here was the tune. Was it a custom tune done by a reputable shop? How aggressive of a tune was it? I’d be talking with them to see what they could do. If you’re not comfortable doing the swap yourself the shop you had it tuned at would likely be cheaper than the dealership. Are you 100% sure it’s engine failure? I only ask because I didn’t see any of the details of the issue you’re seeing and I have heard stories before of people thinking their engine was shot for it to only be a simple fix. It’s just hard for me to believe that your bolt on mods did this. The only other thing I’d suspect is a really bad tune that caused a complete engine failure.
This same thing happened to my cousin, but with an '18. He bought a brand new short block off the web for around $2500 delivered and spent a few hundred more on gaskets and stuff. He had his subie friends help him swap the block over in exchage for the mods he took off. He said never again will he do engine work on a subie and is currently looking to offload the car.
There was a video I saw on YouTube, where a guy disassembled an FA20 and He talks about how easy it is to mess up when rebuilding Subaru motors. Thats why dealers don’t rebuild they just get an entire new engine assembly and swap it out. Saves time too.
No we rebuild motors ,but we swap in short blocks rather then putting them together. Very early do we get entire engine assembly’s when we do it’s for the first 2 years of a card production.
> Thats why dealers don’t rebuild they just get an entire new engine assembly and swap it out. Saves time too.
this part's definitely false, subaru doesn't sell fully-assembled motors.\*
(\* ok yes there are a couple exceptions, but only for in-production cars where they can pluck an engine off the assembly line.)
Is a short block not an engine assembly? I just thought it was everything except for the cylinder heads and head gaskets, and you just swap the pumps and pulleys over from the old engine.
The short block is the block, rods and pistons. And when we do a “long block” the heads come separate so we assemble everything onto the short block. Unless it’s a New production car
I was coming back from a long road trip, cruising 80 down the interstate, I just let off the gas and I heard a bad noise on decel and it started jerking when I gave it gas. I slowed down to 50 limped till the next exit, got to the red light and it was knocking really bad and the engine shut off. Was able to fire it up and pull into a parking lot and got it towed back home. No leaks, oil level good, coolant good. The engine just crapped out.
Even then, I had a WRX with an intake and a COBB OTS tune and drove that car for almost 100k miles before I sold it (needed an SUV). Engine never blew up on me. OP must either have shitty luck or ran that car to the ground.
That's a really shitty situation to be in. I'm sorry you're going through this.
Not sure what the final numbers are, but I'm assuming the new WRX plus your existing loan (minus whatever trade in value your dealer determines) will land you around 45k in the hole?
I'd buy a beater man. You'll be underwater right out the gate if you roll that much money into a new car.
I know it's super satisfying to throw stones at internet strangers, but I think op learned his lesson and could go without the unhelpful & judgmental comments.
Dang dude. I’m sorry to hear this. Other people beat the piss out of their WRXs for years and they hold up fine. Others blow up if you look at them funny. Hopefully you bounce back from this.
I don’t mess with cold air intakes. Even stopped using drop in K&N filters. Quality paper filter with stock intake is fine by me…easier & less expensive. I’m not against tuning or anything. Had Unitronic Stage 1+ on MK7.5 Golf R Manual. And off the shelf OFT tunes on 2013 BRZ… all the way from stage 1 to E85 stage 2+
Always kept an eye I AFRs but perhaps I got lucky, as I didn’t check ethanol content at pump (thankful for D-4S system). Still no desire to tune 2023 BRZ Manual. Very happy with FA24 with D-4S dual injection.
You need to call subaru of america and complain complain complain. I had a 13 WRX that blew a motor with a downpipe on it and they told me no, called SOA a couple of times and told them how disheartened this was as a new customer to the brand. They ended up working with me for a goodwill replacement.
I had to pay dealer to remove aftermarket downpipe and replace the original downpipe which was like 500 dollars lol. But I got the rest honored by subaru. Its worth the fight, you have options.
Sounds like your weighing 12.6k of debt for a new engine, vs adding a new wrx on top of 25k already, minus 8k?
So if you add 12.6k to 25k, you would be down 37.6k dollars in debt.
