Do you have the last 8 of your vin I want to see the story they wrote about your car :P

 

Maybe, maybe not. But I highly doubt if you roll in to a Subaru service bay with a MBC and a SAFC needing major engine work that they will jump right on it, no charge.

 

A little OT, but when I lived in Colo Sprins, I too had issues with Phil Long. The first (and only) car I purchased was a supposed dealer demo Galant. The sales rep told me it had been in use by one of the managers since it was new (it had 9k miles). This was in the days before Carfax. I bought it and had some issues with the car, but nothing like what you experienced.

However, when it came time to sell it, I decided I would run a Carfax on it just to see what a potential buyer might see. Turns out the car had actually been a rental car company vehicle in Vegas prior to being purchased by Phil Long for resale!

I am sure you will have better luck with the Subaru dealer (if it is Heuberger) as far as service and professionalism goes.

 

MBC and SAFC never made it into the car. Were sold a long time ago. For some reason I can't edit my sig, I think it's because I'm logged in from an Air Force base...

I did buy from Heuberger. Good people there. (...and good coffee!)

Last 8 of VIN: 3u124347

 

Condition SINCE ADDING FUEL, VEHICLE EMITS CLICKING SOUND, HAS LOST POWER AND IS BOGGING DOWN
Cause CASE #XXXXX-RECOMMENDED TO REPLACE ADJUSTERS AND FLUSH OIL SYSTEM
Remedy PERFORMED SAME. OK'ED PER SERVICE MANAGER AND DPSM

I take it this was the first time in?

 

OK, so you had a bad Mitsu dealer/service department and decided to switch to a hopefully better Subaru dealer/service department. Good luck. Since you're already being more careful about modding the STI, you're likely to have a better experience with the new car. Just realize that that doesn't say anything statistically significant about the whether Mitsu or Subaru is more mod friendly or provides better service.

Quote:

Then he dropped the oil pan and was able to find flakes of copper. Further investigation revealed thrust bearing 2 and 4 ground completely down.

I'm not a mechanic or even one of the foremost Internet auto enthusiasts in the state, but is it possible that this diagnosis is wrong? I mean, you spent paragraphs explaining how incompetent the service department was, but never questioned their analysis? Couldn't it have been a spun bearing? Crankwalk in a lightly modified Evo seems highly unlikely given that it's very rare even in heavily modified Evos. And I'm not calling you a liar, but we really only have your side of the story. We don't know for fact that you didn't crank up the boost at some point, or do/undo some other mods. Bottom line: it was either a rare manufacturing defect or the result of abuse. Mitsubishi is hemorrhaging, and they have to be careful not to frivolously eat warranty claims due to abuse. Maybe this dealer was wrong about you, maybe they weren't. But, in the end, they did fix the car.

 

Did you buy your car brand new or used?

 

Riverside, yes, that was the first diagnosis.

Slowride, perhaps you would have been more patient with Mitsubishi, had it been your car missing for 12 weeks. I, on the other hand, was losing my patience. If they told me they found crankwalk, I beleive them, especially after being given such b.s. excuses before. They fixed the car because they had to admit that this was a factory defect.

 

evodst, bought it used with 9400 miles on the clock, ran fine until last October when the crank decided it wanted to let me know it had wandered off.

 

welcome to the dark side!

 

I wonder if that had anything to do with it? You never know what the previous owner did to the vehicle. He/she probably beat the crap out of it then got rid of it. Any idea if it was modded before you bought it? I know its too late, but I would have checked very carefully under the hood if there was any sign of mods. I would be really skepticle if you didn't know the previous owner.

 

I checked the car completely when I got it, compression test, ECU wires, scarring on bolts for the IC piping, intake piping, etc. The car was clean. Scrape marks from rings on drivers side door made me think a female owned the car previously.

 

RiversideMitsu,

You have a PM... it took everything in my power not to post my opinion of Mitsu as a company publically...

 

Are you saying it took them 12 weeks to diagnose the problem and then fix it? OR do you think it took that long because they were trying to figure out who would be stuck with bill?

I think if you had showed up with credit card in hand and said, I need you guys to fix this, give me an estimate - it would have been a lot shorter process.

 

Congrats on the STI ... I personally like the 04' and 05' STi's a little more though... the 06's look kinda tame... awsome whip tho