[hoffmanbike]

2007 Subaru outback 2.5i potential engine failure 119,000 miles

i just bought 3.5 months ago with 114,500 miles on it.

this past weekend i was on a trip in southern VT, as i was climbing a hill out of Manchester i suddenly lost power, I pulled off to the side of the road and stalled out. check engine light came on briefly too.

got it towed (AAA) to where i was staying, then home (Chicopee, MA) the next day. OBD2 reader has error code P0302, cyl 2 misfire.

Monday i have work, so my dad installs new spark plug (ngk platinum) in cylinder 2, no change.

the dealer (Balise Hyundai) where i bought it from so far has actually told me to take the car elsewhere as it's not under warranty. literally doesn't even want to look at the car they sold me.

the car just barely runs and will stall quickly at idle, but i am able to drive it to a local shop i use to clean the floors at. they diagnose and find that cyl 2 has zero compression. my shops guess is anything from a bent/broken valve to broken camshaft/drive shaft. they figure at least a head disassemble/replacement if not a full engine replacement and are giving me a quote for that tomorrow, so that i can go yell at the dealer.

my dad thinks it could be a burnt/stuck valve or that the timing belt skipped/jumped, thus resulting in bent/broken valve.

what are your ideas?

what other info can i provide/do you need?

and how do i go about opening a claim with SOA if the engine just randomly (and catastrophically) failed?

Please HELP!

Thanks,
Zack

 

[John E Davies]

2007 Subaru outback 2.5i potential engine failure 119,000 miles

and how do i go about opening a claim with SOA if the engine just randomly (and catastrophically) failed?

You will have to eat the cost of this failure - Subaru has no liability with that many years and miles on the engine. The dealer that sold you the car is probably not going to do anything since it has been a few months since the purchase. If it had happened a week after, you would probably see them act.

Do you know if the timing belt was changed on schedule? I bet it was not, and that is why the original owner traded it in, to avoid the expense. Do you have the maintenance history?

It's hard to accept, but this is the risk you run when you buy a used car with lots of miles on it.

Good luck.

John Davies
Spokane WA USA

 

[hoffmanbike]

hi John yes I understand Subaru has no actual liability but I have heard they will help in extreme cases which I think this might be I was not expecting Subaru to do much of anything but I would at least like to try to file a claim with them.

In the meantime I have spoken to the owner of the dealership and he is looking into it.

I'm not expecting it to be fixed for free, I'm not stupid and I accepted an amount of risk in buying a used car (the only car I can afford) but the risk in a medium mileage Subaru from a dealership is usually not this severe. Thank you for your input.

 

[rasterman]

Wow, that's seriously a drag. Gather all of the maintenance records you can. There may be some electronically recorded at the dealer(s) where it was previously serviced. You may be able to sweet-talk that out of them, if you hit them when they aren't too busy.

I don't know SOA's claims process, but I wish you luck!