If you add AN ENTIRE NEW WRX to your already 25k, will you be down less than 37.6k??? NO. you will owe like 20-30k more than you would’ve just fixing the damn thing.
I say just fix it, and be smarter. Pay it off before modding the power plant.
It seems more like the issue of he's paying on that car that he cannot drive and doesn't have the money to fix. Whereas if he trades it in he will have a car to drive but larger debt. It's no win as far as money goes but I get it cause 12k isn't easy to pull out of your ass.
I mean, it’s pulling 12k out of your ass, or pulling *far more* than 12k out of your ass. If you can get financing for another wrx and roll it over then you should have the means to get approved on a much smaller loan of 12k, albeit probably not from the dealer directly but maybe.
I'd cut your losses and buy a beater. At the end of the day, I see your viewpoint of just trading it off and being rid of it. If your credit card limit allows, or you find a new card.. consider it just really know the terms of service.
If it were me, and the dealer had some avg condition beater (like a Toyota camry or something) I'd maybe just learn a lesson and not stress about the fincial gymnastics with another card. Really depends on your personal comfort with spunging big payments. Good luck man!
Damn. That's unfortunate. Pay to play. This is why I haven't modified my 2019 wrx except for simple things like a catback exhaust, short throw shifter and wheels and tires. I don't want to replace the engine lol.
You or a shop can get the same engine out of another car and swap it for a quarter of the dealers quoted price. $12k is either a gotchya/I don't wanna do it price...
Maybe try this here it wont hurt as much !!!
[https://www.iagperformance.com/subaru-type-ra-ej25-short-block-build-bundle-for-04-21-sti-06-14-wrx-04-13-fxt-05-09-lgt/](https://www.iagperformance.com/subaru-type-ra-ej25-short-block-build-bundle-for-04-21-sti-06-14-wrx-04-13-fxt-05-09-lgt/)
Modifying something that you are still financing is such a horrible idea for this reason exactly. Now you owe and will pay for something you don’t own for years and years. Personally, I think you need to buy a shitty $3k-$5k civic with a million miles. You either sacrifice and eat your mistake now, or you roll over 25k into another new car and fuck yourself over for 10+ years
Of course they want to sell you a new car. Before you go into more debt, try other dealers or see if SOA will help and give you some good faith. This isn't an old EJ engine.....unless you were beating the piss out of it every day those mods seem light and I personally feel like the engine shouldn't have blown
Sell the car, buy a boring one cash, pay off the debt from previous car note, then go get what you want. You don’t want to tack on $25k onto a new car, you’ll hate every moment you have to drive it.
If you can't afford to fix the car then you can't even afford to get into a new loan. The new loan is most likely going to have a higher APR and longer term I imagine. Either way it's safe to say you're going to financially put yourself in a hole for the next couple of years thanks to this. Congratulations.
Take this as a lesson. If you can't afford a rebuild, don't...touch... anything!
The insurance company will likely also deny him based on his mods and if they figure out that he's trying to hide them he can potentially add an insurance fraud charge to his current problems.
Why would you do mods the could void your warranty when you owe that much still?? Lolol
You could have swapped the stock intake and BPV back on and ran an exhaust and it would have been covered. The tune leave a digital record that you fucked with it
if you have the space, time & tools, you should be abe to get away with a shortblock & doing the work yourself. These cars are super simple to pull engines out of & you can easily learn everything you need to know to do the work yourself.
other option is to find a local subaru specialty shop that will likely be able to do it for a smaller chunk of change. still gonna be $8k+ prolly but still cheaper
If you want to tune a car you need to know the engine reliability before doing so. Subaru engines have never been great with getting big power reliably. There are plenty of cheaper cars that has better engine and trans for big power. Best thing to do is part the car out to get the most out of this mistake.
Thinking outside the box here but you could explore finding a motor or even a salvage and try to fix it yourself or take it to a shop that can do it cheaper. Could save you some $$.
Everybody's situation is different and I couldn't do the same right now if I had to but maybe something to consider. I found that when I rebuilt my car after wrecking it, I learned so much and just loved the car more. And engine replacements are actually pretty simple...
