Bear with me here, as I will tell a bit of a story about why Im thinking of changing my car  :mutley:

My girlfriend is from Slovakia, so instead of flying we thought we would drive over for Christmas, and stop off at Prague for a night out. Plus we could take lots of presents in the boot! We went for a tour round Europe in my car in the Summer and it was fantastic, so thought it would be like that again....




We set off Friday 18th Dec at 11pm and headed for Dover. It was snowing, but I bought some new Michelin Pilot Alpin tyres and they worked fantastically! The trip was fine and we were 9 miles from dover, with about 40mins to check in. We then hit traffic, and from that point to actually getting on the ferry it took is 11 hours, which wasnt the best start to out holidays.

At this point we decided to miss Prague out as we would get there far too late to do anything, so would just drive through the night to get to the in-laws earlier. The temps were very low around minus 15, but it wasnt a problem really as we were just going steady.

In the middle of Germany my lass was driving and I was trying to sleep, when I looked at the Oil Pressure Gauge and it was fluctuating between 4 and 5 bar, which was worrying as it has always been a steady 6 bar. The next petrol station was about 2km away so to stop safely I told her to carry on to there. The oil pressure kept going lower though and eventually got down to 1 bar which is stupidly low, but there wasnt a lot I could do. Luckily at this point she pulled in and for about 3 seconds there was a knocking noise, and she turned the car off immediately and I pushed it in to a car park space. Im not sure if this knocking was the big ends, or valves etc.

I checked the oil and there was obviously nothing on the dip stick. I was shaking with cold straight away too, as the car thermometer was showing -22 at this point. I got the torch out and looked for leaks, split pipes, but everything was spot on. Which Id rather have been able to see something to be honest.

So the decision was to call the AA or fill back up with oil and try again. I phoned the AA and was on the phone for about 40mins but was on hold which really pissed me off, so then decided to go and buy some oil. My theory was I had already travelled around 900miles, and there was only another 400 odd to go, so I thought if there was a leak I should hopefully get to the in-laws then sort the car out. Bought 5 litres of oil for 135euro, filled up, and set off, and all seemed good!!

Now we were in Austria and all seemed ok. The oil pressure stayed at 6 bar, but all of a sudden there was a big pop, and lots of smoke out the back of the car So pulled in to the smallest lay-by in the world and phoned the AA. I got through this time and explained everything, and they were going to send a pick up truck out to me, and I thought take us to Slovakia. After SEVEN hours sat in freezing conditions (minus 20) a truck eventually picked us up and off we set. But 20 minutes later we got to a closed Subaru garage where he unloaded the car and drove off. He didnt speak a word of the queens, and seemed a tit really.

So now I had to phone the AA again, and they explained the would get us to Slovakia, just not my car. Which I wasnt happy with as I didnt want to leave my car in the middle of a random country etc etc. Pretty crap service up to now.
My lass phoned her dad and he organised his friend to come to get us with a trailer and take us to her house. So 5 hours later we got the car on to the back of the trailer and set off to her house    We got there and slept! It took us 53 hours instead of about the 20 we had planned!! Best journey ever.




Anyway, the car went to the Subaru garage in my lasses town, but nothing got down for ages due to it being xmas. Which my lasses dad didnt like to he went to the garage and started stripping it down himself.
The inter cooler (front mount) was full of oil, and the turbo had a sh*t load of play in it.

It turned out the oil seals had failed and destroyed the bearings. I got this rebuild at a turbo shop at the cost of 350euro, and a total of 12 hours driving. Her dad put it all back together and all seemed spot on    But then the garage owner compression tested it and said two cylinders were low on compression.........But her dad said the owner is an idiot and doesnt know what hes doing, so not to trust his decision. His opinion was the engine was ok, and to be fair the engine sounds like it always has done.
Luckily for me, the garage agreed to tell the AA I needed a new engine, at which point the AA agreed to ship the car back to the UK for me under their policy. This is due back tomorrow, hopefully!

So Im going to take it to my local garage and get it tested properly.

This is where Im not sure what to do with it:
1). If the engine is knackered I am going to get a new engine for it and keep it. Although I cant really afford it, but it would need doing, plus the missus will help. If I go down this route, I would get a proper forged build.

2). If the engine turns out to be ok, do I sell it and get rid? I wouldnt sell a knackered car, I would only sell it if its ok. But it has been a lot of hassle recently!!!!


But I wouldnt know what car to get really if I did need a new one. Id want something fun to drive, and keep me entertained. I wouldnt want an Evo as they are too like Impreza and I dont see the point. I like Skylines, but for my price range could only get an old one. Half thought about a M3 perhaps, or a 3.2s Boxster......I would have about £12k to spend!! I dont really want anything older than 2002 and lots less than 100,000 miles.

My impreza at the moment has all the suspension and handling done, and lots of other work. Its running 430bhp so is fun to drive etc, and I would want something as fun really.

What are your thoughts?


