In this thread I'll post my dealings with my new 2009 Outback XT, mainly for my own sake and sanity, but at the same time for any help or input I can gather from anyone who is willing to give their two cents. Feel free to comment, complain, correct; whatever floats your boat.
I met Nigel on March 26th, 2015. It was a rainy day and he was sitting on the last few inches of Boston snow. His owner was happy to let me take him for a test drive, and so I hopped on the highway and was off. This was one of the smoothest rides I had been in, and it didn't take long to convince me that this was the car for me. I wrote him a check, got all the paperwork in order, and was off within an hour.
What I know about Nigel so far:
Purchased by second owner in August of 2014 as a daily driver for his wife.
After driving 3,000 miles they noticed the engine was having some trouble so they took it into Subaru. Subaru recommended replacing the engine and turbo and timing belt.
Because he had purchased an extended warranty, EVERYTHING (short block engine, gasket and seal set, turbocharger, oil pump, timing belt) was replaced for no cost to him.
300 Miles later he had the starter replaced, covered by the warranty.
As the newest owner, the extended 3rd party warranty transferred to me, and still has 31 months/31,000 miles left on it.
Here's what I might have done differently during this purchase but have no control over now:
Asked the previous owner if I could have my mechanic look at the car before I finalized the sale.
Run a CarFax.
I think that's enough for DAY 1. Day 2 had enough headaches of its own!
When I picked up the car I immediately drove home on my old expired plates, parked it and waited until I could go to the RMV the next day. After accomplishing a respectable 39 minute wait at the RMV, and finding some cheap insurance to get me on the road, I went home to start Nigel for the day.
First thing I noticed was a flashing cruise control light, the check engine light on, and the the traction control light on. Thankfully @rasterman brought my attention to the built in diagnostic scanner, and so I found two codes that came up:
EGI P2443: Sec Air Inj Sys Switching Valve Stuck Closed
ABS C0071: steering angle sensor
After getting over my primary frustration of it only being the first full day of owning the car, I did a little research and looked into each code.
I'm hoping the first one will be covered under the extended warranty, and if not I'm not sure if I will fix it or disable the code (if I can even do that). The nearest Subaru dealership is full next week, so because I have to get it inspected anyway I'll have my trusty mechanic take a look as well.
OK, that's not so bad. You will learn with the XT that some failures are annoyances, and others demand that you stop driving immediately and get a tow.
This one isn't that bad. The secondary air injection system is strictly a pollution control mechanism, and will not significantly damage the vehicle if the system is inoperative. Your biggest liability here is that if another problem happens, you won't necessarily notice it because the CEL is already active.
You should still get it looked at, and I see no reason why your warranty would not cover it.
@rasterman, I brought this over from the other thread because I wanted to be able to discuss it over here with anyone interested in the life of Nigel.
I'm probably getting myself too worked up with trying to research this more without A) having either my mechanic or Subaru's mechanics look at it and B) find out in the first place if the transferred warranty coverage will include this being fixed at all.
BUT - Does anyone have any suggestions on how to go about this problem? I'm tired of having the check engine light on which forces me to be driving in Sport mode all the time, and I wouldn't mind having traction control on either...
Given that the air injection code is relatively harmless, you can reset the check engine light by disconnecting and reconnecting the battery.
You don't want to get into the habit of canceling the check engine light repeatedly at least not until you've researched anything that it might be showing you.
Again I'm only suggesting this because that isn't a particularly dangerous code that it is showing you.
I guess I wouldn't be too surprised that you're having some little difficulties with it so shortly after a major transplant.
The secondary air injection system may be working fine but there may be a problem with the sensor or the wiring connected to it. On the other hand, the actuator itself might be broken.
Some owners have removed or disabled that system entirely without continuing difficulty for the rest of the car. I don't have much experience with that system. My car is too old to have it fitted. The feature was first included with the 2007 model year.