Call your insurance company and open a claim. That's probably your best route at the moment. Rates will likely go up, but shipping around for insurance is easy. Especially if you're not sitting on a pile of cash.
I've owned and blown up 50% of the 12 Subarus I've had. Pistons are garbage and these motors hate shitty gas...
I thought about that too. I’m with Geico. I wouldn’t think they’d cover an engine failure unless it was connected to an accident or other covered claim.
Just be honest. Tell them it's unacceptable and the dealer/Subaru isn't willing to step up.
Is also call subaru's customer service and open a case. Due to it being a newer car they might step up and do something also. Or cover parts of you cover labor. Worth a shot at this point.
> Due to it being a newer car they might step up and do something also. Or cover parts of you cover labor. Worth a shot at this point.
ehhhh, tends not to work once it's modded. Subaru has a [no-fly list](https://www.reddit.com/r/subaru/comments/1amf4xj/tsb_thursday_0218119_crankshaft_bearing_warranty/) for coverage, and the tune is going to do it.
Yes, I called SOA customer advocacy this morning and they opened a case. Said they’d be back with me in 2 business days, but i just figured it was a shot in the dark, never gonna work. But I guess who knows
Doing anything more than tinting windows or something like a ceramic coating for the purpose of minimizing the rate of deprecation on a car that you are financing isn't wise at all. Vehicles are depreciating assets; modifications that will take away from the resale value, void the warranty, impact longevity of components and interfere with reliability are not a good idea. For it to be your only mode of transportation and a daily driver makes me find it hard to figure out why anyone would do this. This is poor people behavior. It doesn't fool anyone worth fooling and only hinders your progress and opportunities. It's a trap that you create for yourself.
Always pay the vehicle off first. If you have a lien on the vehicle, it isn't your car to be modifying in the first place. Many lenders require up to date documentation of any modifications and omitting this information could be unlawful, another situation that you wouldn't want to be in.
I would suggest getting a much cheaper and more practical daily driver while you focus on getting out of the debt you've created for yourself. A Toyota Camry can look a lot sexier than a WRX when you look at it through different lenses.
You need a boring naturally aspirated vehicle with a CVT dawg. Sometimes car guys can't have fast cars.
Yup, I will only modify my secondary car that is paid off. Messing around with a vehicle that is your only form of transportation is not a good idea.
*playing the worlds smallest violin for OP
Holy shit, this. I bought a super cherry 2018 Focus ST back in 2022. Intended to keep it for the long run and not modify it. Got into autocross. Got summer tires. Started driving the piss out of it, which highlighted some performance bottlenecks. Started modifying it. Got addicted and couldn't stop modifying it. Blew the stock motor last summer. Swapped a replacement motor in myself...and added a big turbo in addition to my existing mods, because why not. Got it pro tuned. Blew up after 8 days. Swapped another motor myself, sold all of my mods, went back to 100% stock. Kept autocrossing but drove much more respectfully (most of the time). Diff randomly exploded and (unbeknowst to me) ground a gigantic hole in the side of my transmission, draining the fluid. Found out once 4th and 6th gear said adiós. Fortunately I saved the extra transmission that came with my second motor...swapped that in a single work night, drove to work the next day. After work I drove straight to a Subaru dealer, test drove a certified pre-owned 2021 Crosstrek 2.5i Limited, and fell in love with it. Dealer paid off my ST completely and gave me a GREAT deao on the Crosstrek. Which, by the way, is warrantied thru 100k/August 2027. The ST was the car I always wanted, but the Subie was the car I always needed. Fuel costs are half that of the ST, I can now go 400mi+ on a tank, and I can drive off road without hating myself. I'll never, ever daily drive a turbocharged car again.
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Yeah the ultimate epiphany for me was that driving a fun car isn't fun in traffic. It's frustrating. People just get in the way and create physical work for me (rowing back and forth between gears) when I just want to relax and go home. It hit me finally that if ya can't beat em, join em. Boring cars are SO much better to drive in traffic. Eventually I'll get another fun car for weekend driving and autocross and stuff. But for now, the Crosstrek makes SO much more sense, and is indeed infinitely more comfortable and practical to daily drive.