Sorry for the long post!! lol

Chris

turbos fail, it comes with the territory, recon or replace it, clean the oil out of the IC and pipework and keep the car IMO

Ive not really heard of these turbos failing though to be honest. Not that they dont, but on the owners forum I dont know of one which has. Its a £1700 turbo, and was only fitted and mapped in July.

It was under warranty, but as I had it fixed in Slovakia, as I thought I was going to get home on it, the warranty is now invalid.

Of course it has failed, but I dont know if it failed due to something in the engine chucking all the oil out, then obviously the turbo will have been starved of oil, and hence the failure. OR, it could have just been the turbo failing and nothing to do with the engine?!

if it were the engine that lost the oil thered be a big hole somewhere, sounds like a defect in the turbo caused wear and blew the oil seals to me

if the compression is low, it could be cracked ringlands or damaged rings due to detonation. Too much ignition advance, too much boost and maybe not enough fuel would do that. Especially if you had poor quality fuel. it would have been burning oil like mad though - coming out of the breather etc.

What sort of turbo is it that it was £1700 though ? Even a GT4088 is only about £1k.

if you need any sort of tuning advice, a friend is involved with one of the most successful (On the drag strip) subaru tuners in ireland.

What a story Chris! At least youve got some sort of conclusion.

hehe, yeah I wont be forgetting that in a while.

I do hope it was only the turbo to be honest.

Mark, it is this turbo....probably way over priced, but it is reguarded as one of the best on the owners forum, so I just followed everyone else like a sheep. http://lateralperformance.co.uk/product.php/10/18/md321t__450bhp________________________new_special_xmas_price_________________________
Also, It was running 1.6bar, and mapped by a bloke called Simon Roe of http://www.jollygreenmonster.com/ who has a fantastic rep now. Although it could be map related still, Im not saying he is a god or anything, lol.

When me and my lass both drove, it was 95% of the time off boost. I could have stuck some crap fuel in though, as its mapped on V-Power which is what I only ever use. But obviously driving across Europe I had to use random make fuel, although I always put in the Premium stuff. But yeah, it could have caused Det........although, I have a KS3 Knock Analyser http://www.phormula.co.uk/Player.aspx?clip=KS3-Settings&title=Settings%20-%20KS-3%20Knock%20Analyser Which I thought would have picked up on any det, but it stayed in its normal state, and Ive been told that the ECU is suprising good at retarting the ignition if any det is detected. But again, this is just what Ive been told......so could be bullsh*t.

Hopefully the car will get dropped off today and i will try and drive it. Would I be able to tell if the compression was low from just driving it?


Cheers

Buy a cheap tester and try it yourself, its dead easy.

And change that turbo to a GT35 - theyre half the price of that, and capable of much more.

here is a local GT35d car

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJvjbhmfIpo

The turbos like the GT35 doesnt bolt directly on unfortunately You need to buy a rotated setup which is a total rip off, plus you then need a new air intake etc. The turbo I have is now fixed though.

Looks a quick car that!! Whats the lads name who drives it?


The car was suppose to be delivered today, but I phoned up and the AA said due to bad weather it will be Monday or Tuesday now

Youre right - the so called kits are a rip off.

Ive seen ones that charge 2.5k for a gt35 kit and the parts are worth about 300 tops.

When the turbo oil seals went, was it not smoking like a train - and belching smoke at idle?

lol, yeah! This is the kit, just for the up and down pipe http://www.rogerclarkmotorsport.co.uk/shop_detail.asp?productID=1637 Plus youd then need the actual turbo, air intake etc etc.

As for the smoke......I didnt really notice any to be honest. When the oil pressure first dropped, the car seemed normal. The only time I noticed a bit of smoke, was in Dover when we were waiting 11 hours. But I kept turning my car on and off all the time, and I thought the smoke was down to the condensation in the exhaust. As I dont have any cats, I always get a bit of white smoke out the back for 5mins while the water goes out the exhaust.
When the pop happened, yeah quite a bit of smoke came out at this point!! Tons. A lot of the driving was at night though to be honest, and I couldnt really see any smoke while driving. Im not saying there wasnt any.
Also, if the compressor side seal went 1st, this would explain the front mount inter cooler being full of oil to wouldnt it?

Out of interest was the AA work done on breakdown cover or are you insured on the AA too?

Just wondering in terms of whether the car breakdown would class as a problem if you took holiday insurance out or something?

I took out an annual AA European Policy (£150ish) and Travel Insurance from the Post office.

Ive not claimed anything from the Post Office though....I wouldnt know if I would be able to really though?

Everything has gone through AA Europe, which includes:
- Flat bed transport to a closed Subaru garage, we then paid someone to transport us to Slovakia
- They are paying the Slovakian Subaru garage up to £500 for labour, although I took the turbo myself to somewhere to be rebuilt.
- They got me a courtesy car in Slovakia and UK
- They flew 3 of us home
- They are transporting my car back from Slovakia to my house in the UK.

bargin at £150 !!!!


would have probably been thousands without that ?

Yeah, definitely would have cost a bomb.