Where in Massachusetts are you? I visit up that way pretty often myself; was just there last week. If your warranty is directly from Subaru, it is portable and you can take the car to any other dealer. That might help your scheduling situation.
I hadn't thought of that: is this something that has to be taken out of the way in order for the new engine and turbo to be put in? That does make sense.
If it looks like it's going to be a big expense then this might be my course of action, I'm okay with changing something if it's not going to make a huge difference.
Where in Massachusetts are you? I visit up that way pretty often myself; was just there last week. If your warranty is directly from Subaru, it is portable and you can take the car to any other dealer. That might help your scheduling situation.
I'm inside the 128 Loop, but definitely within close enough driving distance to 5 dealerships. The extended warranty isn't directly from Subaru unfortunately, and the owner told me that the new engine and turbo were under true Subaru warranty; but I was informed at the dealership that this wasn't the case. Apparently as soon as whoever had work done on the car is no longer in possession, nothing transfers.
Well, there's Boxer Motorworks in Salem or Beverly I think. However Old Chub has a warranty and should exhaust all resources there before going independent.
DAY 5: I will be driving to Subaru of Wakefield today after work because they were able to schedule me for an appointment this afternoon, AND they're open until 8pm so I should be able to have a better idea of what is going on with both error codes as well as an estimate for repairs.
For a side note: just for self-assurance sake I called the previous owner and asked him if the check engine light had come on for him within the last three months, and he said he knew nothing about it. I wasn't looking for recompense or someone to blame for the light coming on within 24 hours, I was just hoping that maybe he had an idea of these problems. He said he hadn't and asked me to keep him informed of the process because he didn't want me to have any huge expenses within the first couple days of owning the car. I truly didn't call expecting him to cough up an extra few hundred dollars, after all - the car [and all it's problems] is mine now, but I must say in this day and age I am super appreciative of someone who actually wants good to be done in this world.
The Subaru service center couldn't guarantee me they'd be able to find the air pump valve code because I had disconnected the battery. They also said I'd probably face failing an inspection because I most likely hadn't gone through a proper run-cycle (I'll be trying this either tonight or tomorrow, have to wait for the engine to cool down again). So rather than risk paying $60 for a possible empty diagnostic fee, I'll wait a day or too and hope the light comes back on, or at least that I'll be able to pass inspection within the required week time frame.
Previous owner called me back and said he wanted to help out - now if I can just get the check engine light to come back on! (I never thought I'd say that!)
I suggest short trips with breaks in between them.
The secondary air system is only active for a short period during warm-up. It is dormant the rest of the time. I don't know if it activates when the car has recently been run.
DAY 6: Check engine light came on again today after work. I drove immediately to Subaru of Wakefield to get it checked out and an estimate for repairs. Still in the waiting room.
Thanks eagleeye, at least I feel like I'm taking steps in the right direction. My main concern right now is to simply get it to pass inspection by Friday.
If not, do they give you a 30 day pass there so you can drive it around a bit to get it fixed ? (and then on the 31st day or thereafter the cops can right you a ticket for no inspection).
Well, it's definitely the air pump, and it will definitely be expensive, as you all already know.
The kicker? The previous owner wants to pay for it. And I quote "I would hate to have given you a car that is not running 100% as it should one day after you've had it. Keep me updated, have Subaru contact me for credit card information, and we will make sure this gets worked out."
Nigel goes into the shop on Friday morning, I'll have more updates after that.
Something doesn't sound right. The air pump itself is on top of the engine, right in front of the air conditioning compressor. I know there are ducts, tubes, wires, and possibly even tentacles extending out in many different directions throughout that engine compartment, but the pump itself is sitting right on top. I think there's been a miscommunication somewhere.
That's what I was thinking when you mentioned it being the first thing taken off and last thing put back on. I'll do some more research tomorrow and try to find a picture somewhere.