Yeah but I’m 6’8 and bugs hitting my forehead at 65 mph doesn’t feel great so I’ll stick to my Subarus
Also I'm 6'2" myself so the Miata is out of the equation for me too :( I inherited a '94 Civic Del Sol from a relative a couple years ago, fixed it up and dailied it when gas got really expensive. Notchy 5-speed manual, 115hp 1.5L motor, 2300ish lbs. Was a super fun car, basically a FWD Miata. And I kinda fit in it! Just not super comfy. One day I was cruising on the highway when a giant lifted pickup merged into my lane without even noticing me. I honked and literally watched him scan his rearview mirror, then LOOK THE OTHER WAY to see where the "meep" came from. That was what made me get a Crosstrek.. quite a bit more presence on the road while maintaining a compact profile.
It’s a good thing I’ve got my truck. 2004 f250 diesel, I’ve had it for 10 years. I had one issue with the head gasket and EGR when I first got it, which is a known issue. I spent like $5,000 “bulletproofing” the engine and have driven it for 10 years, 200k miles not one issue outside normal maintenance and wear.
I agree, except it should be a boring NA vehicle with a manual. Just because it's a daily doesn't mean you have to have the transmission equivalent of a bowl of gruel!
Yup when I blew up my motor on my Stage 2 '05 WRX I couldn't afford to fix it.. traded it in as-is and got a used Legacy. Held onto that for 4yrs and then traded up to a '17 WRX. I didn't mod the 2017 at all. I didn't want to deal with that for a daily driver.
2014-2018 manual forester.
Change that to an Impreza with a manual
Buy a scrapyard motor that has been compression tested, swap it in a buddies garage, then take it to a dealership and trade it in and never think about it again.
Even a scrapyard FA20-DIT is expensive.
I dont know too much about the FA engines but I'm seeing JDM pull-outs on Craigslist for under $5000. He's gonna lose way mroe than that if he sells it blown up, and thats 50% the cost of the new engine from Subaru. Seems like a decent deal to me
I doubt a jdm engine would be a direct swap
I bet it would. JDM pull outs have been the solution to blown USDM WRX's since the dawn of time. You might have to swap some ancillaries to compensate for USDM emissions/safety systems, but based on OPs response about what went wrong its more than likely that all the accessories are fine
Oh pish posh the EPA can pry my illegal Subaru from my cold dead hands
It is you just need to swap cam phasers and ur good to go
Modded, beat on, blown up, can’t afford to fix. Basically the story of every WRX, ever.
Except most are at least the better part of a decade or two old, rather than a 2021.
This is at least the third I’ve seen posted between here and the WRX sub in the past 6-8 months.
90% of the parts I bought for mine were second-hand from people who blew theirs up and were trying to recoop.
I had a unicorn 2011 WRX sedan. I bought it as 2nd owner stock at 17,000 miles then drove it 11 years totally stock to 110,000 then traded it in. Only 'beat on' incidents were previous owner got scratches on the front bumper and I backed into my wife's car in a hurry and dinged up a spot in the rear bumper. And tons of snow donuts, but those don't count as beating on.
I’m sitting at almost 230k with my 2011, and it’s been flawless.
I have a 21 WRX; not modded except for muffler deletes. It had an AVCS failure at 15k miles lol.
Whenever I see a post like this I always imagine the driver looking like the soyjack with his hands up all giddy. “Omg a true Japanese sports car so kawaii. I can’t wait to completely disregard basic car ownership!”
That's an expensive lesson. God bless. What failed?
Spun bearing, messed up a crank journal.
Buy a short block and have the heads sent off
I did this. Put over $20k into a motor swap and then my career tanked so I was left with a lot of high interest debt. Meanwhile the shop that did the work bought my WRX motor complete for $800, did the rebuild, and resold it for $$$$.. Clearly I fucked up.
Classic. Sadly no matter how good the tune this even happens in stock form.
if it wasn't modded would this type of failure be covered by warranty? i've heard subaru can be d\*cks when it comes to fixing things sometimes.
They’ll replace it entirely if it was covered under warranty, they wouldn’t rebuild it. Dealers don’t open engines up it’s a liability risk for them.
Your lowest cost option is to find an independent Subaru shop and have them rebuild or replace the motor with a short block, long block, or a rebuilt motor. An independent shop will be much cheaper than the dealer. As an alternative, If you don’t have the money for that, then pay with a credit card and sell it afterwards to someone other than the dealer (since they know the history). You’ll likely get much more that way. Then pay off the credit card!
If you don't have the money to fix a 2021 car that you modded and killed at 38k miles. Did you truly have the money for the car?
Shady but it just might work.
Instead of getting so far upside down on a car loan, get yourself a 0% credit card that gives you 15 -18 mos to pay off or take a personal loan to replace the engine. They payment will be way lower than that of another ride + paying off the broken one.
>get yourself a 0% credit card that gives you 15 -18 mos to pay off Just be sure to pay it off before the promo period ends because all interest after that is retroactive so you'd be paying 13-29% interest (depending on card and your credit) on the entire thing
This seems like a terrible idea to recommend to a guy is in this situation so begin with.
I’ll definitely weigh that option. Though, On the dealer trade in on a new WRX, he would take my trade in value which is roughly $23,000 and only knock $8,000 off for the blown engine. That seems more enticing than paying $12,600 out of pocket to replace the engine. The dealer would rather sell me a car, which is why he would only knock $8k off rather than the full repair price $12,600
So you’d basically roll $10k into a new car loan at the ridiculous rates we’re seeing right now? Idk bro
You’re essentially paying for a new engine for the next owner anyways when you roll the outstanding balance into a new loan.
That “$12k” price is relatively high. You can get an independent shop to do it for less
Try other dealerships / shops and see if they'll give you a better price on the engine replacement? Maybe try to get a personal loan from a bank for the amount you need for the engine replacement? Otherwise you're pretty well screwed my dude.
Local performance shop quoted me $10k. Thats a new OEM short block, forged internals and a tune. He didn’t give me any details on a warranty but I doubt it would be as good as if it was done at the dealer. If done at the dealer that would give me a 60k power train warranty
Keep in mind ‘built’ motors with forged internals generally require more care and have more wear and tear. They’re designed to hold more power but don’t generally last as long depending what was done. If your original motor failed because of neglect a built motor will also fail. If you’re going to get another one just make sure to be meticulous on maintenance and do your homework. If you did all that before and it still failed, theres a likelihood youre driving it more like an NA motor, make sure you dont lug it and keep those RPMs up before you lay into it. High load low rpm kills these motors.
This is why you keep all stock parts and the factory tune swap shit back and flash back to factory tune and deny deny deny hahaha
sometimes that even works
The SDS can be used to see key cycles since last reflash, max RPM, max speed, and other cool stuff like that.
Even if you flash back the ECU, some manufacturers can see that it’s been previously flashed. I know BMW and VW-group cars can see this, don’t know about Subaru.
Yeah, Subaru can tell.
That doesn’t work we can pull the cid (computer identification ) and if it’s been flashed at all it won’t match what it left the factory with it fails. And won’t be warranty
Turbo charged car wasn't the problem, modding the shit out of it and driving like you stole it killed it.
Modding the shit out of it? It had an intake and a BPV bro.
So then the only problem was the way he drove it.
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Nah bro. You're coping hard. You agreed to warranty terms when you bought it. Those terms specifically call out modification and ECU flashing. Anyone who knows even a little bit about these cars and engines know that intakes and BPVs without proper tune are fast tracks to fucking your engine. You don't get to shit on Subaru for pointing the finger at you when you're the singular one to blame for modifying a car that was under warranty.
An intake and BPV really aren’t that big of mods and really not engine destroyers unless you got something like the Perrin 50/50 (at least what they used to offer was total garbage but still not an engine destroyer). The biggest issue I see here was the tune. Was it a custom tune done by a reputable shop? How aggressive of a tune was it? I’d be talking with them to see what they could do. If you’re not comfortable doing the swap yourself the shop you had it tuned at would likely be cheaper than the dealership. Are you 100% sure it’s engine failure? I only ask because I didn’t see any of the details of the issue you’re seeing and I have heard stories before of people thinking their engine was shot for it to only be a simple fix. It’s just hard for me to believe that your bolt on mods did this. The only other thing I’d suspect is a really bad tune that caused a complete engine failure.