I just bought a 2008 2.5i w/ 106K. It's got a few issues (whine in steering pump), but I'm hoping will be relatively solid for a while as it's replacing a perfectly good Civic with similar miles.
I'll be going to the RMV w/ RMV-1 form in sweaty hand to pick up plates so I can move it from the current owner's driveway and start to drive it.
I have an appt w/ Cityside Subaru in Belmont for timing belt replacement and some other deferred maintenance plus state inspection.
I'm in Allston now, but when I lived in Reading my ex used to take her 05 Impreza to Wakefield and they were always reliable.
I'm hoping your upkeep isn't too bad, the main reason I went with a "newer" car was so that I wouldn't have problems like this. Then again, it's a car, what else is it supposed to do but give you headaches? I honestly wouldn't have bought this car if I had to fix the timing belt anytime soon, but that was one of my many stipulations in my searching.
I'm glad to hear Wakefield was reliable, the reason I'm having it looked at there is Cityside told me I'd have to wait at least a week for them to even look at it, let alone start fixing it. Wakefield just has a much bigger facility than Cityside as you know.
DAY 7: Nigel had a pretty easy day today. Bought him some jumper cables to hide away in the tire compartment. Before that I used them to jump the convertible as I'm getting ready to give it back to my friend after a successful winter in it.
A question for Nigel though; once I get everything sorted out with the air pump and steering angle sensor codes and whatnot, when's an "okay" time to actually see what the turbo does in this car? I'm sitting at about 600+ miles on the engine/turbo right now, and my hope is to have them both last for a while (isn't that everyone's?), but how long should I wait to go over 4k RPMs? 1,000 miles? 1,500 miles? More?
The previous owner said I should get an oil change at 1,000 miles as well. He mentioned that the dealership that put in the engine said it wasn't necessary, but should I go forward and have one done? My hope is to do whatever I can do to keep this engine running well and for a long time.
I admit, I didn't bother looking up the official guidelines and having bought mine used, I never had this opportunity with mine.
The #1 factor I've seen in killing these engines is running out of oil. Even when in perfect health, they will use a little. And it is not in a predictable pattern, which is a little frustrating. The only defense is dipstick diligence. I think checking it at every fill-up is overkill, but only checking once halfway between 3,750-mile changes is dangerous. Find your own balance between those guidelines. Bonus tip: they burn some oils more than others. I've tried a few and settled on shell rotella T6 as the right compromise in price, protection and burn rate. I didn't discover this- I borrowed this experience from many WRX & STI owners who figured this out.
I'd say the second factor is delayed maintenance/repair. These engines just don't tolerate it. If something goes wrong, stop driving and assess the situation. While you have already encountered something that will tolerate some delay, many other problems won't, and you should be ready for it. Sometimes it may mean pulling over immediately to check it out, and it may mean canceling plans and getting a tow.
I don't mean to be gloom-and-doom about it- I've only had two incidents in 4+ years/50k miles of ownership. Both were cleared up in less than an hour, no tows needed yet (touch wood).
Could using Rotella come back to haunt me in regards to the extended warranty? I can talk to my mechanic and see what the invoice would look like, but I'm under the impression that if I don't use 5w-30 then I void anything pertaining to the engine.
I also had excellent results from amsoil 5w-30. I can't remember the exact product name, it was just their regular full synthetic. The biggest reasons I had for switching away were high cost and limited availability.
It guzzled Mobil 1 like the first barrel at Oktoberfest.
I can get Rotella super cheap from Amazon via subscribe and save, so I'm thinking I'll go that route. Should I be particular about filters? A mechanic by my work said something about OEM Subaru filter?
Some folks swear by the blue Subaru ones. They can be had in quantity for around $6/ea.
I buy Mann #1014 filters from rock for under $3/ea. I won't claim that they're better, or even exactly as good. Just that they've kept my car going fine for 56k miles and counting. I think too many people freak out about filters.
I've still never heard of a warranty claim denied by filter choice.
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