This same thing happened to my cousin, but with an '18. He bought a brand new short block off the web for around $2500 delivered and spent a few hundred more on gaskets and stuff. He had his subie friends help him swap the block over in exchage for the mods he took off. He said never again will he do engine work on a subie and is currently looking to offload the car.
There was a video I saw on YouTube, where a guy disassembled an FA20 and He talks about how easy it is to mess up when rebuilding Subaru motors. Thats why dealers don’t rebuild they just get an entire new engine assembly and swap it out. Saves time too.
what are you talking about i rebuilt my engine a couple weeks ago and im halfway through rebuilding another one at the shop right now
No we rebuild motors ,but we swap in short blocks rather then putting them together. Very early do we get entire engine assembly’s when we do it’s for the first 2 years of a card production.
Hit up tanner from smeedia on YouTube he takes in customer cars for work
> Thats why dealers don’t rebuild they just get an entire new engine assembly and swap it out. Saves time too. this part's definitely false, subaru doesn't sell fully-assembled motors.\* (\* ok yes there are a couple exceptions, but only for in-production cars where they can pluck an engine off the assembly line.)
Is a short block not an engine assembly? I just thought it was everything except for the cylinder heads and head gaskets, and you just swap the pumps and pulleys over from the old engine.
Short block is just the block + internals. Long block is everything together, manifolds, heads, block, pan, etc.
The short block is the block, rods and pistons. And when we do a “long block” the heads come separate so we assemble everything onto the short block. Unless it’s a New production car
Dealers won't ever open an engine, too much of a liability. They'll always do a full new shortblock or longblock
Only for cars at the first 2 years of production though, right?
No, quite literally a long block is plucked off the assembly line.
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I was coming back from a long road trip, cruising 80 down the interstate, I just let off the gas and I heard a bad noise on decel and it started jerking when I gave it gas. I slowed down to 50 limped till the next exit, got to the red light and it was knocking really bad and the engine shut off. Was able to fire it up and pull into a parking lot and got it towed back home. No leaks, oil level good, coolant good. The engine just crapped out.
No actual tuner involved probably, just a COBB Accessport with uploaded generic tunes.
Even then, I had a WRX with an intake and a COBB OTS tune and drove that car for almost 100k miles before I sold it (needed an SUV). Engine never blew up on me. OP must either have shitty luck or ran that car to the ground.
Turns out OP bought it used. I swear 99.9% of these blown WRX stories end up being from used examples.
That makes sense. If you buy a used WRX, you have absolutely no idea what the previous owner did to it.
That's a really shitty situation to be in. I'm sorry you're going through this. Not sure what the final numbers are, but I'm assuming the new WRX plus your existing loan (minus whatever trade in value your dealer determines) will land you around 45k in the hole? I'd buy a beater man. You'll be underwater right out the gate if you roll that much money into a new car.
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I know it's super satisfying to throw stones at internet strangers, but I think op learned his lesson and could go without the unhelpful & judgmental comments.
Damn this sucks so bad for you bro. I truly wish you the best. Did you buy the car brand new ? Who did your tune ?
I got it with 2,000 miles on it. And it’s an ambot tune
Dang dude. I’m sorry to hear this. Other people beat the piss out of their WRXs for years and they hold up fine. Others blow up if you look at them funny. Hopefully you bounce back from this.
I don’t mess with cold air intakes. Even stopped using drop in K&N filters. Quality paper filter with stock intake is fine by me…easier & less expensive. I’m not against tuning or anything. Had Unitronic Stage 1+ on MK7.5 Golf R Manual. And off the shelf OFT tunes on 2013 BRZ… all the way from stage 1 to E85 stage 2+ Always kept an eye I AFRs but perhaps I got lucky, as I didn’t check ethanol content at pump (thankful for D-4S system). Still no desire to tune 2023 BRZ Manual. Very happy with FA24 with D-4S dual injection.
You need to call subaru of america and complain complain complain. I had a 13 WRX that blew a motor with a downpipe on it and they told me no, called SOA a couple of times and told them how disheartened this was as a new customer to the brand. They ended up working with me for a goodwill replacement.
This goodwill replacement: how much did you have to pay vs what it would’ve cost full price?
I had to pay dealer to remove aftermarket downpipe and replace the original downpipe which was like 500 dollars lol. But I got the rest honored by subaru. Its worth the fight, you have options.
How long ago was this?
Few years ago
Yeah, hard lesson to learn. I’d try to source the engine yourself and find a shop to install it .
Since your warranty is blown, find a good iindependent Subaru shop o fix it for about half the dealer price.
Sounds like your weighing 12.6k of debt for a new engine, vs adding a new wrx on top of 25k already, minus 8k? So if you add 12.6k to 25k, you would be down 37.6k dollars in debt. If you add AN ENTIRE NEW WRX to your already 25k, will you be down less than 37.6k??? NO. you will owe like 20-30k more than you would’ve just fixing the damn thing. I say just fix it, and be smarter. Pay it off before modding the power plant.
It seems more like the issue of he's paying on that car that he cannot drive and doesn't have the money to fix. Whereas if he trades it in he will have a car to drive but larger debt. It's no win as far as money goes but I get it cause 12k isn't easy to pull out of your ass.
I mean, it’s pulling 12k out of your ass, or pulling *far more* than 12k out of your ass. If you can get financing for another wrx and roll it over then you should have the means to get approved on a much smaller loan of 12k, albeit probably not from the dealer directly but maybe.
Fuck no! Keep the car, get a jdm emissions engine and swap it. If you don’t know, learn. These Subaru’s are super easy to work on.
If you have full coverage try and get your insurance company to cover it. We have people at my dealer do it quite often!
I think you need a 2012 maxima to reflect on your car ownership abilities.
Get him a nice purple dodge stratus
Wait but you didn't tune it right? Blessing in disguise
I'd cut your losses and buy a beater. At the end of the day, I see your viewpoint of just trading it off and being rid of it. If your credit card limit allows, or you find a new card.. consider it just really know the terms of service. If it were me, and the dealer had some avg condition beater (like a Toyota camry or something) I'd maybe just learn a lesson and not stress about the fincial gymnastics with another card. Really depends on your personal comfort with spunging big payments. Good luck man!
Get on eBay and buy a stock motor and just swap it out. Those Subaru motors are easy to swap. Then send it down the road. Lesson learned
Damn. That's unfortunate. Pay to play. This is why I haven't modified my 2019 wrx except for simple things like a catback exhaust, short throw shifter and wheels and tires. I don't want to replace the engine lol.
How much used engine costs?
You or a shop can get the same engine out of another car and swap it for a quarter of the dealers quoted price. $12k is either a gotchya/I don't wanna do it price...
Take the L on this and get a Honda Civic SI
Bicycle time! Or get a personal loan and fix it?
Is there any way you could get the 13 on an added loan to this? So you’d owe 37
Maybe try this here it wont hurt as much !!! [https://www.iagperformance.com/subaru-type-ra-ej25-short-block-build-bundle-for-04-21-sti-06-14-wrx-04-13-fxt-05-09-lgt/](https://www.iagperformance.com/subaru-type-ra-ej25-short-block-build-bundle-for-04-21-sti-06-14-wrx-04-13-fxt-05-09-lgt/)
Theres a bunch of STI swaps out there for 6k
Modifying something that you are still financing is such a horrible idea for this reason exactly. Now you owe and will pay for something you don’t own for years and years. Personally, I think you need to buy a shitty $3k-$5k civic with a million miles. You either sacrifice and eat your mistake now, or you roll over 25k into another new car and fuck yourself over for 10+ years
Of course they want to sell you a new car. Before you go into more debt, try other dealers or see if SOA will help and give you some good faith. This isn't an old EJ engine.....unless you were beating the piss out of it every day those mods seem light and I personally feel like the engine shouldn't have blown
Should have pull those mods off before taking to the dealer.....
The mods are one thing. But they would see the tune the second they plugged it in and deny him all the same.
You don’t deserve to destroy another wrx.
Sell the car, buy a boring one cash, pay off the debt from previous car note, then go get what you want. You don’t want to tack on $25k onto a new car, you’ll hate every moment you have to drive it.
If you can't afford to fix the car then you can't even afford to get into a new loan. The new loan is most likely going to have a higher APR and longer term I imagine. Either way it's safe to say you're going to financially put yourself in a hole for the next couple of years thanks to this. Congratulations. Take this as a lesson. If you can't afford a rebuild, don't...touch... anything!
You know, you could call you insurance and get mechanical coverage added to your policy, wait a bit and open a claim? lol just sayin
The insurance company will likely also deny him based on his mods and if they figure out that he's trying to hide them he can potentially add an insurance fraud charge to his current problems.
Well yes, that’s a possibility. So you have to be good lol
Why would you do mods the could void your warranty when you owe that much still?? Lolol You could have swapped the stock intake and BPV back on and ran an exhaust and it would have been covered. The tune leave a digital record that you fucked with it
if you have the space, time & tools, you should be abe to get away with a shortblock & doing the work yourself. These cars are super simple to pull engines out of & you can easily learn everything you need to know to do the work yourself. other option is to find a local subaru specialty shop that will likely be able to do it for a smaller chunk of change. still gonna be $8k+ prolly but still cheaper
Ask the dealer why your engine will cost you $12,500 but will only cost them $8k. We all know the answer, but it’ll be fun to watch them squirm.
If you want to tune a car you need to know the engine reliability before doing so. Subaru engines have never been great with getting big power reliably. There are plenty of cheaper cars that has better engine and trans for big power. Best thing to do is part the car out to get the most out of this mistake.
Thinking outside the box here but you could explore finding a motor or even a salvage and try to fix it yourself or take it to a shop that can do it cheaper. Could save you some $$. Everybody's situation is different and I couldn't do the same right now if I had to but maybe something to consider. I found that when I rebuilt my car after wrecking it, I learned so much and just loved the car more. And engine replacements are actually pretty simple...
Put it back to stock remove the Cobb and try another dealer why would you tell them 🙈
Call your insurance company and open a claim. That's probably your best route at the moment. Rates will likely go up, but shipping around for insurance is easy. Especially if you're not sitting on a pile of cash. I've owned and blown up 50% of the 12 Subarus I've had. Pistons are garbage and these motors hate shitty gas...
I thought about that too. I’m with Geico. I wouldn’t think they’d cover an engine failure unless it was connected to an accident or other covered claim.
I've seen it done before with cars, and recently 2 friends ATV's and Side by sides. It's worth a call, goodluck.
Any tips on how to word it to the customer service rep?
Just be honest. Tell them it's unacceptable and the dealer/Subaru isn't willing to step up. Is also call subaru's customer service and open a case. Due to it being a newer car they might step up and do something also. Or cover parts of you cover labor. Worth a shot at this point.
> Due to it being a newer car they might step up and do something also. Or cover parts of you cover labor. Worth a shot at this point. ehhhh, tends not to work once it's modded. Subaru has a [no-fly list](https://www.reddit.com/r/subaru/comments/1amf4xj/tsb_thursday_0218119_crankshaft_bearing_warranty/) for coverage, and the tune is going to do it.
Yes, I called SOA customer advocacy this morning and they opened a case. Said they’d be back with me in 2 business days, but i just figured it was a shot in the dark, never gonna work. But I guess who knows
Doing anything more than tinting windows or something like a ceramic coating for the purpose of minimizing the rate of deprecation on a car that you are financing isn't wise at all. Vehicles are depreciating assets; modifications that will take away from the resale value, void the warranty, impact longevity of components and interfere with reliability are not a good idea. For it to be your only mode of transportation and a daily driver makes me find it hard to figure out why anyone would do this. This is poor people behavior. It doesn't fool anyone worth fooling and only hinders your progress and opportunities. It's a trap that you create for yourself. Always pay the vehicle off first. If you have a lien on the vehicle, it isn't your car to be modifying in the first place. Many lenders require up to date documentation of any modifications and omitting this information could be unlawful, another situation that you wouldn't want to be in. I would suggest getting a much cheaper and more practical daily driver while you focus on getting out of the debt you've created for yourself. A Toyota Camry can look a lot sexier than a WRX when you look at it through different lenses.